Blog Archives - The EdTech Roundup

Kahoot! launches Kahoot! Studio to offer ready-to-play original learning games spanning education and entertainment

8/30/2017

Unit will deliver free, curriculum-based, ready-to-play learning games
for teachers and students in time for back-to-school 2017

Oslo, Norway -- August 30, 2017Kahoot!, the game-based learning platform and one of the fastest growing learning brands, today launched Kahoot! Studio, a new unit that will offer a library of ready-to-play, curriculum-aligned, and high-quality original Kahoot! game collections. The games will be offered primarily to K-12 teachers and students. Original kahoot games will also be created for “edutainment” for the general public.

Utah’s Wasatch County Schools Launches New Partnership with Discovery Education to Accelerate Digital Conversion Districtwide

8/29/2017

Award-Winning Digital Resources Combined with Professional Development
to Strengthen District’s Five-Year 1:1 Teaching and Learning Strategy-

Silver Spring, Md. (August 29, 2017) – Utah’s Wasatch County School District (WCSD) today announced the launch of a new partnership with Discovery Education, the leading provider of digital content and professional development for K-12 classrooms. Through this new collaboration, Discovery Education’s dynamic digital content and powerful professional development resources will accelerate WCSD’s districtwide five-year digital conversion.

Learning Upgrade Adds Elementary Math Courses to Support ELLs

8/29/2017

Math Upgrade is available on iOS and Android, and includes 360
lessons that offer learning on the go for ELL students in grades K-5

(SAN DIEGO, CA) August 29, 2017 – Just in time for back to school, Learning Upgrade, an innovative ed tech company providing digital, differentiated literacy curriculum designed to support English language learners (ELLs) during learning breakthroughs, has added 360 new math lessons to the Learning Upgrade App. Each standards-aligned Math Upgrade lesson is aimed to serve ELL students in grades K-5.

Designed by educators, the lessons integrate exciting songs, video, and games that engage even the most reluctant students.

Kids Discover Announces New Single Sign-On Capability

8/29/2017

The elementary and middle school curriculum is now
compatible with single sign-on through Google Classroom and Clever

(NEW YORK, NY) August 29, 2017 -- Kids Discover, a leading provider of vibrant and engaging science and social studies curriculum, is thrilled to announce that its products are now compatible with single sign-on through both Google Classroom and Clever. Students will now only require one password to access Kids Discover content—the same password they already use for the rest of their classroom programs.

Kajeet® Partners with All Four Major U.S. Wireless Carriers

8/28/2017

Expanded Nationwide Coverage Connects More Students to the
Most Affordable and Complete Mobile Education Broadband™ Solution

MCLEAN, Virginia--August 28, 2017--Kajeet®, the industry leader for safe, mobile student Internet connectivity, announces today the expansion of its partnerships to connect students on all four major U.S. 4G LTE wireless networks. Doubling the networks school districts can choose to connect students – from two to four wireless carriers – Kajeet can now serve more students across the nation than any other wireless provider, just in time for the new school year. Wherever there is coverage on these wireless networks, students can connect to the Internet with Kajeet Education Broadband™.

New EdTech Resource | Cignition's Fog Stone Isle: 4th - 8th Grade Virtual World Math Program

8/28/2017

Author: Cignition Staff

In Fog Stone Isle, students design their own virtual worlds through engaging and challenging games. The games within our world have a deep integration of neuroscientific learning principles, effective pedagogy, and engaging game-play design. Students are active learners, solving complex math problems, adapted to their individual learning level across math topics and concepts spanning late elementary through middle school grades.

We aid students in gaining conceptual understanding and in achieving computational fluency, with students regularly commenting that they forgot they were doing math.

Teachers are provided a workstation with actionable feedback for the class and each student. Every subject (e.g., fraction addition) is broken into the full sequence of conceptual leaps required to master the topic. At a glance, educators can immediately view how their classes are progressing on each concept and accurately diagnose students’ difficulties.

Independent studies prove high engagement and student outcome improvements, with over 84% of students playing in their free time and two studies resulting in 30-31% average absolute score gains across participating students.

Fog Stone Isle is completely free to schools with optional parent subscriptions available for after school and summer programs.

New EdTech Resource | Mega Seating Plan: Create Free Seating Charts

8/28/2017

Author: Mega Seating Plan Staff

Mega Seating Plan is a free seating chart generator that has saved hours of time for more than 12,000 teachers over the last two years. Simply import your students from Google Classroom or by pasting from a spreadsheet, then layout the seats in your classroom. With one click you can generate a seating plan that is random, boy-girl, sorted by grade or grouped by learning needs.

You can even select a few students that you’d like to keep apart and Mega Seating Plan will place them as far from each other as possible.

Guest Post | The Importance of Collaborative Art in K-12 Education

8/25/2017

Author: Bob Hand

Regardless of the subject of your classroom, art can — and should — play a role in your curriculum. Indeed, artistic skills are essential in the modern age, and focusing on digital content creation, a component of teaching greatly emphasized by Common Core standards, will help prepare your students for their future careers (and, if they develop their artistic skills, perhaps tackle some of their inevitable student debt?).

IXL Achieves Four Major Advancements in Assessmentwith Release of the IXL Diagnostic

8/24/2017

New diagnostic is always up to date, requires no class time,
recommends clear next steps for teachers and students and offers an enjoyable experience

SAN MATEO, Calif. – August 21, 2017 – Today, IXL Learning announced the release of an adaptive diagnostic on IXL, the K–12 personalized learning program used by 1 in 9 U.S. students. The IXL Diagnostic achieves four breakthroughs in assessment: it offers information that is always up to date, requires no class time to be set aside for testing, provides clear next steps and makes the experience a delight for students.

With the IXL Diagnostic, teachers always have a complete and accurate portrait of their students’ knowledge and know precisely what options are available to help learners advance.

Aperture Education Releases “Back-to-School Guide” for Teachers

8/23/2017

Downloadable guide provides tips and activities to help teachers
incorporate social-emotional learning into their daily routines

Charlotte N.C. (Aug. 23, 2017) -- Planning for the new school year can be stressful for teachers. That’s why social-emotional learning company Aperture Education has published a free “Back-to-School Guide” which offers resources, teacher hacks, activities and inspiring articles to help teachers – and their students – get a strong start to the new school year.