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 IT leaders tackle 7 digital asset management challenges

Key points:

  • Poor digital asset management can lead to lost class time, missing devices, and lost funding
  • Innovative approaches to asset management let K-12 educational institutions optimize their operations
  • See related article: 5 ways our district streamlines edtech ecosystems

With kids out the school door for the summer, IT leaders now face the daunting task of organizing, identifying, and managing the many thousands of devices per district that have been in the hands of students over the past year. In K-12 education, the importance of digital asset management–from Chromebooks to iPads to chargers and more–cannot be overstated.

Schools and districts run the risk of wasting class time, losing valuable devices, and incurring financial losses if they fail to effectively manage the hardware, software and systems that are essential in today’s classrooms. Fortunately for IT leaders, powerful new digital solutions can be leveraged to address many logistical and functional challenges.…Read More

4 ways to use ChatGPT in your STEM classroom

Key points:

  • ChatGPT isn’t a tool to be feared–it can contribute greatly to STEM learning
  • AI tools aren’t going away, and harnessing their capabilities is important

“If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.” – John Dewey

Back in 2007 when I was teaching Algebra I at the local middle school, the biggest question for mathematics teachers on our campus was whether students could use their calculators while doing classwork and on standardized tests.  A few years later, the discussion changed to an argument about the pros and cons of using a Desmos calculator on their classroom iPads.  Using Desmos was seen as being particularly egregious, as educators feared that students may have access to the internet and may surf the web while they should be learning or during summative assessments.  …Read More

Bamboo Learning’s “Comprehension Through Conversation” EdTech Solution for K–5 Students Gaining Momentum

SEATTLE—March 7, 2022—Bamboo Learning, Inc. today announced that Bamboo learning EDU, the first “Comprehension Through Conversation” learning application for students in grades K through 5 introduced in January 2022, has been selected for an innovative student literacy pilot at the John Rex Charter School (JRCS) in Oklahoma City. JRCS, which was recognized as a 2020 National Blue Ribbon
School, seeks to determine the Bamboo Learning EDU solution’s impact on reading achievement, speaking fluency, vocabulary acquisition, and content knowledge-building among its economically and racially diverse student body. All JRCS students in grades K–1 have iPads for use at school, making the Bamboo Learning EDU iPad app an excellent fit.

Bamboo Learning also announced today that LearnPlatform, a nationally recognized edtech research company, has certified that the Bamboo Learning EDU solution meets the evidence requirements of Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) aligning with Level IV “Demonstrates a Rationale” status. LearnPlatform’s team of researchers analyzed Bamboo Learning EDU’s foundational pedagogy, concluded that Bamboo Learning EDU’’s Logic Model is informed by high-quality research, and outlined the expected short-term, intermediate, and long-term outcomes.

“Bamboo Learning’s innovative ‘Comprehension Through Conversation’ approach to literacy has a solid grounding in existing research,” said Dr. Mary Styers, Director of Research at LearnPlatform. “By offering fiction and nonfiction books leveled by grade, and inviting students to use their voice to engage in reading & listening comprehension and vocabulary building activities, the product has a clear pathway
to improving student literacy.”…Read More

A district gets creative as it distributes iPads to students during lockdown

The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, and that means educators across the globe are still finding inventive and innovative ways to support and teach students in classrooms, during hybrid instruction, and in virtual settings.

The eSchool Media K-12 Hero Awards program, sponsored by Trox, recognizes the determined and dedicated efforts of educators throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Never before have educators been challenged and tested as they were, beginning in March 2020 and up until today, and never before has their resilience been more apparent. Administrators, technology leaders, classroom teachers, and educators in all roles have persevered as they taught each and every one of their students during a global pandemic.…Read More

Family Game Nights Come Alive With Tacto

PlayShifu combines real figurines with digital gameplay to bring alive all-time favorite
board games & more


Cupertino, California (June 1, 2021) – The first-ever phygital board game platform using iPads,
Tacto is built on innovative touch technology and AI to turn screen time into family time. Tacto
uses real figurines to drive the gameplay on screen and adds immense richness, variety, and
storytelling to the experience. Tacto is the third flagship line from PlayShifu—the pioneers behind
Plugo and Orboot—who is revolutionizing the way Gen Alpha plays and learns.


