Chromebooks are on the rise, but Windows reliance remains

Sixty-two percent of K-12 schools participating in a recent survey support Chromebook initiatives, and 22 percent of those schools use Chromebooks as a primary classroom device.

While Chromebooks appear to be increasing in popularity, Windows presence remains heavy–92 percent of survey respondents said their schools use at least one Windows-based application, and 29 percent said they use five or more Windows applications for teaching and learning.

[Editor’s note: We’re always tracking mobile device trends for you; click here and here for the latest information.] …Read More

5 lessons learned from replacing whiteboards with touchscreens

We know that it’s no longer possible to prepare students for the real world and provide an excellent education without integrating technology into the classroom.

At Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) in Jacksonville, Fla—the 20th largest school district in the nation—our mission is to deliver educational excellence in each classroom and school, every day, to give all our students a chance at success. This includes using technologies to facilitate interest in learning.

Our educators had been using tools such as projectors and interactive whiteboards in classrooms for years, but there was no real across-the-board standard for our schools’ core classroom equipment.…Read More

Is dark fiber in your district’s future?

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began allowing E-rate applicants to apply for discounts for dark fiber and self-provisioned fiber. These “smart fiber” options are seen as a way to give institutions more tools for meeting connectivity demands.

Take our quick poll on dark fiber here.

Key points:…Read More

NetSupport’s keyword monitoring now supports multiple languages

In an effort to help districts cope with an ever-growing student population speaking languages other than English, NetSupport is adding multiple languages to its keyword monitoring software, which lets schools keep an eye on student communications by automatically flagging certain phrases or words.

According to the company, the addition will enable staff in schools with a diverse ethnic mix of students to be able to monitor community languages other than English for safeguarding purposes.

In 2014, a record of 63.5 million U.S. residents (22 percent of which aged between 5-17 years old) spoke a language other than English at home — doubling from 1990, and expected to increase to 40 percent by 2030, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.…Read More

6 tips for making the most of your iPad and Chromebook carts

They’re used to charge, secure, store, and distribute tablets, laptops, and mobile devices—and in schools that aren’t using one-to-one take-home initiatives, they’ve become a mainstay.

Carts, those waist-high metal cabinets on wheels, often hold dozens of devices, perfect for classrooms that need technology on the go. The elementary English teacher who is using a blended learning approach in her classroom, for example, has come to rely on that cart of fully-charged iPads or Chromebooks that’s rolled into her classroom at 8 a.m., ready for a full day of tech-based instruction.

Unfortunately, a lot can go wrong between the time those devices were last used and the English teacher’s first class. A scheduling argument, a cartload of devices that didn’t charge properly, or a logistical snafu that ends with the cart situated clear across campus, can all wreak havoc on a seemingly solid technology initiative.…Read More

Alma provides complete SIS, Google Classroom integration

Alma expands partnership with Google, implementing new Coursework API to eliminate double data entry and streamline teacher workflow

Alma Technologies, Inc. has expanded its integration with Google Classroom to include the new Coursework API. Alma is an intuitive student information system (SIS) and learning management system (LMS) that allows districts, schools, and teachers to use Google Classroom from the initial set up of classes to managing assignments to reporting grades, without ever entering data twice.

The partnership combines Google’s popular free toolset for teachers and students with Alma’s all-in-one, user-friendly district platform that simplifies administration and reporting, fosters better school-to-home communication, and empowers educators with increased visibility into the student learning process. Alma enables administrators to roll out Google Classroom district-wide to streamline their technology infrastructure and data management while supporting the individual needs of all their teachers, students, and parents.

“Like many schools, our district has embraced the Google Apps for Education ecosystem. Our teachers use Classroom extensively from the primary grades all the way up through high school. Alma enables us to provide our learners and our teachers with the equivalent of one-stop shopping in this tight integration with the Classroom application,” says John Martin, director for innovation and technology for the Inter-Lakes School District in Meredith, NH. “The beauty of automatic enrollment means that more of my teachers can focus on the educational aspects of their work rather than the administrative chores of enrollment management and transcribing grades into a student information system.”…Read More

Xirrus introduces cloud managed, Wave 2 wi-fi points

New high-density access points aim to connect education users with all-encompassing wi-fi connectivity

Xirrus, provider of next generation, cloud-enabled Wi-Fi networks, announced new four and eight-radio high density 802.11ac Wave 2 wi-fi access points (APs) resulting in what the company says is the broadest Wave 2 portfolio in the wi-fi industry.

