COVID-19 Coverage for Education and Technology


Federal Program to Reimburse Schools for Devices, Hotspots, Home Broadband

The Federal Communications Commission has finalized rules for a $7.17 billion program that will reimburse schools for 100% of the “reasonable” cost of equipment and services to give students the access to technology they need for remote and hybrid learning.

Students Get Mobile During Remote Learning

Students have been moving around quite a bit during remote learning — sometimes studying at friends houses, sometimes studying from multiple states.

Education After COVID

As virtual learning is continuously being evaluated, there is a need to look back to life before the 2020 pandemic to see if there has always been a need for virtual learning and compare it to the reality of today.

Study: Device Quality Impacts Remote Learning

Broadband access and speed aren’t the only technological concerns for students engaged in remote and hybrid learning. The quality of the student device itself also plays a key role, according to a new study.

Edsby Adds Teams and Zoom Integration

Edsby, a learning management system designed for K–12, has released an update that adds support for Zoom and Microsoft Teams video, whiteboarding and chat.

Distance Learning Grant to Award $44.5 Million in Funding

The United States Department of Agriculture is awarding grants ranging from $50,000 to $1 million to organizations supporting distance learning and telemedicine in rural communities. The deadline for this competitive grant program is June 4.

Landmark Study Calls for Increased Bandwidth for At-Home Learning

The current FCC definition of home broadband — 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds — is inadequate for at-home learning, according to researchers who conducted a first-of-its-kind study of district data for students engaged in remote learning.

Report: COVID Learning Loss Beginning to Shrink

A new report using data from 3.8 million students reveals that, in large part, students are performing near pre-pandemic expectation levels in reading, in particular in elementary grades, while they lag a bit more in math. But students in middle school are performing poorly as measured against pre-pandemic expectations, as are students who are members of underrepresented and at-risk populations.

Google Classroom Getting Integration with Clever

Starting this summer, Clever will be providing automated rostering for Google Classroom. Clever provides a single sign-in portal, roster syncing and other services used by 65% of K–12 schools in the United States.

Flexible IT Infrastructure for an Evolving Education Environment

As education institutions aim to become more flexible to meet modern demands, teachers will continue operating under hybrid learning models — making the need for disruption-free virtual lessons and network access all the more critical. To best accommodate these needs, investing in a flexible IT infrastructure that can support remote-learning, especially as our country undergoes one of the most pivotal time periods in history, will be an important factor.

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