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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.

Royelles Launches Industry’s First Inclusive Mobile Gaming Metaverse Dedicated To Educating And Empowering Young Girls

WASHINGON D.C., June 14, 2022 – Royelles, a global educational gaming (Ed Gaming) platform empowering girls and non-binary individuals through inclusive play, today announced it’s official launch. Royelles is on a mission to disrupt the $180B+ mobile gaming industry through transformational storytelling and inclusive role modeling, in an effort to dismantle the global identity crisis disproportionately impacting girls. 

A female-founded platform for girls, Royelles aims to bridge the gap between girls’ potential and their dreams, and ignite their curiosity and confidence towards solving the world’s biggest problems in STEAM. Royelles’ gamified mobile play platform meets the demands of 21st century 6-12 years olds, and their adult influencers. Powered by AR, AI, and voice technologies, the newly launched, learning-based mobile app is anchored in fierce female avatar personas and real-life super(s)heros with inspiring professions across science, technology, engineering, the arts and math.

“We believe that everyone deserves to be bold, fearless, and undaunted architects of their destinies,” said Múkami Kinoti Kimotho CEO & Founder of Royelles. “Our mission is rooted in opening the window of possibilities to every girl, so that they know that they are fully equipped to realize their greatest potential. And, that their difference is their superpower.” …Read More

Mental health tops education leaders’ post-pandemic priorities

Education leaders are beginning to move on from COVID-related safety measures, and are instead focusing on managing mental health and violence on campus, according to a new report from Rave Mobile Safety.

Rave’s report,  2022 Crisis Communication and Safety in Education Survey, surveyed more than 400 K-12 employees and more than 380 higher education staffers.

The past two years of COVID-19 restrictions have been a challenging time for students, staff, faculty and parents/guardians. Campus leaders are concerned about how the lingering effects of the pandemic will impact school communities going forward, especially if the right resources and safety measures are not put in place.…Read More

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Spectrum Industries Boosts Esports Solutions Lineup with the Game-Changing Alliance24 Laptop Gaming Cart

Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin – February 24, 2022– Spectrum Industries, a leading esports furniture and charging cart manufacturer, has announced the release of their game-changing Alliance24 Laptop Gaming Cart.

Created as a mobile esports home base for 24 athletes, the charging cart can store, charge and transport up to 24 headsets, mice and the largest gaming laptops on the market.…Read More

Hays CISD: Using Display Technology to Engage Students and Promote a School’s Mission

Hays Consolidated Independent School District, located south of Austin, Texas, comprises 25 K-12 schools and is one of the fast-growing districts in the state. Like many K-12 districts around the country, Hays CISD schools are avid users of projection technology to present information in classrooms. The district also has adopted a software application, Mirroring360, that allows students and teachers to share content from mobile devices via computers in the classrooms.

Hays CISD has also started introducing new digital technology, such as flat-screen displays for digital signage. “We’ve begun deploying digital signage systems throughout the school,” says Dianne Borreson, Chief Technology Officer for Hays CISD. “For example, cafeterias have digital displays for menus.”

At Hays CISD’s Johnson High School, the district went big into video, with a wall of 86-inch LG stretch monitors in the front of the school to highlight the school’s mission and provide a visual canvas for communicating with students, staff and visitors.…Read More

The pandemic is boosting student-directed learning

While the COVID-19 pandemic has been, to say the least, a struggle for students and educators, it also has revealed a move toward increased student-directed learning, according to the final installment in a series of reports from Project Tomorrow and Blackboard investigating the impact and expectations for digital learning from the point of view of K-12 students, parents, and educators.

The final report, “Sponsoring Student Ownership of Learning,” examines how the pandemic is fueling a shift toward student-directed learning and how digital and mobile tools will likely remain a key part of the classroom even after students return to in-person instruction. It focuses on the student point of view of their learning experiences and the teachers’ and administrators’ perspectives around the value of technology to support students’ increased efficacy in the learning process.

Project Tomorrow’s Speak Up Research Project surveyed the perspectives of over 137,000 K-12 students, parents and educators, revealing how they see technology as a critical tool in increasing students’ ownership of their learning journey.…Read More

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LenelS2 Extends Touchless Visitor Management Experience

New Splan Distribution Agreement Provides Streamlined Deployments

PITTSFORD, N.Y., May 27, 2021 – LenelS2 today announced a North America distribution agreement with its OpenAccess Alliance Program (OAAP) partner, Splan, a next-generation visitor check-in software solutions company. The agreement enables LenelS2 and its value-added reseller network to provide a more comprehensive touchless building access experience that includes visitor management. Splan’s visitor management solution integrates with LenelS2’s market-leading OnGuard® and NetBox™ systems as well as BlueDiamond™ mobile credentials to more fully realize Carrier’s Healthy Buildings Program. LenelS2, the global leader in advanced security systems and services, is a part of Carrier Global Corporation (NYSE: CARR), the leading global provider of healthy, safe and sustainable building and cold chain solutions.

