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A quick look at some of the latest edtech innovations

2016 will be another year of investigating the helpful ways education technology affects literacy and language classrooms. From increased ease in developing personalized curriculum to entertaining classroom gamification for an upcoming generation of digital natives, technology can help students and teachers manage time more effectively and accelerate quality learning. According to the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), an impressive 91% of administrators say that effective use of edtech is critical to their mission of high student achievement, and 89% of teachers agree that technology improves student outcomes. Here are some upcoming technology programs to get excited about in the coming year:

Learning Upgrade’s Teacher Upgrade
Learning Upgrade now offers Teacher Upgrade —whole-class interactive whiteboard courses that make lessons convenient, rigorous, and collaborative for teachers. Launched in November 2015, the courses offer a new way for teachers to engage with an entire class of students through interactive, whole-class activities accompanied by differentiated individual lessons. Each lesson incorporates songs, videos, and games that engage even the most reluctant students. Teachers play the lessons using a computer and a data projector or interactive whiteboard, such as a SMART Board or Promethean board. Students solve problems by pressing buttons or moving objects on the screen with a pen or finger. The new Teacher Upgrade lessons help a wide variety of students—including special needs students and English learners—reach mastery at their grade levels. The program includes more than 500 standards-aligned lessons. With quick access to lessons that cover every standard, teachers don’t have to search for content and can focus more time on effective teaching.

Kids Discover Online
Kids Discover has launched Kids Discover Online, a digital collection of its entire library of nonfiction resources for elementary and middle school learners, offering three different Lexile reading levels for grades 3–8. In addition to its 1,000+ science and social studies lessons, educators can manage their students’ reading levels through the Classroom tool, and can also build cross-curricular lessons by mixing and matching content from across the library. The collection encourages students to engage in inquiry-based learning with features like Discover Map, an interactive concept map that demonstrates the linkages between different units and topics across the library. The platform is web-based and optimized for screens as large as a whiteboard and as small as a mobile phone. Whether districts have implemented 1:1 programs using tablets or Chromebooks or have chosen a BYOD approach, Kids Discover Online provides high-interest nonfiction resources that students can view on the devices of their choice.

Coolcher
Coolcher is a virtual classroom platform that connects kids to online courses taught by teachers from around the world. These teachers bring not just their knowledge, but also their cultural backgrounds to help expand students’ worldviews. Every course has the dual objective of teaching students subjects—including language, arts, design, music, dance, and STEM—and imparting cultural knowledge. For example, imagine a German language course where, in every class, the teacher talks about the history and culture of a different German-speaking town as she teaches the language. The classes are live and interactive, and students get a chance to ask questions. Kids from all around the country—and perhaps even the world—can interact and learn not just from the teacher but also by exchanging information among themselves. The platform also connects homeschoolers with other students, including other homeschoolers, who are taking the online classes at the same time.

Let’s Talk!
Let’s Talk! from K12 Insight, is a cloud-based technology accessible by website or mobile device. Its simple, intuitive interface enables community members, including students and parents, to quickly reach out to and engage school leaders on critical issues. School leaders, for their part, can easily respond to stakeholder concerns, using the system’s reporting tools and backend dashboard to track response times, gauge community engagement, and make smarter decisions based on real-time conversations. It enables school district leaders to manage and respond to social media, identify risks, and build stronger, more productive relationships with parents, teachers, students, and staff. Community members submit feedback—comments, questions, or concerns—through a custom button on the school or district’s website, or via social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram). Intelligent software immediately routes each comment to the appropriate staff member to facilitate a timely response. On the backend, school district leaders have access to a dashboard that tracks the stage and status of each interaction. Now superintendents and others can easily see who’s engaging their districts, know what’s on their minds, and flag issues or potential threats that demand immediate attention. Robust reporting tools, including printable graphs and charts, help district leaders leverage every instance of community feedback to improve customer satisfaction, address critical issues quickly, and make smart, informed decisions.

Knomadix
Knomadix helps schools effectively transition from static lessons to a dynamic, interactive digital curriculum on tablets and laptops. The software makes creating immersive, customized learning experiences for students as easy as point-and-click. Since it automatically captures assessment data, teachers can make timely and informed decisions on how to best reach and engage each individual student. Tablets and laptops are prevalent in many schools across the country, and educators are looking for ways to take advantage of these devices to create dynamic, interactive digital curriculum. Current lessons, often made up of PDFs and video files, are not interactive and do not support personalization, analytics, or deeper learning—which are all essential elements to engage 21st-century learners. Existing tools such as PDF annotators, Google Drive, and email are not sophisticated enough to deliver a complete digital-classroom experience. Many schools continue to use “quasi-digital” tools or revert back to age-old paper worksheets with limited or no access to modern tools for automating student-teacher workflow, delivering differentiated instruction, or making real-time teaching decisions. Knomadix caters to different learning styles, gives instant feedback, grades automatically, simplifies organization, and saves time for teachers.

PlanetHS
A student-life online community, PlanetHS transforms the way schools, homes, and the business community engage and interact to enable the success of extracurricular programs. These critical links work together with after-school activities to help students develop strong character and life skills. This has a positive impact on overall academic performance and graduation rate, as well as higher education and career success. It is a comprehensive platform that brings all the voices and pieces together: live streaming, student portfolios, electronic payments, data integration and analysis, monitored and auditable communications, and more. The platform creates a safe, effective connection between homes, schools, and businesses, enhancing schools’ fundraising capabilities. It also saves teachers and coaches time and resources when they are communicating with and managing their students.

MIDAS
The MIDAS (Massively Integrated Data Analytics System) platform enables teachers, administrators, parents, and students to get the information they need, when and how they need it, via a simple, intuitive web interface. It combines the utility of 13 “siloed” systems into one platform, hosted on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. Any stakeholder, at any time, in any place, can access data to target learning for every student. Because the system is built on a single AWS database, reporting and analytics can be automated and simplified, making compliance and state reporting requirements easier and freeing educators to do what they do best: teach.

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