Blog Archives - The EdTech Roundup

Education.com Unveils a Guided Curriculum to Better Build Essential Math and Reading Skills

8/31/2016

New Lessons and Digital Offerings for Teachers and Parents Build Foundation for
Early and Elementary School Success

SAN MATEO, Calif. – August 31, 2016 – Education.com, the leading online education destination for teachers, parents, and homeschoolers looking to help their kids succeed in school, today announced a groundbreaking new guided curriculum that changes the way they help their preschool and elementary children develop essential skills. The new skills-focused curriculum combines 30,000 expert-created resources from the industry’s most comprehensive learning library with step-by-step guided lessons mapped to specific skills, to more easily and effectively strengthen the math, reading, and writing skills that are essential for school success.

New EdTech Resource | Something Wicked: Shakespeare's Macbeth like Never Before

8/30/2016

Just in time for back to school, a new video game is crowdfunding to help students understand—and even enjoy—William Shakespeare. Something Wicked is a combat video game adaptation of Shakespeare’s gory, witchy tragedy, Macbeth. Unlike a digitized book, Something Wicked will position players as the bloody tyrant himself.

Players win by enacting Shakespeare’s story, not by rewriting the ending. A Kickstarter campaign just launched at shakespearevideogame.com to build Something Wicked’s first installment, a free 5-minute mini-game. The free mini-game portrays an epic battle described in Act 1 Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Guest Post: Game Development for Engaging Female Students with STEM and Computer Science

8/24/2016

By Danielle Burnett, Principal Learning Architect, GameSalad

New initiatives for Computer Science and STEM education in the United States are surfacing every day. President Obama called for $4 billion in funding for his “CS for All” program in January, Oracle pledged $200 million for direct and in-kind support for CS education in April, and Facebook pledged $15 million to support diversity initiatives with Code.org in July.

Istation Releases New Spanish Assessment for 4th and 5th Grade

8/23/2016

Available as a free pilot for the 2016-2017 school year,
Istation releases new ISIP™ Lectura Avanzada for 4th and 5th grade

DALLAS — August 23, 2016 — Today, Istation announces the release of its new Spanish assessment for 4th and 5th grade, ISIP Lectura Avanzada. The assessment will be available as a free pilot for educators during the 2016-2017 school year. ISIP Lectura Avanzada measures critical areas of Spanish reading development, including vocabulario (vocabulary), ortografía (spelling), comprensión de lectura (reading comprehension) and fluidez (fluency).

Bloomz Adds Behavior Management and Student Portfolio Functionalities

8/23/2016

The award-winning communication app now allows teachers to share student conduct reports and portfolios with parents in real time

(Seattle, WA) August 23, 2016 -- Bloomz today announced the addition of two major new functionalities to its free parent communication app: Behavior Management and Student Portfolios. Behavior Management allows teachers to securely share student conduct reports with parents in real time, all the while reinforcing positive habits. Students will earn points for positive behavior, giving the teacher the option to share quick conduct reports with parents and keep a history of behavior for every student in their class. In keeping with the app’s name, Bloomz offers students a virtual flower that they nurture through positive behavior and which will fully bloom after they collect a predetermined number of points collected.

EXO U Launches Ormiboard to Help Teachers Transform Mobile Devices into Interactive Whiteboards

8/23/2016

The collaborative SaaS tool works on any device to engage students through interactive activities, games, and lesson-buildin

(Montreal, Canada) August 23, 2016 — EXO U Inc. (“EXO U” or the “Corporation”) (TSXV: EXO), a software development company, today announced the launch of Ormiboard, a first-of-its-kind digital learning environment that redefines whole-classroom teaching by transforming any device with any operating system into an easy-to-use whiteboarding and collaboration tool.

Hands-on/Phones-on is the answer to STEM boredom

8/23/2016

PhoneLabs launches crowdfunding campaign for 3D printed phone kits that makes physics fun.

Australia is facing one of the world’s highest STEM skills shortages. 40% of Australian students find STEM subjects boring or too difficult. Education systems are clearly failing to fill the growing demand for STEM competencies vital for innovation-led future. While students are increasing disengaged with STEM education; to the dismay of many educators, they are increasingly engaged with their phones, driving many schools to banning the use of phones in class.

“The irony is that these phones have far more sensor, data logging, processing and display capacity than much of the equipment currently found in school labs,” according to Dr Sivam Krish, the founder of the learning start-up Sensibility Ltd. In most schools, students are still trained in basic physics principles using instruments - such as stopwatches – using tools and methods of teaching that have remained unchanged over a hundred years.

Compound Growth Rate for Game-Based Learning Market 19%; Revenues To Be $2.6 Billion in 2016; Report Available for $349

8/22/2016

LOS ANGELES - Monday, August 22 - A comprehensive, 47-page report breaking down projected revenues for game and simulation-based learning products by seven regions, market segment and product category for 2016 - 2021 is available for $349 from the Serious Games Association. The report, researched by analyst Sam Adkins of Ambient Insight, predicts industry revenues will reach $2.6 billion in 2016 and grow to $7.8 billion by 2021.

Inc. Magazine Unveils 35th Annual List ofAmerica’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies—the Inc. 5000

8/18/2016

For the 2nd Time, Curriculum Associates Appears on the Inc. 5000 list,
Ranking No. 1991 with Three-Year Sales Growth of 187%

NEW YORK, August 18, 2016 – Inc. magazine today ranked Curriculum Associates No. 1991 on its 35th annual Inc. 5000, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy’s most dynamic segment—its independent small businesses. Companies such as Microsoft, Dell, Domino’s Pizza, Pandora, Timberland, LinkedIn, Yelp, Zillow, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees of the Inc. 5000.

ClassFlow™ Wins 2016 Worlddidac Award

8/17/2016

Promethean’s free collaborative learning software receives prestigious global recognition

(ATLANTA) August 17, 2016 – Promethean is pleased to announce that ClassFlow, free collaborative learning software for the modern classroom, has won a 2016 Worlddidac Award. Presented by the Worlddidac Foundation, this prestigious award recognizes high quality and innovative educational products that support the continuous improvement of teaching and learning.