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.

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

Roblox, PLTW team up for immersive STEM experience

Key points:

  • Immersive learning experiences are highly engaging and give students another way to grasp key STEM concepts
  • Roblox and Project Lead The Way are offering 3D immersive learning with a new STEM experience
  • See related article: Are you teaching with Roblox? You should be

Immersive learning experiences are all the rage, and for good reason—they engage students and help make challenging concepts–particularly STEM concepts–a bit easier to learn thanks to they way they are presented.

Pathogen Patrol, a new 3D immersive learning experience from Project Lead The Way, brings important STEM learning content to life. These learning experiences give students another way to learn educational concepts, such as space exploration or different processes in the human body, which are typically challenging to teach with traditional methods.…Read More

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Discovery Education and its Corporate Partners Offering Free Resources for Families to Keep Learning Alive All Summer 

Charlotte, NC ) — To keep students engaged in learning while on summer break, Discovery Education and select partners have created free dynamic digital resources for students and caregivers to use at home. Discovery Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place. 

The following selection of family activities that connect families to engaging learning experiences anywhere learning is taking place:  

Build the Change: Take the power of play beyond the classroom with collaborative activities that inspire students and families to learn through play by solving creative challenges as a team while exploring their own local environments with these activities from Build the Change, a program by the LEGO Group’s sustainability team. …Read More

Wayside Publishing to Enhance New and Future Products After Acquisition

FREEPORT, Maine – Wayside Publishing®, the fastest-growing, U.S.-based K–12 world languages publisher, announces the acquisition of Lit®, a leading creator of comprehensible input animated video stories. 

Wayside Publishing has been in business since 1988 and creates proficiency-based print and digital world language programs and Comprehension-based Readers™. With a focus on innovation, Wayside continues to expand their range of creative and time-saving technologies for educators—ones that also provide students with engaging and supportive learning-enhancement tools. 

“We will immediately begin using the Lit library of videos to enhance new and future products, and the in-house video production will allow us to create content faster and at a lower cost,” said Wayside President Greg Greuel. “The combination of Lit content with our products will enhance our offerings and add to what our customers have been asking from us.” …Read More

Students and Teachers in Maryland’s Prince George’s County Public Schools Set to Return to Classrooms this Fall with Engaging New Tools from Worldwide Edtech Leader 

Charlotte, NC — Students and teachers in grades K-8 across Maryland’s Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) will return to their classrooms this Fall to find new resources in their high-tech pencil cases thanks to a deepened collaboration with worldwide edtech leader Discovery Education. In the latest phase of this more than 20-year partnership, Discovery Education will provide district elementary and middle school students exciting new digital science textbooks that will help them explore their curiosity about the natural world. In addition, Discovery Education will provide teachers with stimulating professional learning experiences that will help create engaging lessons that prepare students for success beyond the classroom. 

PGCPS is one of the nation’s 20th largest school districts and has 198 schools and centers, more than 131,000 students, and nearly 20,000 employees. The school system serves a diverse student population from urban, suburban, and rural communities located in the Washington, DC suburbs. PGCPS is nationally recognized for college and career-readiness programs that provide all learners with unique learning opportunities, including dual enrollment and language immersion. 

PGCPS seeks to provide all PreK-12 students equitable access to exemplary teachers, science curriculum programming, instructional practices, and standards-based assessments that are reflective of research and best practices. To support this effort, the district’s science curriculum team sought a digital K-8 science resource aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and supportive of improved student achievement and heightened career and college readiness. Following a thorough review of available digital resources, PGCPS selected the  Discovery Education Science Techbooks for use in elementary and middle school classrooms. …Read More

Top edtech at ISTELive 23

With more than 18,000 attendees, this year’s ISTELive 23 in Philadelphia had a little something for everyone, from AI and esports to security solutions and engaging visual displays.

