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.

New Nationwide Data Shows Significant Increase in Alerts on Self-Harm, Harm to Others and the Presence of Weapons on K–12 Campuses

RICHFIELD, OHIO (PRWEB) — Navigate360, the nation’s leader in K–12 student wellness and physical safety solutions, announces significant increases in alerts on self-harm, harm to others and the presence of weapons on K–12 campuses. Across more than 33 million online school and social media alerts, Navigate360’s all-new data show alerts related to self-harm are up 51 percent year-over-year, compared to the 25 percent increase year-over-year in alerts related to weapons and harm to others. Additionally, more than 4,000 anonymous tips per week are coming into school tip lines, with the most common tips related to self-harm and weapons.

These statistics reinforce the larger, underlying issues behind recent national headlines related to bullying, self-harm and violent critical incidents on school campuses. Just last week, there were reports of coordinated swatting and hoax efforts in Vermont and Michigan, as well as a tragic bullying-related suicide in New Jersey.

“Every day brings another use case of what we’re trying to prevent and change,” said JP Guilbault, Chief Executive Officer at Navigate360. “How can we use the data we have to further the collective understanding of what is happening nationwide—where are we seeing concerning behaviors, where are we seeing spikes? Then, how can we use that data to prevent these occurrences—to identify supports and interventions that need to take place?”…Read More

As Seattle schools sue social media companies, what’s the legal impact?

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

A notable new lawsuit against social media industry leaders by the Seattle school district has left legal experts divided on how the case will unfold.

The complaint — which alleges that the school district and its students have been harmed by social media’s negative effects on youth mental health — could lead to sweeping changes in the industry, one expert said. Or, as others expect, it could fizzle out with little chance of winning in court.…Read More

Protecting your schools as cyberattacks rise

Think cybersecurity won’t or can’t impact you?

Well, you would be wrong.

The number of cyberattacks only continue to grow. Virtually every business you can think of has been hit–cybercriminals have targeted the pipelines we rely on for oil and gas; the hospitals we turn to in times of need, even the social media companies where we connect.…Read More

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Why teach digital writing to students in 2022?

The internet has changed writing forever.

Have you ever thought of your students alongside Hemingway, Shakespeare, and other well-known writers? They are actually: All their messages, blogs, and social media posts go online today, together with novels, poems, or stories of professional writers.

Now they write more than speak. Online communication calls the shots, and Gen Z doesn’t perceive informative writing as we did 20 or 30 years ago.…Read More

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Case Study: How Weston School District Built a Digital Strategy with Digital Signage, 15 Minutes at a Time

(May 12, 2022) –– Rise Vision has released a new case study of Weston School District, a small school district which serves three rural communities of Cazenovia, Hillpoint, and Lime Ridge, Weston and has a student population of 300 students. While Weston School District doesn’t face the problems a very large school does, it does face its own challenges.

Amanda Keller, who has been social media and public relations director at Weston for the past 4 years discussed the district’s challenges of its students across 12 years of compulsory education. Back in 2018, Weston struggled with keeping families updated with printed, physical newsletters.

‘It was frustrating to put so much time into communication we knew would be outdated before it reached our families and community,’ Keller continues. ‘It was also time-consuming to create bulletin boards that were very limited in how we could use them. These bulletin boards also had to be recreated often to keep the images current.’…Read More

Why we should let online elementary students lead

The role of elementary teachers has never been more important, especially as kindergarten through fifth grade students today are facing more change than ever before–from the effects of the pandemic to social media and stressful current events being right at their fingertips.

According to The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the annual average learning gain for Kindergarten through second grade students is higher than at any time during a child’s years in school. This is why we both decided to become elementary school teachers–to make a positive impact in children’s lives during such a critical time of development and growth.

While it is essential for students to understand and master their learning in elementary school, it is also important that students develop confidence, feel ownership over their work, and become passionate about learning. If you can excite elementary students about learning, it can set them up for success not only throughout their entire education, but also their life.…Read More

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Parallel Learning—Psychoeducational Telehealth Platform—Announces Official Launch Alongside $2.8m In Funding

NEW YORK, NY (December 28, 2021)—Parallel Learning (Parallel), the digital health company that
provides psychoeducational services to families, educators and students dealing with learning and
thinking differences, today announced its official launch alongside $2.8M in funding to date. The funding
was led by Eric Reiner and Dan Povitsky of Vine Ventures, with participation from Global Founders
Capital, Great Oaks and social media influencers Josh Richards, Griffin Johnson and Noah Beck of Gen
Z-focused venture capital fund Animal Capital, among others. These funds will enable Parallel to
accelerate its growth by expanding nationwide, increasing access to special education services for
students across the country.

Parallel’s platform provides cross-disciplinary support services to diagnose, teach and empower students with learning and thinking differences directly to families and to school districts on a contractual basis. The company employs licensed psychologists, learning specialists, occupational therapists and more in each state and matches students with providers based on their referral concern and desired services. With Parallel, evaluations begin within days instead of waiting months and cost a fraction of the price of traditional evaluations which can be upwards of $5,000. The digital health company worked with
prominent research institutions and renowned testing publishers including Riverside to develop its
American Psychological Association (APA)-compliant evaluation platform. This proprietary technology
cuts the evaluation time in half, allowing students to receive a full report within just two weeks. The
comprehensive services currently offered include:

● Comprehensive Psychological Assessments
○ Licensed psychologists work through a series of assessments to uncover what impacts
the student’s ability to learn, help them improve their abilities and determine the
accommodations they need to succeed in the classroom.
● Educational Therapy
○ Therapists provide intensive interventions to help students build on foundational skills by
using evidence-based, multi-sensory approaches to teach techniques for coping with
learning and thinking differences.
● Executive Function Coaching
○ Occupational therapists teach students how to become more efficient learners and build
their confidence and independence by teaching organizational and management skills
that can help them in and outside of the classroom.…Read More

Rise Vision Creates Free Posters for Encouraging Safety and Reducing Bullying for Students

(September 29, 2021) –– Anti-bullying is focused on promoting safety, addressing behaviors, defining rules and expectations, and rewarding positive behavior through communication. All teachers, staff, and administrators must be on board to prevent bullying from occurring. Rise Vision has released 10 free anti-bullying posters for schools that feature positive messages and motivational quotes to promote healthy student learning. The posters can be printed, shared on digital signage, websites, and on social media. 

The posters are available for download as both JPEG and high-resolution PDFs, in landscape and portrait-oriented formats.

“Bullying impacts students online and in schools around the world. October is Anti-Bullying Month and so to help schools spread the message we’ve created this set of posters. The 10 posters share messages that promote kindness, discourage bullying, and raise awareness. We hope schools find them valuable and that they help reduce bullying.” Shea Darlison, Head of Revenue.…Read More