Savvas Realize Earns Award for Best Remote and Blended Learning Tools

Savvas Learning Company, a K-12 next-generation learning solutions leader, is proud to announce that Savvas Realize™ has earned a Tech & Learning 2021 Award of Excellence for Best Remote and Blended Learning Tools for grades K-12. Savvas Realize, one of the edtech industry’s most versatile learning management systems (LMS), was honored in both the primary and secondary education categories as a technology solution that is “key to helping schools transition to remote, hybrid, and blended learning environments.”  

The Tech & Learning 2021 Best Tools for Remote and Blended Learning is a new category in its Awards of Excellence program, which recognizes innovation in the edtech industry. The new award celebrates exceptional technology solutions that delivered “quality, continuous teaching for remote learning in 2020.” Judges deemed these products as “standouts for helping students, parents, and teachers succeed in these new learning environments.” Savvas Realize also won a Tech & Learning Award of Excellence in 2020.

“We are honored that Tech & Learning has once again recognized Savvas Realize as an exceptional LMS that makes distance learning simpler and more productive so students can get the most out of their learning, no matter where it takes place,”said Bethlam Forsa, CEO of Savvas Learning Company. “Our groundbreaking platform is part of our overall commitment at Savvas to provide the most innovative digital tools, coupled with the highest-quality, standards-aligned content, to empower educators and engage all learners.”…Read More

Copyleaks Inc Partners with Canvas LMS to Offer Plagiarism Detection using AI and Machine Learning.

Copyleaks, an artificial intelligence platform that detects plagiarism, today announced a partnership today with Canvas, the learning management platform from Instructure, that allows educational institutions to seamlessly enable advanced plagiarism detection software directly within a Canvas account. Copyleaks can now be accessed by thousands of K-12 schools and universities around the world that are part of the ever-expanding Canvas community.

Through its artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, Copyleaks is able to understand and learn more about the text that students are writing throughout the school year. While many plagiarism checkers only find identical matches of text, Copyleaks can spot similar words and paraphrased text that are commonly missed by plagiarism software. The platform allows both teachers and students to improve their writing processes.

As more schools adapt to an e-learning environment this fall, teachers are both emphasizing the importance of academic integrity, as well as taking extra precautions to check that students have written original work.…Read More

Powerful training LMS at no charge

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Edified is offering it’s powerful training LMS at no charge to any educational institution through the end of the school year. We have added training courses to help teachers record their lessons to be delivered remotely. These include Zoom, Google Hangouts, Snag-it, SMART and more. Simply follow this link to fill out a short form to get started!

If you are interested in gaining access to Edified you can request access here.

Tools For Learner Productivity
Relevant courses covering the educational hardware and software of leading manufacturers
On-demand training that’s available any time, from anywhere, and from any device…Read More

Full computer science curriculum and coding platform at no cost

During this time, Vidcode would like to support schools in any way they can. As such, they are offering their full coding platform and research-backed computer science curriculum for free to help schools and districts as they plan for potential school closures and student absences.

If your school or district is planning a closure for health-related reasons, you can apply to get access to Vidcode’s full computer science curriculum and coding platform at no cost.

Vidcode will provide you and your students with access to our courses, lesson plans, and virtual PD resources until May 2020 (Vidcode states they will happily extend this offer until your school reopens). Students will be able to access courses from home as a supplement to your other e-learning measures and teachers will have full access to our LMS to monitor student progress.…Read More

4 common barriers to accessible content for all students

This summer, many faculty will work on developing or revising curricular content for their courses. One of the keys in developing new digital materials is verifying that those materials offer accessible content for all students.

Today, most learning management systems (LMS) and software programs offer some level of accessibility compliance checking. However, they are not always thorough or error-free.

Related Content: 5 steps to ensure accessibility…Read More

5 ways our centralized LMS supports UDL

Applicable to every student in every classroom, the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles of offering multiple means of representation, action and expression, and engagement help teachers leverage every child’s strengths while supporting a very personalized learning path based on student choice. When your LMS supports UDL, students reap the benefits.

Unlike pedagogies that attempt to teach to a broader group of students with a broad brush, UDL encompasses a wide swath of learning content—lectures, lessons, videos, audio recordings, group projects, individual projects, etc.—to help the modern-day student reach his or her fullest potential.

Related content: 5 ways to leverage UDL for student inclusivity…Read More

Ensuring accessible content for all students

This summer, many faculty will work on developing or revising curricular content for their courses. One of the keys in developing new digital materials is verifying that those materials offer accessible content for all students.

Today, most learning management systems (LMS) and software programs offer some level of accessibility compliance checking. However, they are not always thorough or error-free.

Related Content: 5 steps to ensure accessibility…Read More

Using your LMS for teaching and professional learning

Picture this: You roll out a new learning management system (LMS) for students, but all of your professional learning is either hosted on a different platform or conducted in person with notes shared via email afterward. Sound familiar?

It’s more common than you think, but separating the educator professional learning (PL) experience from the student learning experience can actually have a negative impact on both parties’ experiences in the long run.

Related: 3 reasons elementary schools should adopt an LMS…Read More

3 reasons elementary schools should adopt an LMS—and where to begin

Is it really possible for young learners to effectively use a learning management system (LMS)? This is a common question administrators and educational practitioners ask when considering LMS adoption at the district level.

Through my work with educators across the country, I know the number of elementary school districts and administrators turning to LMS adoption is increasing for all grades—preparing students at a young age to use the technology they will need to master for high school, college, and beyond.

Here are three reasons why districts should consider adopting an LMS for elementary and how they can begin technological integration for all classrooms.…Read More

How to find an LMS that supports student privacy and data security

As the stewards of student data and information, our school district doesn’t take that role lightly. Proud to be one of just 13 districts nationwide to receive the Consortium for Student Networking (CoSN) Trusted Learning Environment Seal—which designates institutions that have taken measurable steps to implement practices to help ensure the privacy of student data—we knew that our existing learning management system (LMS) wasn’t up to the task.

And with that, we went in search of an LMS that could support our data-privacy commitment, which has been a key focus for at least six years and a keystone of how we make technology-related decisions. While participating in one of CoSN’s working groups, I began identifying which student-data-privacy principles were really important to us as school districts and what it meant to be a district as an exemplar in that area.

Out of that work, CoSN came up with the Trusted Learning Environment, which encompasses 25 different practices within the realm of student data privacy. Missouri’s Raytown Quality Schools was part of the first cohort of seven districts to be awarded this seal, and that meant that we not only had the right policies and procedures in place, but that we were actually implementing them and displaying evidence all the way down to the classroom level.…Read More