“Our agreement with Splan provides our value-added resellers with convenient access to a leading visitor management and check-in solution that is also tailor-made to help address COVID-19-related challenges in offices, schools, event centers and other facilities,” said Ryan Kaltenbaugh, Senior Vice President, North American Sales, LenelS2. “With the combined solutions, end users can easily adopt cloud- and mobile-based, secure visitor management and tracking capabilities.”

When integrated with LenelS2 access control systems, Splan enables provisioning of credentials to visitors, employees from other offices, vendors and contractors using dynamic credentials or existing proximity cards. When integrated with BlueDiamond mobile credentials, Splan can issue temporary credentials for host-free access. To enhance situational awareness, issued badges may be monitored through the OnGuard and NetBox system interfaces.                                                                     …Read More

Aperture Education Acquires Ascend to Expand its Social and Emotional Learning Offering for High Schools

Aperture’s research-backed DESSA assessment integrates with Ascend’s goal-setting software to create a powerful, engaging new SEL tool for high school students

Charlotte N.C. (May 4, 2021) — Aperture Education, the leading provider of researched-backed social and emotional learning (SEL) assessments for K-12 schools, has acquired Charlotte-based Ascend, creator of goal-based student engagement software. The acquisition allows Aperture to expand its SEL offerings for high school by providing districts and out-of-school-time programs with a mobile-friendly software platform to engage students in their own social and emotional learning. The new platform provides students with access to Aperture’s DESSA-Student Self-report, which students use to assess their own SEL skills, as well as access to real-time results and goal-based SEL strategies. The acquisition also marks a period of significant growth for Aperture which now serves nearly 1 million students and 42,000 educators in nearly 500 school districts.

“Social and emotional learning is a fast-growing segment of the education industry, and the pandemic has created even more urgency around the need for reliable, data-driven SEL programs that engage students, especially in high school. Anyone who has or teaches a high school student knows there are unique challenges in helping students improve their SEL skills – from block scheduling to a lack of dedicated time for teachers and students to focus on SEL, as well as a lack of time to train teachers how to incorporate SEL strategies into their daily instruction,” said Jessica Adamson, CEO of Aperture Education. “Ascend’s gamified, goal-setting platform provides the student-engagement piece to help schools get the data they need, and makes it easier to integrate SEL into the school day. Now, with Ascend, we are able to provide an even more well-rounded SEL assessment solution to support students and teachers at the high school level.”…Read More

Kajeet Announces Global Expansion, Enters U.K. Market

Leading wireless connectivity provider launches London office, extending award-winning solutions to the U.K.

McLean, Va. – April 21, 2021 – Kajeet®, a leading provider of mobile IoT connectivity, software and hardware solutions that deliver safe, reliable and controlled internet connectivity to students, enterprises, state and local governments and IoT solution providers, announced today its global expansion into the U.K. market. The announcement comes on the heels of significant growth for Kajeet, having more than doubled its customer base and adding new notable hires to its leadership team over the last year.

“Kajeet is mission-focused on closing the digital divide, not just in the U.S., but worldwide,” said chairman, CEO and founder Daniel J. W. Neal. “We are excited to bring our secure, reliable and controlled wireless connectivity solutions to the European market to enable equitable internet access, especially for students. This is but the next step on a path of further geographic expansion driven by our desire to deliver thoughtful and equitable internet access and mobility solutions wherever Kajeet can build upon our successes to date.”…Read More

A tech leader’s tips for making remote learning safe

When COVID forced school districts nationwide to quickly pivot to remote learning, we not only had to configure mobile devices for students to take home, but also implement safeguards to shield them from inappropriate content while outside school walls. We took both responsibilities very seriously, knowing that families were relying on us to maintain both a continuity of learning and safety for their children.

With 45 school sites and about 22,000 students to manage, we knew this would be a major undertaking. To tackle the challenges, we first upgraded our system to accommodate the 20,000-plus Chromebooks that our students would need to learn from home. Then, we acquired additional licenses for ContentKeeper, a school web filter we’d been using since 2017. Using this combined approach, we’ve been able to maintain control of content within social media websites; allow students access to educational content; and block or unblock sites as needed.

Getting everyone online and on board…Read More

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