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.

Big Deals: Advanced offerings in curriculum and data analytics, parent communication, remote tutoring, and more

Discovery Education this month acquired DreamBox Learning, a PK-12 education technology provider serving more than 6 million students and 600,000 educators nationwide. Headquartered in Bellevue, WA, DreamBox Learning offers the only dual-discipline solution rated “Strong” by Johns Hopkins University’s evidenceforESSA.org in both mathematics and reading. Through its adaptive learning solutions independently proven to accelerate student growth, DreamBox Learning empowers educators with data analytics and content-specific professional development solutions to complement instruction.

DreamBox Learning’s products complement Discovery Education’s other digital solutions, which include Discovery Education Experience, the company’s award-winning K-12 platform, the Techbook series of digital textbooks, Mystery Science, and more, in supporting student achievement. The acquisition of DreamBox Learning comes at a time when school districts are seeking comprehensive, yet consolidated platforms to address a wide range of core and supplemental learning needs, backed by research that underscores meaningful gains in achievement. The addition of DreamBox Learning’s intelligent adaptive learning technology to the Discovery Education suite will provide educators and students with more options for engaging, personalized learning experiences across a variety of disciplines.

DreamBox Learning will be Discovery Education’s most recent acquisition, joining Pivot Interactives and DoodleLearning, which were acquired in August of 2022, and Mystery Science, which was acquired in 2020. …Read More

3 new school grant opportunities

Key points:

Each day, teachers are tasked with doing more and more with increasingly fewer resources. And despite federal emergency funding to help schools provide staff and resources as the pandemic abates, school leaders still grapple with funding challenges.

School grants are often one-time funding opportunities, and while they are not permanent policy changes, grants often help students earn much-needed scholarship money, gain valuable experiences, and they also connect teachers with classroom resources or professional development.…Read More

Free Resources for Mental Health Month from Discovery Education 

Charlotte, NC — To help educators nationwide observe Mental Health Month, Discovery Education is presenting a curated collection of free standards-aligned resources empowering educators to support student mental health. Discovery Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place.  

Established in 1949 by Mental Health America and observed each May, Mental Health Month raises awareness and educates the public about mental illnesses and strategies for attaining mental health and wellness. This year’s theme, “Look Around, Look Within,” encourages communities to explore and understand how factors like education and the environment impact mental health. In recognition of Mental Health Month and the 2023 theme, Discovery Education presents the following collection of resources in collaboration with partners: 

Virtual Field Trip 
Grades 3-5 …Read More

A smarter way to think about college

This month, hundreds of thousands of graduating high school seniors are weighing their college options. For many, it’s an intensely stressful time as they are rejected or waitlisted by schools they aspired to attend and decide where they will spend the next four years of their lives. Unfortunately, most will base those decisions on criteria that don’t actually determine the quality of their education and ignore the criteria that do.

Choosing a college to attend is not like choosing a product to purchase, though students often approach the decision with a consumer’s mindset. There is no Consumer Reports to rely on, leaving students and their parents unduly influenced by a school’s reputation, the glitziness of the admissions materials, the amenities in the student housing, the impressiveness of the recreational facilities, and the quality of the campus tour. None of these bears any relation to the quality of the instruction you will receive as a student.

Even sampling a class or two while visiting a school tells you virtually nothing meaningful.  As any teacher knows, there are good days and bad days in every course.  What you experience is not generalizable to the course as a whole, much less to the entire school.…Read More

A 5-point plan for post-pandemic education

It seems hard to believe, but the pandemic in the U.S. started three years ago. With all the changes COVID-19 brought to schools, perhaps the one that most people forget is how the virus altered the delivery of education.

While everyone is happy remote learning and hybrid models are pretty much over, it isn’t accurate to say education has returned to what was “normal,” pre-pandemic instruction.