Xirrus offers the only software-defined wi-fi solution that enables an all Wave 2 solution, which delivers up to eight times the Wave 2 capacity per AP compared to competitive solutions.

The new four radio XD and eight radio XR high density Wave 2 solutions were built specifically to address the connectivity challenges that enterprises, educational institutions and public venues face. Launching the only adaptive wi-fi solution that provides the full suite of Wave 2 features, Xirrus delivers the highest performance and most adaptive cloud managed wi-fi solutions available.…Read More

Panasonic showcases the power of K-12 interactive displays

The company’s ISTE presence demonstrated how display technology can be crucial in the classroom

Panasonic, provider of professional display solutions for education, demonstrated its BF1 display technology at ISTE 2016.

The ISTE booth featured the new refined BF1 Series Multi-Touch Screen Display, now with Color Universal Design and Intel® Pro WiDi. The BF1 will be linked to 3 different devices (C2, tablet and phone) via Ormi-Exo-U. Ormiboard Pro is a visual creation and collaboration tool that helps teachers and students build lessons, activities, and interactive games for use in any classroom with displays and/or mobile devices.

“Panasonic is committed to continual improvement in performance, versatility, and efficiency in the education space,” says John Baisley, Senior Vice President, Visual & Imaging, Panasonic System Communications Company of North America. “We are driven by a desire to deliver a superior user experience beyond expectations while maintaining our industry-wide reputation for value, reliability, and quality.”…Read More

Archive360 introduces regulatory compliance storage solution based on the Microsoft Azure platform

New Archive2Azure simplifies long-term unstructured data retention for regulatory compliance and litigation preparedness

Archive360TM, a provider of email archive migration software, announced Archive2Azure, the industry’s first regulatory compliance storage solution optimized for the Microsoft Azure platform at ISTE 2016.

With infinite scalability, the new product delivers long-term, secure retention of unstructured data including journal email for regulatory compliance and litigation preparedness, file system work files, individual PSTs, system generated reports, and all the other unstructured data floating around the enterprise. This capability provides organizations a fast and seamless way to speed their move to the cloud by enabling the elimination of their costly on-premises unstructured data silos, including their cumbersome and expensive legacy archive systems.

The cloud has quickly become the preferred option for companies to help reverse the growing issues associated with ever-expanding on-premises legacy email archives for regulatory compliance and eDiscovery as well as the unstructured file system storage. In fact, according to Osterman Research, migration of content from existing email archives and migration of content from PSTs were tied as the top capabilities needed to support migration to Microsoft Office 365TM.…Read More

5 things changing today’s CTO role

During ISTE 2016, a panel of CTOs and educators examined how changes in today’s schools and technologies are impacting the role of the traditional CTO

Chief technology officers (CTOs) in school districts juggle any number of demands relating to IT support, technology integration into classroom instruction, and future district technology plans. But as technology changes, and as the needs of students and teachers change, so does the role of the CTO.

A panel of CTOs, ed-tech specialists, and educators at ISTE 2016 in Denver, moderated by Jeremy Shorr, the director of innovation and education technology in Ohio’s Mentor Public Schools, explored some of the challenges that come along with those changes and shared their best practices for ensuring that technology continues to meet the needs of teaching and learning throughout those changes.

Blended learning…Read More

Dark fiber could be the future of school networking

Dark fiber is helping some districts scale broadband for tomorrow, not today. Is it the future of networking?

After taking steps to update and increase funding for the E-rate program in 2014, this year the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began allowing applicants to apply for discounts for dark fiber and self-provisioned fiber.

Seen as a way to give institutions more tools for meeting connectivity demands, these “smart fiber” options are already being used by schools nationwide. With the expanded E-rate opportunities, the number of K-12 districts exploring their dark/self-provisioned options could grow significantly over the next few years.

What is dark fiber?

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) does a good job of breaking down traditional and self-provisioned options in a PDF on its website. Basically, self-provisioned options let schools build new fiber networks without using existing fiber optic cables. Schools then own those networks and, as such, are responsible for the related operations and management costs.…Read More