Brent Fruhwirth has taught social studies at Little Miami High School in Morrow, Ohio, for two decades. He was surprised last year when he was asked to pilot McGraw-Hill Education's LearnSmart, an online study tool, in his American history classes. "At first, I thought they had chosen the wrong person to pilot a technology tool" […]
Nearly 30 percent of U.S. high school students admitted to using a connected device to cheat on a classroom exam or project, according to a recent survey. And 31 percent of U.S. students accessed banned content on the internet, according to "Cybersecurity 101: Teens in the Classroom" a McAfee/MSI International survey of nearly 4,000 high […]
Teachers today have more control over how and when they receive professional development. Whether the learning is self-paced, online or partially in-person, more districts measure PD based on the new skills teachers can display in their classrooms rather than on how long they spend listening to an instructor. For example, veteran social studies teacher Kurt […]
One month before the beginning of the 2017-18 school year, Turlock USD was still short five speech-language pathologists. The salary offered by the Central California district was high by area standards, but even so, the positions remained unfilled. In fact, no one had even applied. Alice Solis, Turlock's director of special education, struggled to hire […]
Ensuring all students have equal access to educational technology—both in the classroom and at home—often requires innovation. Educators can find cost-effective solutions in new technologies such as open-educational resources and by partnering with the business community. "The vast majority of superintendents agree with the premise that digital equity is a problem, but when we ask […]
When Nita Cochran was district math coordinator for Norman Public Schools in Oklahoma, she was looking to help the district's elementary school students improve their mathematical foundation. There are nearly 16,000 students in NPS, which is located in Oklahoma's third-largest city and is also home to the University of Oklahoma. Cochran, who is currently math […]
When Gary Brantley began his career as an IT leader 14 years ago, he primarily provided technical support and made sure the hardware was running. "It had everything to do with techy stuff" he says. Since then, Brantley's role as chief information officer at DeKalb County Schools in Georgia has expanded significantly. He now spends […]
School leaders want more autonomy on how they access and report data. They also have more assets to keep track of when they shift to 1-to-1 learning or other programs that provide students with tech devices. A new wave of software offers automated asset and business management, and provides other services that can monitor help […]
Districts have several options when introducing a badging program. For students, the process tends to be more intricate because these badges, often awarded for soft skills and career-preparation activities, contain metadata that details what students did to earn the badges. Such higher-tech "open badges" can be shared on social media and live on an online […]
