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.

eSchool Live@ INSTRUCTURECON 2023

Breaking news out of day two at Instructure‘s professional learning event for educators and edtech users in Denver. The company announced a partnership with Khan Academy to integrate Khanmigo, Khan’s AI-powered student tutor and teaching assistantCanvas, into Canvas, the market-leading learning management system. We caught Instructure CEO Steve Daly just after the announcement to provide some context and provide a timeline for when Canvas will be updated with Khanmigo. Scroll down for more details and look for more in-depth conversations With Daly and other senior executives on the Innovation Insights podcast next week.

From the press release: This integrated solution will put the transformative power of generative AI into the hands of students and educators using the Canvas learning environment.

Generative AI represents an opportunity to enhance the role of technology in supporting educators and creating efficiencies in their day-to-day instruction. This new solution will harness this transformative moment by enabling educators with an integrated Khanmigo experience that supports human-driven, technology-enhanced essay feedback and grading, lesson planning and rubric creation. This solution is a large step forward in delivering personalization for each student while allowing busy educators to scale their excellence and impact in ways unimaginable a few short months ago.…Read More

Texas Education Agency Names Curriculum Associates’ i-Ready® Assessment as an Approved Grade 7 Reading Instrument

NORTH BILLERICA, Mass. — The Texas Education Agency (TEA) recently named Curriculum Associates’ i-Ready Assessment to its Commissioner’s List of Approved Grade 7 Reading Instruments. Starting this coming school year, districts and open-enrollment charter schools can now use the online program to assess all students whose performance on the Grade 6 STAAR Reading assessment did not demonstrate reading proficiency. Results from the reading assessments will help inform additional reading instruction and intervention for students.

“To increase literacy achievement throughout the state, it is essential that Texas educators have actionable data to help students, especially those who may need extra supports,” said Claudia Salinas, vice president of English Learning at Curriculum Associates. “With the recent approval by the TEA, teachers can now use i-Ready to quickly and efficiently collect—and utilize—important student data. This will help teachers personalize their instruction to support reading success while saving them time.”

TEA conducted a comprehensive review of submitted assessments. To receive approval, assessments must be based on current, published scientific research in reading, be age and grade-level appropriate, valid, and reliable, identify specific skill difficulties in word analysis, fluency, and comprehension, and assist the teacher in making individualized instructional decisions based on the assessment results.…Read More

The future of gamification

Key points:

In the past decade, students have been inundated with more and more distractions. The internet provides an infinite amount of said distractions: YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok to name a few. While the environment that grows children into students–and eventually young adults–has been changing, the education system has proved less dynamic. There are ways to embrace these changes as a means of benefit to a child’s education instead of a burden.

Engagement is the name of the game here, and educators are losing. According to a 2022 Gallup poll, engaged students are 2.5 times more likely to say that they get excellent grades and do well in school. This is massive, but even more impressive is that they are 4.5 times more likely to be hopeful about the future than their actively disengaged peers. Students who are happy to come to school and who see it as an opportunity are bound to feel more self-agency and to be better prepared for their post-educational lives.…Read More

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How to teach writing skills in the ChatGPT era

Key points:

When ChatGPT appeared in November 2022, most educators felt it could become a threat and change the whole niche forever. No wonder: This language model algorithm is smart enough to produce logical and grammatically correct texts for any prompt.

Today’s digital-savvy students welcomed ChatGPT with open arms and began using it for writing assignments. According to a new study from Academic Help, 67 percent of students use AI for creating texts – the basis for their essays and other papers.…Read More

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Turnitin AI Detection Feature Reviews More Than 65 Million Papers

OAKLAND, Calif. – Today,  Turnitin announced that more than 65 million papers have been reviewed since the April launch of its new feature that detects similarities to AI writing. The company also announced that of those 65 million papers, over 2.1 million – 3.3 percent – have been flagged as having at least 80 percent AI writing present. Nearly 6.7 million – 10.3 percent – have over 20 percent AI writing present. Tracking the overall detection rate illustrates that generative AI has made its way into classrooms, however, whether this is acceptable or not is determined by educators themselves. 

“In just over three months, Turnitin’s new AI detection feature is being used widely and it is giving educators data they have asked for since ChatGPT first became free to the public in November 2022,” said Annie Chechitelli, chief product officer at Turnitin. “Since the release, nearly 98 percent* of Turnitin institutions have AI writing detection enabled within their Turnitin workflow in at least one of their active accounts.” 

Chechitelli added, “Sharing usage and indication rates is one way that we can help improve understanding of the presence and use of generative AI in their teaching and learning practices. Given the urgency expressed by educators about these challenges and the public’s interest in AI text creation and AI text detection, we are committed to sharing these insights so that we can all begin to understand the trends that are currently shaping education.”…Read More

Is generative AI a new secret weapon, or just another gadget?

