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.

Latest Updates to Discovery Education’s Flexible K-12 Platform Keeps All Learners Connected to Engaging Content, Instructional Strategies, and Professional Learning

Discovery Education today announced a series of updates to its flexible, award-winning K-12 learning platform that will keep teachers and students connected to the service’s engaging content, instructional strategies, and professional learning resources wherever learning is taking place. Discovery Education is the global leader in standards-aligned digital curriculum resources and professional learning for K-12 classrooms.

Discovery Education provides all educators and students a simple, secure, and reliable user experience. Recognizing that every school system has their own unique technological configuration, Discovery Education has architected its K-12 learning platform to maintain maximum flexibility in a variety of areas including:

Login – New updates to Discovery Education’s learning platform now allow teachers and students to login through a variety of ways, such as:…Read More

LenelS2 Introduces OnGuard Security Management System Version 8.0

LenelS2 today announced the release of the OnGuard® security management system version 8.0, empowering security teams with enhanced situational awareness through unified views of the security environment, as well as powerful visualization for data-based insights. Version 8.0 provides major updates including integration with the Magic Monitor® unified client, rich interactive maps, a new modern reporting engine, cybersecurity enhancements and more. The OnGuard security management system is an advanced solution in Carrier’s Healthy Buildings Program, and provides critical features like occupancy management, enhanced access control and proactive screening solutions to better protect people and assets, and optimize building health and efficiency. 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.

“OnGuard version 8.0 provides end users with the tools they need to be in complete control of their security environment and transform security data into actionable insights,” said Jeff Stanek, president, LenelS2. “As the world returns to the workplace, the breadth of new features, updates and enhancements in OnGuard version 8.0 make it an ideal solution for today’s unique security challenges.”

The OnGuard 8.0 system enhances security and situational awareness through integration with the Magic Monitor client, a Windows® and MacOS® client, which provides a unified view of access control, video surveillance feeds and web content in a single display. Users can view OnGuard system alarms, credentials as well as live or recorded video from the LenelS2™ Network Video Recorder (LenelS2 NVR) platform, or third-party video management systems, including the Milestone XProtect® system. The Magic Monitor unified client supports a single display, a command center workstation or expansive video walls.…Read More

eBOARDsolutions Announces Major Update to Simbli Policy Module

eBOARDsolutions Inc., today announced a major update to their online policy management software, the Simbli Policy Module.

One of six core modules that make up Simbli’s board management software, the Policy module helps school boards develop, communicate, and collaborate on policies and procedures in real time. Fully integrated with Simbli’s Meetings, Planning, Evaluations, Documents, and Communications Modules, the newly enhanced Policy Module provides governance teams even greater flexibility and control in managing all of the board’s important work.

“Through Simbli’s Policy module, our subscribers can not only access and make vital updates to their board policy manual, but also manage things like student and staff handbooks, school safety manuals, financial or IT procedures manuals, business continuity plans, and other critical manuals all in one place,” said Mark Willis, eBOARDsolutions Chief Operating Officer. “With Simbli, all of their manuals are easily searchable and 100% compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.”…Read More

Aperture Education Updates its DESSA Comprehensive SEL System

Aperture Education, a leading provider of social-emotional assessments and intervention strategies for schools, has updated its DESSA Comprehensive SEL System to make it more intuitive for educators and administrators to use and to include more inclusive gender language. The updates include adding gender-neutral student descriptions, easy-to-read charts to showcase students’ SEL data and progress at a glance, and features to make its data-importing process more intuitive to help administrators save time.

“Once we checked the boxes of having research backed, nationally normed, industry leading assessments, the next step was to make the data generated by those assessments simple to access and easy for educators, administrators and out-of-school time providers to understand,” said Bret McDermitt, Senior Product Owner at Aperture Education. “That’s where our new updates truly shine.”

The evidence-based DESSA Comprehensive SEL System includes a suite of strength-based social-emotional learning assessments and strategies to build students’ social and emotional competence. It provides everything educators, administrators and out-of-school-time providers need to obtain actionable, reliable data for their SEL programs.…Read More

Trinity Elementary School Updates Broadcast Studio Lighting with Adorama Business Solutions

Trinity Elementary School recently enlisted Adorama Business Solutions, the premier technology resource for corporate, educational, and government institutions, to upgrade its in-house broadcast studio used to produce school announcements and offer production courses to students. Eager to move away from pre-recorded programming toward more sophisticated live production capabilities, Trinity Elementary first revitalized its studio set-up with new, improved lighting equipment.

The new lighting upgrades have enabled live interviews during morning announcements, live panel discussions, and green screen capabilities. It has also helped facilitate projects such as a Blackmagic workflow for live broadcasts of school auditorium productions and live streaming of programming on outlets such as YouTube. In addition, the updates have allowed a new curriculum to be implemented about the different elements of live television production, including classes such as editing, recording, and audio.

After an on-site consultation, Adorama Business Solutions worked with Trinity Elementary School to identify the best lighting gear suited to their needs. Selected equipment included: 12 Astra Bi-Color LED Light Panels, an Astra Bluetooth Communications Module, and a Snapbag Softbox. They additionally provided technical drawings detailing where the new lighting should be placed, as well as recommended power outlet placements to facilitate future upgrade plans for the studio.…Read More

Keep the school to home connection strong

Bloomz is opening their premium version for free through the semester to all schools. The Bloomz communication platform enables schools to communicate updates in real-time to parents and students; share lessons, student work and feedback; and keep the school-to-home connection strong so students learning at home don’t fall through the cracks.

Hundreds of Educational Resources

Started by a Facebook group and now driven by a nation of teachers, the list at the time of writing contains links to over 800 resources. This expansive list contains activities and resources for both administrators and teachers alike.

You will find resources on every subject and links for administrators to numerous companies offering free services during your time of need.

eSchool News is working to review many items on this list–check back often for updates.…Read More

Free tool to better communicate with parents

The Smore Template Center is comprised of pre-made newsletters that aim to address the variety of communication needs that you might be experiencing. They have templates for remote teaching, parent communication, and updates to stakeholders in your community. It is designed to save time and help you get your message out with customizable templates to suit your needs.

Smore newsletters can be shared on social media, sent via email, exported to mass notification systems, and embedded in your school website. You can also update them after they are shared, so the information is always current.

All templates in the COVID-19 Center have their Pro features enabled. This means you will have access to automatic language translation, WCAG 2.0 AA compliance, custom backgrounds, file attachments, and enhanced analytics — regardless of whether or not you are a Pro user.…Read More

Mobile platform helps teachers, students stay connected

connected-schoolsRemind101 is a mobile platform that closes the communication gap between home and school, helping students, teachers, and parents stay connected in a modern way. It allows teachers to send reminders, notifications, and updates via text or eMail—and already, more than 30,000 schools are signed up, its creators say.

Signing up takes less than two minutes on the website, iPhone app, or Android app, and it only takes seconds for students or parents to join a class by sending a text or eMail message to a designated number, Remind101 says. Safety is a primary feature of the service: Teachers never see students’ or parents’ phone numbers, and students and parents don’t see theirs.

Teachers can manage up to 10 classes, sending messages to an entire class or to individual students or parents instantly—or they can schedule a message for later if they’d like, such as a reminder about a test that’s in a month.…Read More