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.

Osmo From BYJU’s Appoints Jonathan Naseath Chief Operating Officer To Lead Next Phase of Growth

Palo Alto, CA–Feb 23, 2022–Award-winning STEAM brand, Osmo from BYJU’S, announces Jonathan Naseath’s appointment as Chief Operating Officer, effective immediately. With extensive experience in finance and operations, Naseath, CPA, CFE and CISA, will further Osmo’s global growth, creating operational excellence across the company and scaling the company’s vision of making a broader impact to education. 

“Jon is an energetic and passionate executive who will help take Osmo and Powered by Osmo businesses to the next level by solving complex issues of large scale organization management such as supply chain, logistics, finance, and creating centers of excellence,” says Cherian Thomas, Senior Vice President of International Business at Osmo from BYJU’S. “Furthermore, Jon will be instrumental in setting up our multidisciplinary teams for success in carrying out Osmo’s vision for the future.”

Naseath arrives at Osmo from Google Cloud, where he served as Cloud Value Advisor Senior Principal, and assisted the office of Google Cloud CFO to define the financial opportunity of cloud digital transformation. Between 2018 and 2020, Naseath was Chief Financial Officer and Transformation Leader at PCH International, which provides supply chain distribution and software as a service (SaaS) platforms to leading global brands. He advised on matters ranging from developing and implementing cash strategies, to overseeing global accounting, financial reporting, tax, compliance and regulatory teams. …Read More

Rise Vision Helps Schools Use Digital Signage to Make Kindness the Norm ®

(January  8, 2021) –– Rise Vision has released three new templates to help schools promote kindness on their digital signage. Schools can now join the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation and encourage students to begin building a new routine that creates intentional moments of kindness, laughter, and delight. 

With the new Kindness Calendar template, a new set of kindness ideas will automatically appear each week. By using the World Kindness Day template, schools can celebrate and raise awareness of kindness. And with the Random Acts of Kindness day template, schools can share ideas for random acts of kindness to encourage students to participate. Schools can share these templates on displays throughout their district, classrooms, and common areas to create a more caring and positive culture. 

“We surveyed our customers recently and learned that one of the top goals schools have for their digital signage is creating a positive school culture. It was close second only to improving communication. We’re thrilled to release these new templates which will help schools achieve their goal of creating positive, caring, and kind learning environments.” – Shea Darlison, Head of Marketing, Rise Vision…Read More

DreamBox Learning® Appoints Key Executives in Record Growth Year

BELLEVUE, Wash. —DreamBox Learning®, the company on a mission to radically change the way the world learns, today announced the appointment of five new executives across key functions of the business. Lakshmi Nidamarthi joins the company as Chief Product Officer, Ronit Peled as Chief People Officer, Dr. Jason Sinquefield as Senior Vice President of Sales and Partnerships, Michael Savitz as Senior Vice President of Operations, and Tracy Kleine as Vice President of Marketing. These leaders join a high performing executive team at DreamBox during a year of unprecedented growth – a year which validated the long-term DreamBox vision and strategy and further established the company as best-of-breed in the industry.

As school district demand for proven, personalized learning technology experiences its largest boom in history, these executives join the DreamBox team in time for a school year in which educators are ready to leverage the skills, knowledge, and connectivity gained during the pandemic. They are charged with delivering on the company’s winning strategy of providing customers with rich and engaging personalized content, embedded formative assessment, robust data and analytics capabilities, and value-added services to accelerate student learning.

“All of these proven leaders bring something unique to the DreamBox team, and to the market we passionately serve. They are deeply committed to unlocking the learning potential of all students – regardless of race, gender, or zip code, and redefining personalized learning in classrooms everywhere,” said Jessie Woolley-Wilson, President and CEO of DreamBox Learning. “As DreamBox enters a significant new phase of growth, we believe that leveraging diversity across our executive team and the entire company will continue to empower us to build empathetic and impactful solutions for our customers.”…Read More

A Year Like No Other

This school year, teachers have valiantly confronted the challenge and uncertainty brought forth by the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers are doing their best to keep students learning no matter what, adapting to ever-changing rules and regulations on the fly, preparing for distance learning, hybrid learning, or in-person classes.

