Blog Posts - The EdTech Roundup

inquirED: Inquiry-Based Learning for K-6 Social Studies Classrooms

2/17/2020

inquirED offers an online, K-6, inquiry-based social studies curriculum. The curriculum is aligned with the C3 Framework, as well as the Common Core ELA standards, 21st Century Skills, and CASEL competencies. Included with the curriculum are a wonderful collection of professional development (PD) resources that are designed to help teachers make the shift towards incorporating inquiry-based learning in their classrooms.

Overall, inquirED offers an excellent curriculum that helps support the development of problem-solving, critical thinking, and presentation skills, while also being aligned with the most common national standards and frameworks.

Showcase: Student-owned Digital Portfolios

2/14/2020

Showcase is a free resource where students can create completely student-driven and student-owned portfolios. It’s not meant to serve as a site where teachers can create assignments or submit grades, rather, it’s a place where students can pull together and showcase the work they are proud of from their K-12 careers. Students can share their portfolios with whoever they would like, including teachers, family members, colleges, and future employers.

Overall, Showcase is an excellent resource that gives students control and autonomy over what they want to share and with whom.

LEGO® Education SPIKE™ Prime: Build STEAM Confidence in Middle School Classrooms

2/11/2020

SPIKE™ Prime from LEGO® Education is an intuitive, scalable, and highly adaptable STEAM learning solution for students in grades 6-8. SPIKE™ Prime combines LEGO bricks and building elements with intelligent hardware and a drag-and-drop coding interface based on Scratch to engage students through playful learning and complex problem solving.

The bricks and building elements work in conjunction with the LEGO® Education SPIKE™ App, which allows students to program their creations in a wide variety of ways.

Overall, LEGO Education SPIKE™ Prime is an exciting and well-designed solution to help support students in developing coding, programming, and STEAM skills.

Kano’s Star Wars the Force Coding Kit: Learn to Code by Using the Force

2/10/2020

Kano is an education technology company that offers teachers and students a variety of ways to learn about computers, computer science, technology, and coding. For example, they have their Kano PC which allows students to build and customize a PC for themselves, while learning to code along the way. Kano also offers a variety of coding kits, like the Disney Frozen 2 Kit, the Harry Potter Coding Kit, and the focus of this review - their Star Wars the Force Coding Kit.

Xello: Prepare K-12 Students for a Successful Future

1/21/2020

Xello is an online platform designed to help K-12 students prepare for future success through a program focused on building self-knowledge, personalized plans, and critical life skills. Xello’s platform is built around academic and user research to help students build personalized plans for the future, and the skills and knowledge to persist. Their overall goal is to help every student, regardless of background, ability, or pathway, understand their future academic and career possibilities.

Discovery Education Experience: Curated, Personalized, Digital Resources for K-12 Educators

12/5/2019

Discovery Education Experience (DEE) is an online learning platform that provides curated, digital curriculum resources to K-12 teachers. The platform also includes an on-demand collection of teaching strategies and professional development, as well as a wide variety of real-world, relevant topics, lessons, and activities. DEE draws on over 200 publishers for content and covers a wide variety of topics and subject areas.

Overall, it’s an excellent resource to supplement existing curricula or to rely on as a primary curriculum.

Book Review | Teach Boldly: Using Edtech for Social Good by Jennifer Williams

11/21/2019

Teach Boldly: Using Edtech for Social Good is a new ISTE publication by Jennifer Williams, Ed.D. Williams is the co-founder and executive director for the nonprofit Take Action Global, where she has helped build schools in refugee camps and remote areas of Africa, Asia and South America. Williams is also a professor at Saint Leo University in the College of Education and the College of Graduate Education, where she champions teachers, preservice teachers and students.

Book Review | Spark Change: Making Your Mark in a Digital World by Olivia Van Ledtje and Cynthia Merrill

11/13/2019

Spark Change: Making Your Mark in a Digital World is a new ISTE publication written by Olivia Van Ledtje and Cynthia Merrill. Olivia (Liv) is an 11-year-old student and shark-lover who runs LivBits and has done a ton of great work supporting youth empowerment through technology and social media. Cynthia is a literacy consultant and provides coaching and training to teachers and administrators.

Together, they wrote Spark Change, which provides examples and ideas for how “students can use technology as a tool for empathy, equity, and activism.”

Robo Wunderkind Education Kits: Develop Coding, Robotics, and STEAM Skills for Elementary and Middle School Students

11/6/2019

Robo Wunderkind is a robotics education company that offers a variety of robotics kits that can be used in classrooms, after school programs, summer camps, and at home. This review will specifically focus on their education kit, as well as the associated apps and curriculum. The Robo Wunderkind curriculum is built for cross-curricular use in elementary and middle school classrooms and includes 70+ hours of highly scaffolded lessons that are aligned with CCSS, ISTE, CSTA, and NGSS standards.

SAM Labs: Bring STEAM and Coding to Life in K-8 Classrooms

10/29/2019

SAM Labs combines physical kits with a digital app to bring coding and STEAM skills into K-8 classrooms. Their kits and app are also paired with a first-rate curriculum, which is designed to be integrated into the science classroom, or taught by a computer/technology teacher alongside what students are learning in science. The curriculum is aligned with NGSS, CCSS, CSTA, and several state standards, and is both rigorous and highly scaffolded.

Overall, SAM Labs are an excellent resource for integrating STEAM, coding, and Computer Science (CS) skills into K-8 classrooms.