New Theories in Classroom Management in the Age of Distance Learning

Managing classrooms in today’s distance-learning environment has changed and has taken on new importance since the pandemic hit.

Free Resources to Help with Remote Learning in 2021

As the pandemic continues wreaking havoc in education through the current school year, districts, schools, teachers and parents are being more selective about the technology they choose for instructing and engaging students. While hundreds of education companies, nonprofits and other organizations made their software and services free during the immediate switch to remote learning, many have become more thoughtful about how they help educators master online and blended instruction. We've winnowed through our original collection and sprinkled additions throughout, to bring you this updated set of free resources to help with remote learning in 2021.

Learning Loss Hit K–8 Hard from Fall 2019 to Fall 2020

New research has confirmed that students in grades K-8 are experiencing learning loss in math and reading due to COVID-19 disruptions.

A Day in the Life of an Assistant Superintendent During Distance Learning

Here’s how a district leader stays connected with her community, her students and herself.

9 Policy Priorities for Closing the Digital Divide

A nonprofit that promotes "open, affordable, high-quality broadband connections" has issued a roadmap for 2021, laying out what it will be pursuing in its mission of supplying internet access to an estimated 42 million unconnected people in the United States.

Pandemic Has Changed Main Challenges of School Counselors

For once, the number of students an individual school counselor is responsible for advising wasn't the overwhelming choice when they were asked to examine their day-to-day challenges. Many more school counselors responded that the big obstacles were getting access to students in a virtual environment (cited by 68 percent) and providing counseling and lessons to students in a virtual environment (mentioned by 62 percent). Just a little over half (53 percent) said managing a high caseload was either "challenging" or "extremely challenging." And 51 percent said it was a continual challenge to close "opportunity and achievement gaps."

Preschoolers Losing Learning Opportunities in Pandemic

K-12 students aren't the only ones who have experienced learning loss due to the pandemic. According to new research, children ages 3 to 5 have also lost important learning opportunities over the last year.

United States Invests $1.3 Trillion in Ed

In terms of overall spend, the United States tops every other country in education, investing $1.3 trillion across all levels. That's more than seven times the next top contender, Germany, which spends $189.4 billion on education. However, we're only number 8 in terms of education spending as a percentage of the gross domestic product.

The Equity Cycle: Anti-Racist, Diverse and Inclusive Digital Education

In education, we love hot new buzz words. And recently, equity has become very popular with not many understanding what it entails or how to unpack it. In this session, let’s start an authentic conversation on how to unpack anti-racist, anti-bias, diverse, and inclusive education.

G Suite for Ed Gets New Name and Pile of New Features

Google announced a spate of changes to its education offerings, including a renaming of its education bundle of productivity applications and a limit to free storage for schools and colleges.

Electric School Buses to Add WiFi

Starting now, electric school buses from IC Bus, a subsidiary of Navistar, will be adding WiFi as a standard feature, in a new agreement with Kajeet, a company that produces devices for internet access in education.

E-rate Opens Latest Application Window Even as Educators Push for Program Expansion

The latest E-rate application filing window has opened and will close at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Mar. 25, 2021. This will be the 24th year that the program, run by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), has funded communications technology for schools and libraries. This year's program introduces a few tweaks, meant to address equity and streamline the application process. But what's left unfunded are some of the larger wishlist items put forward by the education sector to address the digital divide.

Google Expects 40 New Chromebooks This Year

Google just announced that the education world would see 40 new Chromebooks along with accessibility improvements during this year.

New Tools Will Measure Impact of Play on Child Development

An international effort is setting out to come up with new ways to help educators and others measure the impact of play on learning and child development.

Library of Congress Finishes Digitizing of Presidential Collections

The world's largest library, the Library of Congress, has finished digitization of the collections of papers from 23 early presidents, from George Washington to Calvin Coolidge. The work has taken nearly two decades of effort, and the results — 3.3 million images — are openly available online.

Microsoft Intros New Windows 10 Computers for Students

Microsoft recently announced a set of low-cost student computing devices from several vendors, updated its student pen and introduced an update to Microsoft Teams.

Nearpod to Be Acquired by Renaissance

Renaissance is adding to its portfolio of ed tech companies with the acquisition of Nearpod.

New Online School Offers AI Courses for Ages 7–18

A company has begun publishing online courses to help students learn about artificial intelligence. AI World School, launched by a company that produces robotics products for education, has developed a set of classes appropriate for three age ranges: 7 to 10, 11 to 13 and 14 and older.

PBS Adds Curated Smithsonian Content to Free LearningMedia

Racism and 'Dog Man' Dominate Top New Downloads in K–12

While Diary of a Wimpy Kid books may dominate in downloads when students are looking for digital books to read, Harry Potter books top the list when they want to listen to stories.

UNESCO Promotes Safe Reopening of Schools; Putting Teachers Up Front for Vaccines

UNESCO, the United Nations agency responsible for education, and Education International, the global federation of education unions, has made a plea for schools worldwide to reopen "safely" and to keep them open "as long as possible."

Distribution Deal Will Expand Reach for Learning with Climate Action Kit

A Canadian company that has created a kit to help students do climate projects" has found a distributor that will make it available in other countries too. InkSmith has signed a global distribution agreement to sell its Climate Action Kit with Farnell, which distributes electronic components.

Free Middle School Unit Explores COVID-19 and Health

Two organizations that want to transform science education to be more effective have released a beta version of a new instructional unit on COVID-19 and health. The free lessons from OpenSciEd and BSCS Science Learning are intended to help students learn how people help end pandemics.

Microsoft Immersive Reader Now Freely Available in Canvas LMS

Instructure, which produces the learning management system Canvas, recently announced that it is making Immersive Reader from Microsoft freely available in its application.

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