THE Journal Remote Learning Environment
Strategies for supporting education beyond the traditional classroom
2/8/2023
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Spotlight

  • Paint a Picture Through Coding

    The top 20 most in-demand skills required by U.S. organizations are all computer-science based. Industries globally continue to voice their concern over the lack of tech skills among high school and college graduates. The skills gap is so large that with the right skills, students can almost walk out of school and into a highly lucrative career.

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ViewpoinT & TRENDS

  • Study: Music Education Benefits Adolescents’ Wellbeing

    A study published in January 2023 by the University of Southern California (USC) in the journal “Frontiers in Psychology” on the impact of music education showed that middle school students gained not only cognitive benefits, but a greater sense of wellbeing in the five key areas of Positive Youth Development (PYD). The study’s findings come at a time when California voters have recently approved Proposition 28, to increase funding for arts and music education in the state’s public schools.

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  • AI to Experience Massive Growth in Education

    Artificial intelligence will experience more than a tenfold growth in the education sector over the next eight years. According to a new forecast by P&S Intelligence, expenditures for AI by schools will grow from $2.13 billion in 2022 to $25.77 billion in 2030.

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  • College and Career Readiness Report Shows Distinct Gender Gap

    College and career readiness company YouScience has released its “Post Graduation Readiness Report Part II,” which reveals that while 44% of female high school students showed aptitude for careers in architecture and engineering, they showed 0% interest in them when interest-based, instead of aptitude-based, tools were used to gauge student talents, abilities, and pathways.

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  • Is ChatGPT Writing Your Students' Homework? A New Technology Will Be Able to Detect It

    AI writers like ChatGPT can often produce work that is, at least on first glance, indistinguishable from human writing. With a simple prompt like "write an essay on symbolism in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness," ChatGPT can spit out an organized, coherent, expository essay in seconds. And no two essays will be identical.

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  • Rethinking How We Teach Math: Three Tips for Better Long-term Retention

    Students need to learn not only math shortcuts, processes, and formulas — they also must learn the underlying concepts behind them. Students need a deeper conceptual understanding of math so they can transfer their knowledge to new contexts and are less prone to making mistakes. They also need more time for learning math in school and more focus on long-term retention.

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  • Schools Must Adopt the Science of Math

    With so-called learning loss from the pandemic continuing to harm students, schools can't just return to normal methods of teaching math. Fortunately, researchers have a strong understanding of how people learn math, just as they did with the now widely accepted science of reading. However, that understanding is taking too long to filter into classroom instruction.

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Ed Tech News

  • New Free Tool for Teachers Can Detect ChatGPT-Generated Student Work, Nonprofit Creators Say

    Education technology nonprofits Quill.org and CommonLit.org have launched AIWritingCheck.org to help teachers determine whether writing was human- or AI-generated text, the organizations said in a news release.

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  • Acer Showcases a Host of New Desktops and Laptops

    At the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2023, computer company Acer announced many new desktops, laptops, monitors, and other gear, several of which may be of interest to educational institutions for their capabilities.

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  • $690K in Grants to Be Awarded to Help Schools Support LGBT Youth

    The LGBT-focused nonprofit It Gets Better Project has opened its grant program that will award $10,000 grants to 50 schools in the United States, as well as additional grants to schools in Canada, to help support LGBT youth. The deadline is March 15.

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  • Meet MathGPT: a Chatbot Tutor Built Specific to a Math Textbook

    PhotoStudy, an on-demand 1:1 tutoring solution developed by Hung Tran in 2015, said it can now transform any math textbook by any publisher into a “MathGPT” chatbot that works similarly to the groundbreaking ChatGPT tool making headlines in recent weeks.

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  • TCEA 2023: Epson Unveils Next-Generation Lamp-Free Laser Displays

    Epson has debuted several new displays at the 2023 TCEA conference, focusing on enhanced collaboration for education and business. Included are several lamp-free laser projector displays in the PowerLite and BrightLink lines.

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  • LG Unveils CreateBoard, New Ed Tech Solutions, and Expanded Training Programs

    LG Business Solutions unveiled its newest product, CreateBoard, along with other ed tech, and announced expanded training programs through its LG Academy at the 2023 Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC) in New Orleans. The academy includes a new course on using the CreateBoard, which will be followed by more comprehensive courses.

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  • TCEA 2023: Incident IQ Launches iiQ Events Solution and Unveils iiQ Facilities Enhancements

    K–12 workflow management platform Incident IQ has unveiled a new event planning solution called iiQ Events, intended to help staff manage location availability and requests, secure necessary equipment and ensure set-up is completed prior to events, and match workforce availability to event needs.

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  • TCEA 2023: Samsung Unveils Free Educator Community Platform Coming Soon

    Samsung Electronics America is offering TCEA 2023 attendees this week a sneak peek at the new Samsung Education Community Platform expected to launch soon, saying it “will offer educators an online discussion forum, access to peer and expert coaching, and free, self-paced professional development courses, enabling them to develop new strategies for leveraging technology that can enhance classroom engagement and learning outcomes for all students."

