Closing the Digital Divide

A project in North Carolina offers lessons worth learning for your efforts to help students get the technology they need for internet access.

It's Not Online Ed; Call it 'Crisis Teaching'

Nearly the entire American education system had to move online with "little to no preparation." Nobody was fully prepared, not the educators, the parents or the students. That was the description given to what happened when schools closed their doors and turned on their Zoom accounts, according to Future of School, a "public charity" focused on giving students access to quality education.

School Librarian Delivers Books by Drone for Summer Reading

A librarian at Montgomery County Public Schools has introduced book delivery services via drone, to keep kids reading during the summer. Librarian Kelly Passek, a Blacksburg Middle School librarian, pitched district leaders on the idea as a response to school closures related to COVID-19.

Keeping Students Safe and Focused During Distance Learning

With students learning from home due to COVID-19, teaching digital citizenship and choosing secure online tools are more important now than ever.

The Lesson of COVID-19: Learning at School and Learning at Home Must Be Seamless

The COVID-19 disruption caught K-12 unprepared and issuing packets of paper, the March solution, won’t work in the Fall. Learning must be continuous, seamless, regardless of location. Time for schools to join the 21st century and use digital curricula. In this week’s blog, we describe classrooms in Michigan that seamlessly weathered the COVID-19 disruption.

Toolkit Offers Facility Ideas for Safe School Reopening

The report was developed with input from a number of design and urban planning organizations, all of whom envisioned how to get people into the facility and help them move around without a lot of physical proximity.

New Report Guides States on Helping Deliver Digital Learning

How can states support their schools' efforts to deliver digital learning? That’s the topic of a new report from SETDA, the State Educational Technology Directors Association, an organization for technology leaders at state levels. The report defined digital learning as "any learning powered by technology," whether inside or outside of the classroom.

NEA Predicts 20 Percent Decline in Education Workforce

The largest labor union in the country, the National Education Association, has estimated that the United States could lose 1.9 million education jobs unless Congress delivers additional funding for states and localities to bolster support for schools.

Experts Weigh In: How to Reopen Schools Safely

A team of clinicians, scientists and educators has examined the issues involved in helping schools prevent the spread of COVID-19. Among the essentials that will be required: "large-scale" viral testing in students, appropriate communications and robust contact tracing.

7 Steps for Sending Kids Back to School

Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham institute, outlines steps for sending "elementary kids back to school and parents back to work."

900 San Diego Students to Get Always-Connected PCs

A grant from Qualcomm Technologies, a San Diego-area company, will enable the San Diego Unified School District to deploy 900 new personal computers to students. What's unique is that the units have built-in cellular connectivity. The company has also committed to a one-time $141,000 donation to cover the cellular connectivity costs for the devices.

AP Teachers: 'Go with Hybrid, Please'

Nearly half of Advanced Placement teachers believe schools should be implementing a hybrid approach.

Updated: Free Resources for Schools During COVID-19 Outbreak

In response to the number of states, districts and schools that are shuttering schools to students in response to fears about the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), education technology companies have stepped forward to help educators reach students in virtual ways. (Updated June 24)

Updated: Free WiFi for Online Learning During COVID-19

Refer your families to these services to help them keep up with school work.

Guide Lays Road to School Reopenings

The National Labor Management Partnership Coalition, a loose group of education organizations, has issued a short report to help schools plan their reopening in the fall. The seven-page guide advised the use of a "collaboration matrix" involving administrators, district staff and teachers and community members for decision-making.

KinderLab Bundles Curriculum for Teaching Screen-Free Robotics Remotely

An education technology company that produces a robot for use by early learners has developed resources to help teachers prepare for fall classes that could be held remotely. KinderLab Robotics is the maker of KIBO, a robot that can be programmed by young students without the use of a screen and with the use of wooden blocks.

Educators Feeling Stressed, Anxious, Overwhelmed and Capable

More than nine in 10 teachers (94 percent) shifted to remote teaching in response to school closures. While most of those teachers that haven't transitioned to online teaching (another 4 percent) intended to do so, among the tiny share that haven't and won't, the primary reasons they gave were tied to lack of access to technology and lack of support at home for their students. More than half in that position (55 percent) said they were handing out paper materials to parents for students to use at home.

Video & Lecture Capture App Updated to Record Zoom/Teams Sessions

Lecture capture and video management company Sonic Foundry has updated and renamed its Mediasite desktop recorder program. The new app, Mediasite Mosiac, enables users to manage and upload collaborative recordings from Zoom, Microsoft Teams and other video and web conference systems as well as create video communications.

YouTube Rises Above All Else in Student Learning at Home

During the pandemic, an education technology company found that YouTube dominated student traffic on school-managed devices — accounting for more time online than all of the other top-10 most-used domains combined.

7 Steps to Making Your School’s Website Accessible to All

With districts around the country relying on their websites to convey essential information to their communities, accessibility is more important than ever.

CTE School Offers Free Summer Online Esports Camp

An online public high school is planning for a free summer camp that delivers coding lessons in the morning for students and then runs esports lessons in the afternoon for those same students.

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