The STEAM-Powered Elementary School: Montour Opens World's First Lego-Themed Brick Makerspace

Pennsylvania's Montour Elementary School stands out even among schools that have embraced STEAM education, the maker movement, hands-on learning and augmented and virtual reality. So when the K–4 school opened the world's first "Brick Makerspace" — a Lego-powered STEAM lab developed and implemented in conjunction with Carnegie Mellon University, Lego Education, parents, students and a local Barnes and Noble — it wasn't just a one-off affair; rather, it was yet another advance in the school's efforts to integrate principles of STEAM education throughout the curriculum.

Paying for Personalized Learning

Just how much does it cost to set up a personalized learning plan for an entire school, and is it really sustainable? Could a typical school budget cover the expense — and what would happen if budget cuts had to be made?

Discovery Selling Majority Stake in Discovery Education

Discovery Communications announced that it's letting go of a majority ownership stake in its K–12 education subsidiary, Discovery Education, whose ed tech portfolio ranges from textbooks to educational multimedia to a major educator network. A private equity firm is picking up a controlling interest in Discovery Education for $120 million.

4 Design Ideas to Create an Engaging and Comfortable Classroom Environment

Teaching isn't just about transferring knowledge to students. It's also important to create an atmosphere in which kids feel understood, comfortable and supported on their educational journey.

Conversation — Not Word Dump — Boosts Children's Brains

A joint Harvard-MIT study has discovered that it's more important to engage young children in back-and-forth conversation for developing their language skills than it is to expose them to as many words as possible.

Minecraft Chemistry Update Goes Live

Minecraft: Education Edition has received a new resource pack designed to let students learn chemistry within the game itself. Resources also include new lessons and activities, a teacher lab book, a downloadable world and community support.

Personalized Learning Is Not about Planting Students Behind Computers

Currently, policies tend to encourage a "one-size-fits-all" model for teacher certification, tracking accountability and placing seat time above competency in measuring learning success. According to a new report, transforming that model and promoting personalized learning will require educators and policymakers to shift how they "think of school."

Smartphone Addiction Is Normal Need to Connect on Overdrive

We stare at our phones all the time not because the devices themselves are addictive, but because we're driven to socialize, according to a recent literature review by researchers at McGill University.

Student Privacy in Surveillance Videos: Standards for Disclosure in Flux

Does giving a parent a copy of a surveillance video showing a school hazing incident involving multiple students violate FERPA? Guidance on the issue has changed.

Wearable Tech Helps Early Learners Improve Language Contact

Whether they're filling in the "30-million-word gap" or increasing the number of "conversational turns" they have with adults, a group of kids at a Virginia childcare center were exposed to an average of 1,100 more words and 59 conversational turns by the time they'd participated in a four-month pilot study. The pilot used a "talking pedometer" that records the conversation a child has.

Report: Four in 10 Top Websites Are Dangerous

Four in 10 of the top websites pose dangers to their visitors. According to cybersecurity vendor Menlo Security, out of the top 100,000 websites as ranked by Alexa, 42 percent are "risky." A risky website is any site where either the homepage or an associated background site is running vulnerable software; the site is known to distribute malware or launch attacks; or the site has already suffered a security breach in the past 12 months.

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