Here’s a look at some of the top edtech the eSchool News editors saw at ISTELive 23:

Acer America and the Network of Academic and Scholastic Esports Federations (NASEF) announced their alliance to help schools launch or expand their student esports program. Through this alliance, NASEF and Acer America will provide the training, coaching modules and course certification for schools to structure, implement and maintain an esports program. Plus, Acer America, the premier hardware provider for NASEF, is paying the $499 esports coaching certification fee for eligible K-12 schools and universities initiating programs in the 2023-24 school year. The coaching certification for the award-winning NASEF platform prepares teams to participate in the program; having Acer America pay this fee could potentially save a school district thousands of dollars.…Read More

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How ChatGPT made my lessons more engaging

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

Much of the education narrative around ChatGPT has focused on the potential downsides of the AI tool (think Skynet from “The Terminator”). But as a high school teacher who has experimented with the sophisticated word predictor app in my economics, U.S. History, and speech and debate classes, I’ve found that ChatGPT provides opportunities to engage the students in class activities. Here’s how I’ve harnessed a tool that is here to stay (no matter how many school districts try to block it). 

I welcomed our first “speaker,” ChatGPT.…Read More

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Lumio and Canva for Education Announce All-New Integration to Bring Immersive Digital Learning to Life

CALGARY, AB – Lumio, the digital learning tool used by millions of teachers and students worldwide, is pleased to announce its integration with Canva for Education. This new integration allows teachers to seamlessly add Canva designs to Lumio, merging the power of Canva’s visual communication platform with Lumio’s ability to add interactivity for engaging, dynamic lessons.  

The integration offers educators’ free access to export and upload Canva lessons, presentations, and other materials into Lumio to create interactive lessons with game-based activities, formative assessments, and more. Educators will also be able to access libraries from both Canva and Lumio to explore thousands of high-quality, ready-made templates and infographics.

“The Lumio team is excited to roll out our integration with Canva for Education,” said Dan McMahon, Lumio Vice President of Software. “This collaboration reinforces our commitment to inspiring creativity, saving teachers’ time, and creating an active learning environment that is accessible and collaborative for all.”…Read More

 Minnesota’s Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop Public Schools’ New Partnership Powers the Creation of Dynamic Digital Learning Environments Supporting Science Education 

Charlotte, NC – Minnesota’s Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop Public Schools (GFW) today announced a new partnership with Discovery Education supporting the creation of engaging science lessons in K-12 classrooms districtwide. In this new multi-year collaboration, educators in every GFW school will integrate Discovery Education’s suite of innovative digital resources into instruction to create dynamic learning experiences that will awaken students’ natural curiosity about science and the natural world. Discovery Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place. 

Nestled in the prairie of south-central Minnesota and serving students from the communities of Gibbon, Fairfax, Winthrop, and surrounding townships, GFW uses progressive technology applications to access educational resources from around the world. Parents cite small class sizes, school-aged childcare, early childhood programs, and co-curricular programs as the desirable features of the school district. With a mission to grow future world-class leaders, GFW aims to provide all learners an equitable and quality education that meets the individual needs of students with future-forward instruction. 

As part of its continuous effort to prepare students for success beyond graduation, GFW sought digital resources that would drive deeper engagement in science. These resources needed to be simple to use, accessible for all teachers and students, easily integrated into the district’s robust science program, and aligned to Minnesota state and NGSS standards.  …Read More

Discovery Education, Caterpillar Foundation, and Learning Undefeated Launch New Initiative to Inspire Next Generation of STEM Professionals

Charlotte, NC – Discovery Education, the Caterpillar Foundation, and Learning Undefeated today announced the launch of a new education initiative – Innovation at Play. This unique program leverages the power of play by using engaging, hands-on digital resources to educate and inspire students in grades 9-12 to consider exciting careers in a variety of STEM professions. 

Innovation at Play provides standards-aligned digital resources that make it easier than ever for educators, after-school instructors, and parents to connect STEM concepts to potential career pathways. Classroom activities, play-inspired lessons, and phenomena-based videos exemplify how curiosity drives STEM solutions while empowering students to learn by doing and seeing. The content will equip students with the right skills and knowledge to pursue STEM careers at home, in the classroom, or wherever learning takes place. 

“The future STEM innovators are sitting in classrooms all across the country. No matter where they are, Innovation at Play will empower students to connect their STEM curiosity with STEM skills to solve problems and secure careers,” said Asha Varghese, Caterpillar Foundation President. …Read More