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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.

How online learning can bridge the math gap

As the U.S. moves toward more normalized learning and day-to-day life, we know many students continue to feel the impact of remote and hybrid learning. The lingering effects of remote learning during the pandemic have left many students behind, particularly in essential math and reading skills.

In a 2021 study, more than half of public-school K-12 teachers said the pandemic resulted in a “significant” learning loss for many students. Other evidence shows that the pandemic widened pre-existing learning gaps in key subjects such as math. In fact, the World Bank projects $10 trillion in lost future earnings for children due to the pandemic if they do not make up lost or delayed skills like math.

During the initial phase of COVID-19 lockdowns, Generation Alpha (born 2010-2024) and Generation Z (born 1995-2009) had to pivot to virtual-only school platforms. While these students were heavy technology users, they were unskilled remote learners, with many never having the experience of online-only learning. Schooling outside of higher education was mainly following an in-person model. …Read More

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3 ways tech fosters student engagement

As we enter the second half of the 2021-2022 school year, many of us are still reeling from the 2020-2021 school year, which was defined by massive changes to the learning landscape. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting stay-at-home orders meant that students and teachers alike were forced to shift to online or hybrid learning overnight. Now, more than a year later, educators, students, and parents have been able to reflect on their experiences with online learning. 

While many have faced obstacles in integrating distance learning—any abrupt change operates on a learning curve—it’s also become clear that technology-based learning is essential to education to allow students to learn from wherever they are and prepare them for the future. These key benefits allow us to engage students and bring them in as active participants in their continued education more fully. 

Allow learning to happen anywhere…Read More

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Schools in All 50 States and Two U.S. Territories Offer Students Access to Quality Online Courses from VHS Learning

Boston – Feb. 3, 2022 – In 2021, 44 new schools partnered with VHS Learning, a nonprofit empowering schools with the industry’s best teacher-led online learning programs. Located across the United States and around the world, these school partners are now offering their students access to the nonprofit’s more than 300 core and elective courses online. With the addition of these schools, VHS Learning is now partnered with schools in all 50 states, two U.S. territories, and 63 countries.

“Having partners in all 50 states is a first for us, and it’s extremely fitting that this milestone marks our 25th anniversary” said Carol DeFuria, President & CEO of VHS Learning. “Our students have maintained a high level of academic performance even during the pandemic, by continuing to surpass national averages for Advanced Placement® pass rates. Our history of excellence helps schools feel confident about choosing VHS Learning to meet their online education needs.”

The new U.S. school partners are in twelve states – Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. New international school partners are in China, Taiwan, Korea, Portugal, Sierra Leone, and the United Arab Emirates.…Read More

5 reasons to partner with an online learning provider

In 2020 and 2021, the pandemic changed the way we used online learning with our 1,200 students. We had an online learning platform in place but were suddenly facing a pandemic-driven switch to remote learning and the need to offer both hybrid (i.e., a mix of on- and off-campus options) and online options.

We were fortunate in that all of our teachers were accustomed to the online model, but we were suddenly facing an overload of courses and a bigger need from the student perspective. VHS Learning helped us fill those voids by helping us create a blend of both core and elective courses that would keep learning on track during an extremely disruptive time.

Many of our students were able to get through the pandemic by using those online courses.…Read More

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TEACHERMADE BRINGS CO-TEACHER SUPPORT TO ITS INTERACTIVE ONLINE PLATFORM

Jacksonville, FL — TeacherMade, the online platform for making interactive digital learning activities, has released a software update that allows Teachers to share account access with other Teachers, paraprofessionals, substitutes, administrators, IEP/504 teams, or any other stakeholder. The new Co-Teacher shared access allows Teachers and staff to collaborate on lesson authoring, grading, assigning, and sharing. A video explaining how to use this powerful new feature is available at https://youtu.be/NUKUqm9si5s.

TeacherMade was created during the Covid-19 pandemic to meet the urgent needs of Teachers and students thrust into remote learning. Now TeacherMade is growing into a complete online learning platform that supports every stakeholder. The new Co-Teacher update makes TeacherMade a more complete solution for schools. 

TeacherMade has a library of original, pre-built, engaging online learning experiences for students. But most schools build their own private-use libraries from the PDFs their Teachers already use. TeacherMade’s one-of-a-kind PDF editor is the fastest way to digitally enhance an existing paper lesson. Digitally enhanced activities are part of a resilient curriculum that can adapt to in-person, remote, and asynchronous environments.…Read More

Does learning happen if you don’t see it?

