K-12 is undergoing a purchasing renaissance—and it has massive implications for educators

As education innovation advances, so does the frustration of all parties involved in K-12 purchasing due to out-of-date processes, poor communication, and difficulties identifying new opportunities.

In “The K-12 Purchasing Renaissance,” presented by Nicole Neal, CEO, Noodle Markets, and hosted by Lisa Schmucki, founder and CEO, edWeb.net, Neal discussed not only why K-12 purchasing matters, but how the purchasing process must be improved.

K-12 purchasing is not just about the purchase of a product—it involves many interactions to get to that decision. “When I think about K-12 purchasing, I’m thinking about all of the things that happen before you get to a point where you award a vendor or select a product,” said Neal.…Read More

Chromebook takeover signals major shift in education…but not in the way you may think

According to the New York Times, the massive adoption of Google and its Chromebooks in U.S. classrooms (accounting for more than half the mobile devices shipped to schools) is signaling a “profound shift in American education;” and they’re calling it the “Googlification of the classroom.” But is Googlifiction spurring a much bigger shift in today’s K-12 classrooms than simply switching devices?

Though the low-cost of Chromebooks, free apps offered, and marketing to teacher and admin rather than high-level district officials are all reasons why Google is in almost every classroom today, one of the most massive underlying reasons for the tremendous adoption rate is a fundamental shift in how students are learning: from test-specific memorization of facts to harnessing online tools for problem-solving, collaborative learning.

In essence, the use of Google in the classroom is true Googlification, or modeling learning off of Google’s own employee skillset, in that the use of Google and Chromebooks in the classroom aims to turn today’s students into creative and collaborative problem-solvers that know how to intuitively harness online and in-hand technologies.…Read More

Best practices for rolling out tech in the classroom—an administrative perspective

At The Shipley School, we’ve embraced how technology can aid in the learning process for all of our students, particularly in our Middle School (grades 6-8) and Upper School (grades 9-12) classrooms. With laptops, students can quickly access information while in class, use audio and video tools to complement traditional assignments, and collaborate more easily on group projects.

We’re a Pre-K-12 coeducational independent school located in the competitive Philadelphia education market, so we’re always looking for ways to differentiate ourselves, and we pride ourselves in providing a world class education for our students.

Shipley has always been interested in student technology use, and for years that meant laptops available via computer labs and carts for teachers to reserve for their lessons. As computer use and personal laptop use became more common, we allowed students to bring their own devices to school, but recognized not every student comes from a family with the financial means to buy an extra laptop for their child.…Read More

These schools are leveraging E-Rate for a complete digital transformation

Textbooks and blackboards have become a thing of the past in K-12 schools as educators collaborate with IT teams to shape a full digital core curriculum as part of their educational strategy for 2017 and beyond. In a 2016 survey conducted by the Consortium for School Networking (COSN), 90 percent of IT administrators at K-12 schools expect that curricula will be at least 50 percent digital over the next three years.

As the world undergoes a digital transformation—with connectivity and access to computers and mobile devices playing an increasingly prominent role in everyone’s lives—elementary schools know they need to incorporate technology in the educational process to prepare their students for future success. To support these initiatives, the Federal Communications Commission’s E-rate program has recently been expanded to provide schools nationwide with subsidies for high-speed broadband and gigabit wireless networks.

According to the “2016 Digital Curriculum Strategy Survey Report” sponsored by Ruckus Wireless, hardware and network spend is estimated at $16.2 billion in 2017. Whereas currently 78 percent of students have device and network access for almost a full day, the expectation for this year is that schools will have close to one-to-one access, or one device per student.…Read More

Debunked: 5 myths about classroom technology

For decades, schools have been scaling up the technology incorporated into the classroom, from small computer labs designed to teach basic computer skills to student-assigned tablets for more complex, daily assignments (and occasional play).

Parents, lawmakers, and even some educators have spoken out against this trend, arguing that excessive classroom technology could end up doing more harm than good, but the foundations for most of these arguments are unsupported by empirical evidence.