The new product launch follows a year of rapid revenue growth and a successful $17 million
Series B fundraise for PlayShifu.…Read More

EVALYON’s DataCapture Ed™ for Teachers and Educators is Now Available

Evalyon’s DataCapture Ed App allows educators to capture student data to help comply with Federally mandated RTI (Response to Intervention) requirements. Data is easily digitally captured by educators on iPads, and can be tracked, evaluated, shared, and safely stored to create detailed reports for teachers, administrators, and for parent/teacher conferences.

It’s available now at $43.99, for a limited time.

The App allows teachers to have more quality interactive time with each student, to monitor, in real time, daily progress toward goals, to capture audio/video/images of student work products, and to evaluate them for any issues that might need immediate intervention. This data capture is ENTIRELY PAPERLESS!! Data is categorized, charted, permanently stored. This data can be used in reports to help educators quickly determine RTI progress toward goals, interventions and placements, and to properly place students in appropriate RTI Tiers.…Read More

Innovative Tablet and Headphone Charging Station

The new charging station was designed to support the use of audio accessories in the learning environment and to help address the need to isolate headphones for dedicated student use. The Tablet and Headphone Charging Station uses easy-to-clean, high-quality 8.9”x11.5” tote bins and covers to store headphones, audio connectors, accessories, and even individual student projects.

Designed with a front-access cord management system and a UL-listed power system, it’s easy for students to keep their classroom space organized and their technology powered and ready for use. The tablets, iPads or phones store and charge directly on top of each tote bin cover. By keeping cords contained and connectors handy, students will never have to untangle cords again!

Available in two sizes, which support either 8 or 16 devices and bins, the Tablet and Headphone Charging Station can accommodate any classroom size. “The open architecture and removable bin design are easy to clean and can be placed strategically around a classroom to encourage social distancing,” said David See, President of Spectrum Industries. “You can store each student’s headphones separately in the removable, multicolored tote bins. Add labels and projects to the bins to keep the spread of germs to a minimum while customizing each student’s lesson plans for the day. The Tablet and Headphone Charging Station facilitates an incredibly active and safe classroom environment,” See added.…Read More

How I created my school’s makerspace

As an elementary educator for most of my career, I’ve had the privilege of working with a variety of learners—from inner-city students in North Carolina to university-level students in Chicago—but I found my true calling as the librarian at Hubbard Woods Elementary in Winnetka, Illinois. I’ve been called the “Willy Wonka of school librarians” because I transformed our traditional library into what I call an IDEA (Innovation, Design, Engineering, and Art) Lab complete with flexible furniture, robotics, engineering tools, iPads, laptops, and sewing machines.

To get started, I used my experience as a classroom educator to create a cross-curricular library curriculum that supports classroom teachers’ lessons, marrying the idea of books and bytes. Daily activities include robot bowling, using robots to paint pictures, and filming and producing music videos staring (you guessed it) robots!

Related content: How to transform a library into a makerspace…Read More

4 tips for incorporating safe, engaging, tech-rich material into early elementary ed

I love incorporating technology into my curriculum and introducing it to my students in meaningful ways. The good news is that teaching them to use technology isn’t difficult. My kindergartners can navigate iPads better than I can. The challenge is incorporating tech-rich material in a way that’s meaningful and relevant to what we’re learning and that doesn’t take away from their learning experiences. Here are a few ways I successfully introduce technology and resources that are safe, engaging, and developmentally appropriate.

Finding safe, tech-rich material for the youngest students

1. Use video to warm up, engage, and transport students.

Every tool I use needs to reinforce whatever concept we’re learning or otherwise be tied into the lesson. It must meet the standards we’re working on, and it needs to be engaging.…Read More

5 steps to successfully run a student-led tech team

One-to-one device initiatives have exploded in popularity and have dramatically changed the classroom environment. Dedicated device access doesn’t just benefit students through improved educational outcomes, but also benefits districts by enabling innovation and providing a clear return on educational investment. IT teams, however, can struggle with the greatly increased burdens of managing fragmented device platforms, and the increased staffing that 1:1 initiatives often demand can limit funding for other important initiatives.

In 2016, Lafayette (IN) Catholic School System was preparing to make our entire system 1:1 by adding grades pre-K through six to the middle and high school program already in place. We’re a relatively small system, with 1,100 students across four school buildings. Our technology department manages those buildings, as well as two parish offices and one central office, containing a mix of MacBooks, iPads, and other desktop devices.

Streamlining device management
With a rollout set to double the number of devices we managed to 1,300 across five campuses, we knew we had to find a way to control costs. To optimize our endpoint management with remote capabilities, we turned to FileWave. It was when we began to dive deeper into its user-based permissions and other key functionalities that an innovative solution began to take shape.…Read More