The main reason school looks different is that districts bought a heap of specialized technology just to keep instruction alive during those three years. A 2022 survey by the Consortium for School Networking shows that more than 80 percent of U.S. schools now have a device for each K-12 student. That’s way up from pre-pandemic numbers, where about two of three high schools and middle schools were one-to-one and less than half of elementary schools had a device for each student. And that’s only counting student devices–not the needed network improvements, teacher training, or the other myriad purchases required to create a robust network both in schools and at students’ homes.…Read More

News Flash! PRESSTO Sees Exponential Growth Within Early Launch Of Generative Ai Integration

New York, NY — Within a month of its official launch, edtech startup Pressto has seen unprecedented growth. The first-to-market generative AI for teachers is a classroom ready platform that has yielded over 1,300 teachers and 5,000 student sign-ups – totaling an 875% overall user increase – from more than 700 schools across the country.

“Based on our years of research, we know that both the desire to find alternative tools to motivate writing, as well as the need to remain ahead of students when it comes to AI in the classroom is essential, so we are not surprised that teachers are quickly embracing Pressto and our user numbers are growing at such a rapid pace,” says Pressto Founder and CEO, Daniel Stedman. “There hasn’t been a disruptor in writing in decades until now, and Pressto has found a way to implement this new wave of AI technology to help educators with writing instruction.”

Pressto’s unique capabilities and innovative approach resulted in early accolades for the beta version, including an honorable mention in the Education Category of Fast Company’s 2022 World Changing Ideas Awards. The platform has continued to push the boundaries of innovation and has since transformed into the first platform to put AI in the hands of teachers, empowering them with tools and knowledge needed to utilize AI confidently and effectively in their classrooms. …Read More

5 ways our district streamlines edtech ecosystems

Student data privacy has been at the forefront of district leaders’ minds well before the pandemic. However, since COVID-19 shifted schools and classrooms online, it’s not surprising that tech usage has reached an all-time high. Districts are accessing 1,400 edtech tools per month on average, and cybersecurity attacks in our nation’s schools are also increasing.

As an Education Technology Specialist at one of Colorado’s fastest-growing districts, District 49, I was tasked 5 years ago with the responsibility to ensure our district complied with federal and student data privacy laws. Both state and federal laws require vendors and school districts to facilitate safe online learning experiences. However, when the pandemic hit, our district was forced to rethink our approach beyond compliance to further vet our edtech tools and make protecting student data privacy a regular practice of our edtech ecosystem.

For the process to work, I knew we would have to work collaboratively, across departments and buildings, to confirm that our teachers and students were using digital tools that delivered value without exposing student data to risk.…Read More

7 Black History Month resources to use the whole year

Each year, we share our 10 most-read stories. Not surprisingly, many of this year’s Top 10 focused on innovative ways to engage students, digital resources, and online and hybrid learning strategies related to post-pandemic teaching. This year’s 8th most-read story focuses on Black History Month resources educators can use throughout the school year.

During Black History Month, educators have the opportunity to delve into the difficult–and often uncomfortable–experiences of Black people in the U.S. and around the world.

Perhaps one of the most important “do’s” is this: Don’t limit your teaching of Black history to the month of February.…Read More

Chicago Public Schools is monitoring students’ social media for ‘worrisome behavior’

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

Chicago Public Schools is monitoring students’ social media posts for signs they might engage in violence on campus or harm themselves so that school staff — and in some cases police — can intervene. 

A Canada-based company the district hired started scouring public posts for threats and “cries for help” last month. District leaders say the program is key in efforts to prevent violence and self-harm as the district responds to an uptick in school shootings nationally and in the number of local students expressing suicidal thoughts.…Read More

Poptential™ Offers Free Content for National American Indian Heritage Month

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Poptential™, a family of award-winning social studies course packages that infuse lessons with digital storytelling, offers an array of engaging content to illustrate the culture, traditions, and history of Native Americans for National American Indian Heritage Month. Click to tweet.

Signed into law by President George H. W. Bush in 1990, November’s National American Indian Heritage Month is a time to celebrate and pay respect to Native Americans for their culture and contributions to the United States and to raise awareness about the challenges they have faced in the past and today.

Poptential American History Volume II curriculum and digital media examples offer a look at the battles and struggles of the Native Americans as they were removed from their homelands and separated from their families. Content includes:…Read More