As we settle into another academic year filled with uncertainty due to the pandemic, educators are taking a deeper look into what can be learned from the tumult of the last two years. Schools around the world were forced to quickly pivot to virtual learning and many have just recently returned to a traditional, in-person model.

Many parents still want an online option, but critics of online learning have questioned whether students really progressed academically without in-person supervision. The question on everyone’s mind: “Do students learn when you don’t see it?”

The short answer is yes, and it becomes abundantly clear why–once we update our mindset around what education can and should look like, and how we measure its success. Online learning provides access to a wealth of data that educators can use to personalize learning for students. Once educators and districts understand the unique advantages of online teaching and learning, they can update their approach to take advantage of the best of both worlds.…Read More

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How schools can take cybersecurity to the next level

In early March, 15 schools in the United Kingdom reported they were made incapable of delivering online learning for students after a cyberattack forced the education trust to shut down all systems to investigate whether the cybercriminals accessed the central network infrastructure. The increased reliance on e-learning has made schools around the world an even bigger target of opportunity than before. If the technology is taken down, education can come to a complete halt. Add to this the wide prevalence of bring your own device programs for e-learning and the access from insecure home networks, and you have a perfect storm for the sector and a huge target for criminals.

The problem has become so severe that the NCSC recently issued an alert to the UK Education sector after seeing a spike in targeting the sector, underlining the fact that threat actors are going after the education industry specifically, as well as it being the target of opportunity.

Schools already have challenges giving enough resources to cyber security in both funding and staff. The NCSC guidance underlines the importance of doing the basics, but that further recommends a defense in depth strategy. This obviously comes with a financial cost. It really is unacceptable that threat actors are targeting children’s education, and that funds must be diverted from front line-learning activities into preventing criminal elements from plying their trade.…Read More

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What teachers and parents should know about ransomware

In the face of continued uncertainty related to the pandemic, families like mine prepared for a return to school that still looked a little bit more like normal this year. For many parents, teachers and caregivers who struggled through a year of remote learning, with all of its online homework assignments and Zoom classes, this has been a major relief.

In my case, and admittedly more so for my superhero wife, last year involved the all-but-impossible task of wrangling 6- and 8-year-old children in front of a screen two to three times a day and somehow keeping them there through bathroom break requests and hunger pangs that only conveniently cropped up during online learning sessions.

It also meant enforcing dedicated “asynchronous learning” time for children who desperately need synchronous learning routines alongside their friends to conform to normal classroom behavior (i.e. “If my friends are paying attention, maybe I should too”). Now throw in the added complication that our children’s school had no way of restricting access to apps or websites such as YouTube on their school-issued devices, and the parenting intensity meter just about redlines.    …Read More

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ASU Prep Digital Forges Partnership With Ohio Charter School Network To Reduce Student Learning Loss Due To Covid Quarantine

ARIZONA AND OHIO (Sept. 16, 2021) – After powering through a year or more of remote and hybrid learning due to COVID, a significant share of traditional school districts are returning to familiar in-person models this school year. Even so, the advantages of online learning remain clear, particularly in the event of student quarantines. In Cleveland, one forward-thinking network of schools is offering students and their families a first-of-its-kind solution to keep students up to date with the school content and curriculum they have the potential to miss because of a COVID quarantine.

A new offering called Learning Under Quarantine from ASU Prep Digital, envisioned for Breakthrough Public Schools in collaboration with The 305 Education Group, is now in place. To prevent COVID learning losses, ASU Prep Digital provides online instructors to teach Cleveland-area students who miss in-person learning due to a 10-day quarantine. This innovative approach increases teaching and learning time simultaneously, while providing a practical solution for schools that simply do not have the human or financial resources to operate dual in-person and online models.

During the 2020-21 school year, Breakthrough – one of the highest-performing public, nonprofit charter school networks in Ohio – only operated remotely. However, for the 2021-22 academic year, network leaders knew changes were necessary.…Read More

3 ways technology paves the way for more student engagement

As we enter the 2021-2022 school year, many of us are still reeling from the last one. Last year was defined by massive changes to the learning landscape. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting stay-at-home orders meant that students and teachers alike were forced to shift to online or hybrid learning overnight. Now, more than a year later, educators, students, and parents have been able to reflect on their experiences with online learning. 

While many have faced obstacles in integrating distance learning—any abrupt change operates on a learning curve—it’s also become clear that technology-based learning is essential to education to allow students to learn from wherever they are and prepare them for the future. These key benefits allow us to engage students and bring them in as active participants in their continued education more fully. 

Allow learning to happen anywhere…Read More

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