Those who support students with reading barriers, like dyslexia, cerebral palsy, and low vision, encountered additional challenges as they worked to find new ways to provide the individualized learning supports that these students needed to learn and thrive. To find out what’s working and what isn’t, we surveyed over 800 teachers who support 10,000+ students with reading barriers on their experience as they adapt to the ever-changing educational landscape.

View the full report here.

Photomath, the World’s Most Popular Math Learning App, Secures $23 Million in Series B Funding

Photomath, the #1 math learning app with over 220 million downloads, announced it had secured $23 million in Series B funding led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from GSV Ventures, Learn Capital, Cherubic Ventures and Goodwater Capital. Photomath is free and simple to use and acts as a digital math tutor for students and parents struggling with math homework. By scanning a handwritten or printed math problem from a smartphone, Photomath uses computer vision and machine learning to recognize and instantly solve basic arithmetic to advanced calculus. And, Photomath provides step-by-step instructions to guide students to understand and master math concepts. The company recently surveyed over 2,000 parents and found 56% of parents cannot help their children with math homework resulting in parents downloading Photomath at 3x the amount every week since the pandemic started. …Read More

Civil Rights Activist Sylvia Mendez to be Special Guest at ALAS Linking Latina Leaders Event Feb. 19

Civil rights activist Sylvia Mendez will join the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (ALAS) for their February networking event, Linking Latina Leaders [L3]. The free event to ALAS L3 members and their guests, takes place from 5:30-6:30 p.m. EST on Feb. 19, 2021 and addresses the theme: “Breaking Barriers to have an Inclusive Equitable Education.” To register, visit http://bit.ly/ALASL3Feb.

The event is facilitated by ALAS L3 members Patricia Trejo, Dr. Patricia Ordoìnez-Feliciano.

“Our Linking Latina Leaders events focus on our female members and leadership development – to connect, and for those who may be interested in joining ALAS to network with members nationwide and gain a better understanding of the ALAS vision, mission and goals in leading our most marginalized and students of color ,” said Dr. Maria Armstrong, executive director of ALAS. “We are incredibly excited and looking forward to hearing from Sylvia Mendez, an inspiring leader and trailblazer in education, at our February event.”…Read More

Loyola Blakefield Delivers Professional Audio to Unique Spaces on Campus with Renkus-Heinz Solutions

Loyola Blakefield is a Jesuit preparatory school for boys in grades 6-12 that has operated since 1852. Its 60-acre campus in Towson, Maryland boasts several academic buildings and an array of student-centered facilities, such as a spacious dining hall, athletics complex, and common areas. The school’s mission centers upon delivering a superb academic experience coupled with spiritual formation in the Ignatian tradition. It also provides a variety of elective and co-curricular activities to their more than 940 students – including athletics, performing arts, cyber science, and speech & debate.

With such a wide array of activities and programming on campus, performances and presentations take place in several locations. When it came time for the school to upgrade its Dining Hall with an improved sound system, it was important to meet a vision that saw the space as a flexible and dynamic setting bolstered by an integrated audio system.

Steve Morill, IT Director for Loyola Blakefield, envisioned the many possibilities for the space with the deployment of a state-of-the-art system. Morill manages the school’s technology infrastructure needs and understands the influence and importance of audio/visual tech in a learning environment, including its unique role in content sharing and comprehension.…Read More

Education Playbook spotlights teaching and learning

Resource from KnowledgeWorks aims to highlight the importance of teaching and learning as presidential debates continue

Amid a heated presidential contest, KnowledgeWorks has released an Education Playbook to put the spotlight on teaching and learning in the U.S.

In the first eight presidential debates, more than 175,000 words were spoken, but “education” was only mentioned 64 times. With the primary election looming and more debates on the calendar, there couldn’t be a better opportunity to discuss the U.S. education system.

“It’s time to raise the level of education debate in the country,” KnowledgeWorks Vice President of Policy and Advocacy Matt Williams said. “As the presidential candidates hit the campaign trail before the primaries, we must talk about and imagine a new vision for teaching and learning in the U.S.”…Read More