Arguments against Classroom Technology in School…Read More

4 wireless network goals for schools

Managed Wi-Fi technology is having a profound, transformative impact on K-12 classroom environments. Although wireless access technology has been in schools for several years, earlier-generation solutions have not been robust enough to keep pace with growing mobility requirements.

Today’s more advanced managed Wi-Fi technologies now provide the functionality, scalability and bandwidth to support an ambitious set of classroom mobility requirements.

There are several K-12 education trends and initiatives driving the need for Wi-Fi:…Read More

Breaking: Microsoft just made its biggest education investment in history

Beginning this Saturday, May 6, Microsoft Store locations across the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, and Australia will host STEM Saturdays throughout May in all full-line locations in addition to the range of free programs year-round that empower students and educators. STEM Saturdays brings pop-up classrooms to Microsoft Store and offers hands-on experiences like building a sensor that measures the flexion and extension of a finger to learn about the anatomy of a human hand.

Microsoft also introduced new offerings for education, representing its biggest investment ever in education, designed to empower the students of today to create the world of tomorrow.

New offerings include:…Read More

4 best practices for education data

Data can be immensely helpful to educators–but anyone who hopes to learn from data must know how to analyze and interpret it.

Although the word “data” can raise red flags when it comes to protecting student privacy and sensitive information, it can help students, parents, teachers, and administrators learn from and adjust practices. The catch, though, is that these stakeholder groups need access to the education data and must be able understand what it means.

“Collecting the right education data at the right time, if the right people have access to it, can be a very powerful tool to help improve teaching and learning,” said Doug Mesecar, vice president of strategic partnerships at IO Education, who also has extensive experience with education data and blended learning solutions.…Read More

How an edtech innovation is giving performance assessments new life

Across the country, educators and policy makers are searching for ways to develop and implement innovative assessment programs to address accountability requirements and to reform instruction. As both local and state educators consider new assessment models, they find themselves coming up against many issues of time. It’s widely agreed that there’s too much time spent on testing and test prep, and there’s too little time to teach and take on additional responsibilities to transform instruction. Educators often feel that innovation represents an additional burden on their time rather than a benefit.

Since the last big push to reform instruction and assessment nearly a quarter century ago, we’ve developed new psychometric techniques as well as new technologies to assist us in our attempts to innovate.

Internet access, electronic collection of student work, and online distributed scoring, for example, can all play significant roles in making performance assessments more manageable and efficient.…Read More

6 IT nightmares plaguing schools-and 6 solutions to stop them

From constricted budgets to needing to protect large numbers of devices and users, educational institutions face a unique set requirements for data protection and business continuity.

As a result, many school IT departments are struggling to create new data backup and business continuity practices. However, all is not lost and there is no need to create these from scratch, as leading education institutions are already leveraging enterprise-class protection capabilities.

Here are six facts that experts in educational backup and continuity services already know:…Read More

The 5 components of a future-proofed technology initiative

As students move through different phases of their education, the shape of their learning spaces changes. Young students see brightly-colored bookshelves and reading areas, where middle school students have lab tablets and desktop computers. Just as the atmosphere in the classroom changes to suit the students’ age and learning requirements, the technology in the classroom also has to accommodate the learning requirements of that age group.

According to a survey from Front Row Education, elementary school students mainly use iPads whereas middle school students are using Chromebooks. But what happens when students bring iPads into a room designed to work with Chromebooks? How does a school future-proof its classroom technology?

The Power of Interoperability: Use and Budget…Read More

5 technologies to avoid in the classroom-and what to use instead

One of the most popular articles on eSchool Media is a surprising one to the editors: “6 apps that block social media distractions.” This story, which seemed  a bit counter-intuitive for us to write (being a tech-cheerleading publication in nature), has held the top spot by a massive margin for almost three years now; which had the editors considering the question, “Are there technologies that should simply be avoided in the classroom?”

Movie Clip of One Technology Exasperation:

…Read More