Key points:

  • Generative AI can provide consistent, personalized feedback to students
  • It’s crucial to remember that AI is a tool, not a replacement for teachers–it’s there to enhance the educational experience
  • See related article: The importance of teaching generative AI

Today, we’re going to take a peek behind the curtain of edtech to examine the developing phenomenon that’s on all of our lips: Generative AI. The question, of course, is whether this fancy newcomer is the secret weapon educators have been waiting for or just another high-tech toy with a lot of hype and little substance. Spoiler alert: It might just be the former.

A brief primer on generative AI…Read More

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BenQ Education Partners With ANTON Learning App

COSTA MESA, Calif. — BenQ, an internationally renowned provider of visual display solutions, announced that the ANTON learning app is now available on BenQ Boards. Trusted by over 15 million learners and teachers in over 60,000 schools, the ANTON learning app features learning material across a multitude of subjects, with the goal of making learning fun for students and easy for teachers to create and deliver engaging lessons. This partnership strengthens BenQ’s commitment to providing direct access to the apps and learning software that educators use daily from their BenQ Boards for a more streamlined, future-ready classroom.

“We’re steadfast in our mission to make it as easy as possible for educators to use the BenQ Board while helping students achieve great outcomes,” said Bob Wudeck, senior director of business development at BenQ Education. “ANTON is widely used by thousands of teachers. This is a great addition to the many resources now available in our BenQ Boards and is another step in bridging the gap between traditional teaching methods and cutting-edge technology that will help teachers shape the future of learning.”

The ANTON learning app and online learning portal are part of a standards-aligned curriculum available in multiple languages. Boasting over 100,000 exercises and 200 exercise types, it contains interactive elements, feedback, games, and explanations aimed at supporting and engaging young people in learning. It covers English, math, science, social studies, languages, and music, following set lessons with exercises in each topic. Users are able to select the subject that they wish to focus on and then follow scaffolded exercises developed to help them understand the material. Students can earn coins through their learning to spend on fun games and avatars.  Teachers are able to create classes, assign homework, and track the learning progress of their students. This information can then be used to personalize any learning or to bridge the learning between school and home.…Read More

How Phys Ed and Ed Tech Can Fit

Concerns over kids and screen time versus play time are legitimate. According to the National Survey of Children’s Health, 17.0% of youth ages 10 to 17 had obesity in 2020-2021. That rate has increased slightly from 15.5% in 2018-19, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. And yet it’s pretty plain that the screens aren’t going away. Educators and parents need to figure out ways to work around the devices and get kids moving.

Fit and Fun Founder and CEO, Pamela Gunther, has some suggestions. In this conversation, she breaks down the various scenarios schools face when trying to get students up, out, about and goes into some other ideas about how technology can encourage activity, not taking them from it. Have a listen and scroll through for some edited highlights: 

In the work that we do, which is to design and develop physical activities for kids, there are a couple of different ways we get inspired. And how we approach and develop our products. First of all, it’s got to be fun. It’s got to be colorful. It’s got to work and when I mean work, a lot of our products are backed by science-based movements, movements that hit particular parts of the brain.…Read More

SchoolStatus Achieves Significant Business Momentum in 1H 2023, Fueled by Growing Demand for its K-12 Data and Communications Solutions

RIDGELAND, Miss.–  SchoolStatus, a leader in K-12 data and communications, achieved new business milestones that demonstrate strong company momentum in the first half of 2023 and growing excitement about its solutions from educators and administrators across the country. To support the increasing demand for its solutions, the company has expanded its sales team by 42% this year and appointed Sarah Kiley as Senior Vice President of Sales to lead the team. SchoolStatus also added Michael Wolset as Vice President of People.

In the past six months, SchoolStatus grew its base of district partners, expanding to new states and districts. In June 2023, G2, the world’s largest independent software and services review platform, selected SchoolStatus for 24 awards including Best Support, Most Likely to Recommend, and Easiest to Use.

Rebecca Moye, Data Coordinator for Rome City Schools, in Rome, Georgia, shared that, “SchoolStatus is a pillar of our strategic plan at Rome City Schools to engage with stakeholders…Last year we had 98% engagement in the last 90 days.”…Read More

Debunking common myths about AI in education

Key points:

  • Many educators are unsure of the role generative AI will play in their classrooms
  • Despite this hesitation, there are some compelling reasons to use AI to augment teaching and learning
  • See related article: How ChatGPT made my lessons more engaging

Artificial intelligence is not a completely new concept in education; it has been used for years. Consider spelling and grammar checks that are built into word processors and autofill suggestions in search engines. What has become new to us this year is easy access to generative AI models, which can generate text and images with simple prompts.

In response to these new tools becoming available to the public, many teachers found themselves resisting AI, considering the ways in which it could complicate verifying academic honesty in student writing and artwork, acknowledging the inaccuracies that AI can generate, the human biases that impact the dataset AI uses, and more. …Read More

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