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.

Optoma Introduces Creative Touch 3-Series Interactive Flat Panel Displays   

FREMONT, CA – Optoma, a world-leading manufacturer of pioneering visual solutions, today introduced the new Creative Touch 3-Series Interactive Flat Panel Displays (IFPDs), featuring improved functionality and added interactive features designed to meet the evolving needs of education and corporate environments. Available in 65″, 75″ and 86″ formats, the Creative Touch 3-Series IFPDs include intuitive and user-friendly software, including an enhanced Whiteboard for effortless 1-to-1 collaboration whether in remote, in-person, or hybrid environments across classrooms, lecture halls, boardrooms, and other professional settings. 

With the new Optoma IFPDs, users can work together seamlessly in-person or in real time from home by accessing their content through the Optoma Solution Suite (OSS)™, a proprietary software stack consisting of the cloud-based Whiteboard, Display Share, and File Manager.   

Whiteboard provides users with an infinity canvas, floating toolbar, and annotation tools for endless, creative lesson opportunities. Educators can sync their cloud accounts, such as Google Classroom, for convenient lesson planning from anywhere and access their materials from any Creative Touch IFPD on campus. For remote lessons or in hybrid sessions, educators have the option of writing on the board while their students have a real time view of the annotations, either via one other Creative Touch display or online, valuable for use cases such as hiding quiz answers for later discussion. Users can also conveniently embed browser pages for easy dragging and dropping of image and video content into the canvas for smoother, uninterrupted lessons.   …Read More

Here’s how to protect schools from cyberattacks in 2024

Key points:

Identity theft and data breaches are on the rise and K-12 schools are one of the biggest targets. In fact, from 2016 through 2022, there have been more than 1,600 publicly reported cybersecurity-related incidents at K-12 public schools, affecting millions of current and former students. And now in 2024, it’s reaching a crisis point. Exposure of private information can have long-term impacts for not only schools, but for the students they serve. 

It’s why the nation is now taking a closer look at data vulnerabilities in K-12 schools. In late 2023, the Federal Communications Commission proposed a $200 million program to gather data on schools’ cybersecurity and firewalls, to examine how we can best protect students, teachers and schools. It’s largely in response to the recent influx of ransomware gangs targeting K-12 schools. As cyberattacks against schools continue to increase in severity, schools must take it upon themselves to implement extra protections against online threats. …Read More

K-12 edtech survey notes growth obstacles attributed to insufficient leadership depth

Key points:

The latest national survey conducted by the Edtech Leadership Collective has identified a stark misalignment in expectations when it comes to emerging leaders’ readiness to reach the executive suite. For a second year in a row, very few C-level executives (9 percent) expressed confidence in their ability to hire from within for executive team vacancies. In contrast, one out of two (58 percent) of Department Heads fell they are ready for the executive suite.

The gap in confidence regarding management depth comes at a time when 78 percent of C-suite leaders consider the work of their non-executive leaders to be critical to their company’s success. However, C-suite leaders also acknowledge they have fallen short on providing mentoring, constructive feedback, and clearly defined paths to advancement.…Read More

Summarized transcription versus real-time captioning: What’s best?

Key points:

In recent years, the education sector has rapidly adopted captioning, driven not only by its positive impact on comprehension and inclusive learning but also by the necessity of adhering to accessibility standards and providing accommodations for diverse learning styles.

While K-12 schools and higher-ed institutions have spent considerable effort adhering to accessibility standards (and should be applauded for that effort), one in four lawsuits in education center around accessibility. Thus, the focus on captioning–a requirement in K-12 and higher education–has intensified.…Read More

Advancing educational equity with UDL and generative AI

Key points:

As we all struggle down the path toward true educational inclusion, we are confronted with four pillars of equity as described by Rochelle Guiterize: Access, Success, Power and Identity.

Educators with a mind towards equity typically excel at access. Opening doors to all students is an obvious move. However, we must continually push systems so that all students are able to be successful in spaces where they have ownership and feel a sense of belonging (identity). Otherwise, equity and inclusion are still just a dream. …Read More

In 2024, education will move to adopt AI—but slowly

Key points:

In education, we tend to move pretty slowly when it comes to adopting new technology, and that pattern won’t change with artificial intelligence (AI). In the coming year, early adopters will continue to play with new AI tools to see how they can be used in education. They will have some amazing successes—and some failures—as they light the way forward and the rest of us endlessly discuss the potential uses and abuses of AI in our classrooms.

Here is a bit about why we’ll have to wrestle with AI, the barriers we will face in adopting it in the coming year, and a few resources to help educators begin exploring AI.…Read More

CASEL Announces 2023 Social and Emotional Learning Leaders of the Year (SELLY) Awards

CHICAGO – CASEL announced the recipients of the 2023 SELLY Awards, honoring outstanding achievements of seven “Social and Emotional Learning Leaders of the Year” in the categories of research, practice, and public policy. The annual awards recognize individuals whose body of work and commitment to social and emotional learning (SEL) have advanced the field and paved the way for others.

“The social and emotional learning movement is built by people who have spent their time, energy, and passion working together to create optimal outcomes for students. These awards pay tribute to pioneering SEL leaders and honor today’s education innovators dedicated to enhancing the lives of youth across the nation,” said CASEL President and CEO, Dr. Aaliyah A. Samuel. 

This year, CASEL recognizes seven individuals: …Read More

You’re my hero

Key points:

I’ve always hated being put on the spot to answer some version of this question: “Who is your role model?  Who inspired your career?  Who is your hero?”

In my first act in life, as a television reporter, I had the opportunity to cross paths with celebrities, public figures, and just generally “important” people over the years.  And nearly every time, I was disappointed with by the experience because either the person was not as dynamic as their persona or, in some cases, was simply rude. I have a great relationship with my parents and credit them for many, many aspects of my life; one thing they taught me was hero status is a high bar because we’re all fallible humans.…Read More

Schools have struggled to add learning time after COVID–here’s how one district did it

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

It was just after 2:30 p.m. on a recent Wednesday, and the school stage hadn’t yet transformed into a reading room.

Christopher VanderKuyl, an assistant principal in Chicago’s west suburbs, hurriedly dragged brown folding chairs across the wood floor. He made a mental note to figure out who’d rearranged the furniture.…Read More