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  • TCEA 2023: SMART Rolls Out 2 Multi-User Interactive Displays

    SMART Technologies has debuted two new multi-user interactive displays, the SMART Board MX (V4) and the SMART Board GX (V2). The displays are designed to "allow multiple users to freely write, erase, and gesture at the same time, across platforms and applications." The announcement was made at the 2023 TCEA Convention & Exposition, taking place this week in San Antonio, TX.

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  • Lexia Intros Self-Paced Digital Program for Grade 4-8 Educators Teaching Literacy Skills

    Literacy company Lexia has introduced Lexia Aspire Professional Learning to help educators of grade 4-8 students teach literacy skills, focusing on helping them transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” Aspire Professional Learning is digital, self-paced, and flexible. It expands on Lexia’s existing LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) program, which teaches the fundamentals of reading instruction. The Aspire program aims to equip educators with the knowledge and skills to support varying levels of literacy competency in their classrooms, the company said.

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  • Beanstack Unveils Revamped Admin Dashboard

    Beanstack this week unveiled new features for K–12 administrators, teachers, and librarians to enable them to monitor students’ weekly reading progress, create classroom challenges and more in an effort to “grow a culture of reading” at users’ schools, the company said.

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  • Ozobot Classroom Integrated With Canvas LMS

    Ozobot, maker of programmable robotics and STEAM-based learning solutions for K–12, has integrated its Ozobot Classroom with Instructure’s Canvas learning management system — enabling quicker and seamless access for educators using Canvas quicker access to Ozobot Classroom content that is ready to use, the company said.

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  • TCEA 2023: AVer Debuts All-in-One Camera with AI Audio for Classrooms

    AVer USA, a provider of video collaboration and education technology solutions, debuted at TCEA 2023 its new all-in-one camera with AI audio built for K–12 classrooms, called the A30​, combining a document camera, web camera, microphone, and speaker.

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  • ParentSquare Launches Smart Sites, Acquires Gabbart Comm

    School-home communications provider ParentSquare has acquired Gabbart Communications, the developer of the Harmony content management system and the Campus Life app for parent and community engagement.

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  • Scribbles Software Launches New Features for K–12 School District Enrollment and Records

    Online school records management company Scribbles Software has upgraded its system with several new features to make it easier for K–12 schools, districts, and families to manage enrollment, transfers, school choice and other data. They have also streamlined the system to be faster and more responsive, the company said in a release.

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  • Sora Extra Connects Students to Interactive Reading Resources

    OverDrive Education is piloting Sora Extra, a new feature added to the Sora reading app that allows students to connect to interactive reading resources from teachingbooks.net. The announcement was made at the 2023 TCEA Convention & Exposition, taking place this week in San Antonio, TX.

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  • South Carolina Adopts Experiential Digital Science Techbook for High School Biology

    The Discovery Education Science Techbook’s high school biology course, designed to align with state standards, “offers a unique and engaging three-dimensional learning experience that aligns with S.C. College & Career-Ready Science Standards” through both print and digital editions, providing classroom flexibility for educators seeking to grow student engagement.

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  • Stride Launches Teacher-Staffed Tutoring Platform for Schools, Families

    Online education and curriculum provider Stride has launched Stride Tutoring, a high-dosage tutoring platform that requires every tutor to be an active, state-certified teacher, now available for grades 7–12 nationwide, the company said in a news release.

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  • TCEA 2023: Epson Shows Off New 4K Enhanced PowerLite L Series Out Soon

    Epson this week announced plans for new higher resolution 4K versions of its PowerLite L Series projectors, which are on display at TCEA 2023 and will be available in March, according to a news release.

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  • Vector Solutions Offers 100+ ‘Inclusive Instruction & Interventions’ Courses

    Recognizing that the COVID-19 pandemic has left many students with mental and emotional traumas creating challenges to their learning, information technology company Vector Solutions has launched “Inclusive Instruction & Interventions” courses to help educators who feel unprepared for how best to help their students.

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  • Young Scientist Challenge Program Applications Open

    3M and Discovery Education have announced open applications for the annual 3M Young Scientist Challenge and a new Alumni Network and Alumni Grants Program.

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  • Call for Speakers Open for Tech Tactics in Education: Data and IT Security in the New Now

    Coming to Orlando, FL, Nov. 7-9, 2023, the new conference from Campus Technology and THE Journal will focus on cybersecurity and data practices across K–20 education.

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Professional Resources

How a High School Class on the History of Poison & Murder Explains the Case for CBE

icons representing podcast and a bottle of poison

THE Journal Insider podcast guest Todd Ryckman of Cypher Learning explains how an unusual high school class at a Wisconsin public school using the competency-based education model of education makes a great mini-case study for how public schools could shake things up by embracing CBE – and make an enormous impact on student engagement and learning outcomes in the process. Listen to the podcast.

1-Minute Demo: Tract App

YouTube icon, THE Journal logo, Tract logo

The co-founder of Tract app, a free content-creation platform for classrooms, gives a quick intro to how Tract's standards-aligned educator guides can make a teacher's life a little easier. Watch on YouTube.

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