THE Journal Remote Learning Environments
Strategies for supporting education beyond the traditional classroom 12/8/2021

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Ed Tech News


  • December Deadlines Looming for 15 NSTA Teacher, Student Awards

    Deadlines are nearing for 15 awards and grants from the National Science Teacher Association for K–12 teachers and students in the sciences. There are 14 teacher awards open for applications/nominations and one award open to female students in grades 5–8. The deadlines for most are Dec. 15, 2021, with the remaining deadlines being December 17.

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  • Competition Promotes Learning to Code with Music Remixing

    Amazon Future Engineer is working with Georgia Tech and Pharrell Williams' nonprofit YELLOW in a new K-12 competition intended to push students to understand how music, computer science and entrepreneurship can be tools used to advance equity.

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  • Grant Spotlight: $500 for Classroom Supplies, Materials and Equipment

    The application window is now open for the 2022 Association of American Educators Foundation Classroom Grant. The program will award multiple $500 grant to classroom educators to be used for supplies, software, lab materials, AV equipment, books and other materials.

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  • Coding Class for Kids Available Through Dec. 12

    CodeWizardsHQ, a leading online coding school for kids ages 8–18, is celebrating Computer Science Education Week by offering a special introductory class for kids that also benefits their schools’ parent-teacher organizations.

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  • Future of Online Learning the Focus at OLC Innovate Conference; Spring Dates Announced

    The Online Learning Consortium has announced its Innovate 2022 Conference, a joint conference presented by OLC and MERLOT, will be held virtually March 28 – April 1, 2022, and onsite in Dallas, April 11–14, where thousands of educators and innovators are invited to help shape the future of online, digital, and blended learning.

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  • Department of Ed and CDC Release District COVID Dashboard

    Two federal agencies have released a new COVID-19 dashboard to publicize how the virus is hitting K-12 schools. The new dashboard, produced by the U.S. Department of Education and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), aggregates data on pediatric COVID-19 cases, youth vaccination rates and numbers on schools that are operating in-person, hybrid or remote.

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  • Mockingbird Foundation Music Grant Deadline Nears

    Educators have about a month left to submit inquiries for a program that awards grants for innovative music programs of up to $10,000.

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  • ELA Standards Address Digital Texts

    The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has gone public with its new standards for educators who are preparing to teach English language arts (ELA) in grades 7–12. Those standards, approved in July, include understanding how students learn from digital media.

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  • Instructure to Acquire Kimono

    The maker of learning management system Canvas, Instructure, has entered into a deal to acquire Kimono, which produces software for cloud-based data integration and interoperability.

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  • Minecraft Ed Edition Releases Free Hour of Code Lesson

    Minecraft Education Edition has released a new, free Hour of Code. "Timecraft" lets students learn basic coding concepts while correcting "mysterious mishaps" throughout history.

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  • Report: It's Time to Get the 'COVID Generation' Back in School

    A team of education specialists at UNICEF, the children's representative at the United Nations, is making a big push for measures that can help kids get back to school globally.

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  • Middle School Challenge Encourages Career Exploration

    To encourage middle-schoolers to explore future careers, a national nonprofit is running a competition in which student participants tackle big problems. The challenge is being run by American Student Assistance (ASA), which works on helping students understand college and career pathways, in partnership with the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE).

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  • NetSupport Classroom Management Updated

    A company that produces network and cloud-based technology for K-12 has enhanced its classroom management product. NetSupport, which develops classroom.cloud, said the newest release gives greater control to teachers over certain device components and offers additional safety features.

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  • PowerSchool to Acquire SEL Provider Kickboard

    Education technology company PowerSchool has announced it will acquire Kickboard, which produces K-12 education behavior management software, to help educators manage social emotional learning (SEL) and multi-tiered systems of support.

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  • SAS and Sphero Address Coding Needs of Students with Visual Impairments

    Data analytics company SAS and education technology company Sphero are working together to bring data analytics and robot coding — along with soft skills — to students with visual impairments.

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  • SETDA Recognizes Tech Leaders for Education

    SETDA, a membership association of U.S. state and territorial educational technology leaders, honored three individuals for their contributions to the use and support of technology in K-12 education.

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  • STEM Brief Steers Teachers on Confronting Racism in Science Teaching

    A new STEM teaching brief offers guidance on dismantling institutional and system racism in the K-12 science classroom. Published by the Institute for Science + Math Education at the University of Washington College of Education, the short report pointed out that teachers play a big role in changing the "racist legacies of STEM and schooling," through a combination of "examining [their] own prejudices" and embedding racial justice into their instructional practices.

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  • Tennessee Commits $200 Million to Student Tutoring

    More than half of the school districts in Tennessee have signed on to participate in a tutoring program designed to mitigate learning loss and help accelerate student achievement. The program, the Tennessee Accelerating Literacy and Learning Corps (TN ALL Corps), will consume some $200 million in federal education stimulus funding over the next three years and is expected to benefit 50,000 students in the first year.

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  • THE Journal 2021 New Product Award Winners Announced

    The awards honor the outstanding product development achievements of manufacturers and suppliers whose products or services are considered to be particularly noteworthy in the transformation of education technology.

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  • Twig Ed Intros New Middle School Science Lessons

    Education technology company Twig Education has produced a new version of STEM curriculum for grades 6-8. Twig Middle School Science Next Gen features, among other resources, videos of scientists around the world, filmed on location, as they share their areas of expertise, including in subjects such as mechanical engineering, food sustainability, volcano eruptions and space exploration.

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  • Gale Distributing IMAGO SEL Curriculum

    Library provider Gale is partnering with IMAGO, another education technology company, to distribute a set of online services for K-12. Gale Presents: IMAGO, as it's called, provides video-based social and emotional learning (SEL) and career readiness. The curriculum is intended to be used with students in grades 5-12.

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