Think about all the data points available at your average school district.
Standardized test scores. Behavioral assessments. Attendance. And grades, of course. Not to mention, most districts are assessing grit, emotional wellness, and individual personal growth plans as well.…Read More
How much longer will our newsfeeds be stuffed with headlines either extolling AI as the greatest thing since sliced bread or damning it as a sign of the coming education apocalypse? It’s going to be a while I’m afraid. In the meantime, I suggest you listen to this insightful interview with Dr. Eric Wang, Vice President of AI at Turnitin, who puts much of the hoopla into context.
Turnitin has been working in AI since before it was cool—25 years this month. The company’s tools are built into popular learning management system (LMS) workflows across 16,000 institutions, in 140 countries, and used by over 40 million students at both the k-12 and higher ed level. In April 2023, Turnitin launched its AI writing detection tool, which as of July 2023 has processed over 76 million paper submissions.
Eric conjures a future where AI detection tools in education serve as a means to foster learning and growth rather than a gotcha app meant to punish or shame students. The goal is not to discourage AI use but to teach students how to use the tool effectively while valuing authentic human work. Click below to listen and scroll down for some takeaways and other resources offered by Turnitin.…Read More
As teachers, we know that the back to school season is a time full of excitement and big emotions about what the year ahead will bring. And we’re not just speaking to our own experiences. We understand that students and families are often just as concerned about what the school year will be like, what will be going on inside our classrooms, and what and how their students will be learning. And this year, we have a hunch that a lot of those questions are going to be focused on a topic showing up all over the news: AI in education.
AI has been capturing headlines across the country, with questions about how it is being used in classrooms, how students are interacting with this new technology, and what it ultimately means for learning. While all of these questions are valid, there’s also something to be said for making sure parents understand that AI has already been quietly in thousands of America’s classrooms–recent data shows that over 60 percent of teachers are using AI on the job–and the impact on teachers and students has been largely positive.…Read More
With 25+ years of practice and research behind him, Joe Feldman—a former teacher, principal and district administrator—speaks from experience when it comes to the ongoing inequities and challenges that districts and schools have with grading. In this conversation with eSchool News, Feldman, author of the recently updated Grading for Equity, discusses the importance of equity in education, particularly in the context of grading practices. He emphasizes how the COVID-19 pandemic and events like the George Floyd protests highlighted the need to address these inequities, explains the flaws in traditional grading practices, and advocates for the need for change. He also explores how technology can aid in more accurate, unbiased, and motivational assessment methods. Have a listen and scroll down for some other takeaways, and an excerpt from his book:
➔Traditional grading practices have flaws, including inaccuracies, biases, and demotivation, and the pandemic has exposed these shortcomings, prompting educators to reevaluate their grading methods.
➔Technology can offer benefits in assessment by providing support for generating questions and allowing students to demonstrate their knowledge in various ways. It can help reduce the limitations of traditional assessments.…Read More
SAN FRANCISCO/PRNewswire-PRWeb/ —ParentPowered PBC, an education technology company that provides research-based digital family engagement, today announced the appointment of Terri Soutor as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Melissa Palmer as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). These moves coincide with ParentPowered’s preparations for substantial growth as it continues expanding its product portfolio to further enhance student support.
Soutor is an experienced C-suite leader and go-to-market strategist, skilled at building and growing education technology companies. As CEO at FastBridge Learning, Soutor scaled the company over a four year period to $11M ARR at a 45% annual growth rate and delivering more than 25 million assessments to over 1.6 million students across the country and earning the company the honor of becoming the second fastest-growing private company in the Twin Cities. Her business acumen, leadership and accomplishments have been publicly recognized. She made the list of CEOs in The Real Power 50 by Minnesota Business and was a recipient of a Titan of Technology award from Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. She has served since early 2022 on the ParentPowered Board of Directors and brings an in-depth understanding of the organization’s mission to support student learning.
“We are poised to make a real difference in student learning with a dedicated team and a mission that truly matters. I’m proud and excited to lead the charge and amplify our impact together,” said Terri Soutor, ParentPowered’s incoming CEO.Tweet this…Read More
After Covid-era shutdowns and rocky transitions to virtual education, we’re facing a crisis in education. The past three years erased decades of improvements in math and reading literacy across K-12 students. It also widened existing achievement gaps, leaving millions of children behind their American peers, and even further behind students in other countries. Increasing students’ access to technology tools in the classroom is key to reversing these trends.
For teachers, closing the achievement gap will mean embracing emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. Generative AI can be a low-cost tutoring tool to help students understand difficult concepts–especially important for students who believe they are behind their peers and are less likely to engage in a classroom setting. Gamified and AI-enabled tools like SayKid’s Toybot and Encoder Inc.’s Memory OS offer fun and engaging ways to improve learning skills. …Read More
Charlotte, NC — Discovery Education, the worldwide leader in education solutions, today announced it has partnered with Subaru of America, Inc., LyondellBasell, Nucor, Honeywell, and the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) to launch the Sustainability Education Coalition. This first-of-its-kind initiative is focused on empowering over 10 million students by 2030 to serve as ambassadors for sustainability by providing the digital resources K-12 students need to make informed decisions and take responsible actions supporting sustainability.
Coalition partners are united in the goal of empowering tomorrow’s changemakers by connecting classroom learning to various sustainability themes. The Sustainability Education Coalition is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and is driving forward sustainability education at an unprecedented scale through a five-pronged framework:
Equitable access to high quality learning resources: Investing in under-resourced schools so students can benefit from the best-in-class Discovery Education Experience.
Innovative Community Engagement Pathway: Introducing global challenges through a local lens; ensuring students can connect concepts to their local communities.
Challenge-Based Learning Informed by Partners: Delivering engaging, high-quality resources and learning experiences for students.
National Visibility: Working to promote a national conversation to elevate sustainability education.
Research and Impact Framework: Launching impact studies to measure trends and progression of sustainability attitudes.
Each partner provides expertise, insight, and access to enable the creation of high-quality and standards-aligned dynamic digital resources and will help provide under-resourced schools across the United States no-cost access to the award-winning Discovery Education Experience learning platform. …Read More
Since OpenAI’s ChatGPT launch in November 2022, it continues to bother teachers. No wonder:
The tool has a fascinating ability to craft texts that look like a human wrote them. Influencing the education niche, it’s a game-changer in the classroom. Not only does it make educators revise their approach to teaching academic writing, but some still see it as a threat to students’ academic integrity.…Read More
The November 2022 release of ChatGTP by OpenAI was an inflection point for AI technology. It was quickly followed by several competing AI systems: Microsoft’s AI-powered Bing search engine, Google’s Bard, and Meta’s Llama 2. And like so many technologies before it, companies are now in a rush to find ways to monetize and adopt AI, applying the technology to customer service, law enforcement, transportation–and education.
As a former turnaround principal, I know firsthand how difficult it can be to manage change within a school system. That’s why, when I retired from the school system to pursue my PhD, Industrial Organizational (I/O) Psychology seemed like such a perfect fit. I/O Psychologists concentrate on systems improvement, focusing on how individuals and organizations work together. I loved helping school systems that needed improvements turn around and become environments where students grow and thrive, and here was a whole field full of insights and strategies to help people adopt a growth mindset and learn to embrace change.
Education, like the world we prepare students for, is constantly changing, yet it sometimes seems to have one foot in the past. Teachers are always striving to understand how they can work through change to best help their students. Administrators are managing and supporting not just their students, but their faculty as well, even as they are dealing with new initiatives, new federal laws, new local regulations, new testing mandates, and more.…Read More
