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.

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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SDI, Inc. Launches Mobile App for PPE-As-a-Service to Simplify Procurement for Schools

In light of President Biden’s  executive order supporting the reopening of schools and early childhood education providers,  SDI, Inc., a leader in digital supply chain services and solutions, is launching a mobile app to streamline the process of procuring Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other essential supplies, and complement its  PPE-As-a-Service offering. Powered by SDI’s ZEUS technology, the app supports both iOS and Android platforms, and enables users to view and order PPE and other essential supplies.

“We’re eager to leverage the comprehensive features of our ZEUS technology and provide additional convenience to our partners,” said Kelly Kleinfelder, Chief Information Officer & SVP, Information Technology at SDI. “Demand for PPE remains at an all-time high and is unlikely to decrease any time soon; our new app ensures users can order items as needed and monitor usage anywhere, and at any time.”

Key features of the app include:…Read More

LenelS2 Announces BlueDiamond Mobile-Ready Readers

LenelS2 today announced a new line of BlueDiamondTM mobile-ready readers. The new multi-technology readers are cost-effective, designed to provide simultaneous support for a wide range of physical credentials and can be seamlessly upgraded to support BlueDiamond mobile credentials. LenelS2, a global leader in advanced security systems and services, is a part of Carrier Global Corporation (NYSE: CARR), a leading global provider of healthy, safe and sustainable building and cold chain solutions.

“Access control needs are dynamic, and with BlueDiamond mobile-ready readers, users have a single platform that can meet their needs today, tomorrow and into the future,” said Jeff Stanek, president, LenelS2. “These new readers allow organizations to easily transition to mobile credentials at their own pace.”

BlueDiamond is an open platform, and the new line of mobile-ready readers are among the most versatile access control readers on the market. The readers work seamlessly with existing infrastructure and are access control platform agnostic. They include support for the standard output protocols including Supervised F/2F (SF/2F), Wiegand, OSDP™ and OSDP V2.…Read More

BlueZoo Expands into Occupancy Monitoring for Social Distancing with BlueFox Count

To better protect businesses, their employees, and their customers from the dangers of overcrowding during the Covid-19 pandemic, BlueZoo is now applying its BlueFox solution to monitor social distancing.

BlueFox sensors measure real time occupancy by using Wi-Fi probes from mobile phones to measure the presence and aggregate flow of people through a space. The company is the world’s leading provider of Wi-Fi-based occupancy measurement solutions. BlueZoo gained success by offering businesses and institutions insights into unique visitor counts, visit dwell times, and visitor recurrence rates to better plan operations, schedule staff, and manage demand, as well as track advertising effectiveness. 

Now, the BlueFox range is expanding to help prevent overcrowded conditions, without the overhead of keeping staff at each entrance, with BlueFox “Count”. BlueFox solutions notify the on-site team instantly when the number of people in a store or a public place exceeds a preset threshold. BlueFox customers can predict wait time because BlueFox knows the historical rate at which visitors leave when the space is at any occupancy level. …Read More