Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

As ESSER spending increases, digital learning is a priority

After a slow start in allocating federal ESSER funds, most states have found ways to spend their COVID relief dollars. In Montana, the Office of Public Instruction (OPI) is directing its ESSER money to digital learning resources.

OPI Superintendent Elsie Arntzen announced a new partnership with Discovery Education, a provider of state-of-the-art digital resources that support instruction wherever it takes place. Through this multi-year partnership, OPI is providing all 496 public school districts statewide access to a curated collection of high-quality, grade level appropriate, digital content aligned to Montana’s rigorous K-12 Content Standards.

The partnership–which is funded through ESSER–supports core instruction across Montana. In addition, the collaboration supports the state’s workforce readiness, rural education, Native American tribal history and culture, and parent and family engagement initiatives. Montana School Superintendents can activate their school district’s Discovery Education account by visiting this website.…Read More

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Latest Enhancements to Discovery Education Services Drive Deeper Student Engagement 

Charlotte, NC — Discovery Education—the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports instruction wherever it takes place—has announced a host of exciting updates to the company’s award-winning services. Together, these new enhancements drive deeper student engagement and offer even greater support to educators.

Discovery Education’s award-winning products and services have long been recognized as the “teacher’s choice” for their high-quality digital content, grab-and-go lessons, and teaching tools that drive deep student learning in all K-12 topics. Through these latest enhancements by Discovery Education’s expert product development team, educators using the company’s innovative services now have even more ways to drive inquiry, excitement, and exploration in the classroom. Among the updates made recently to the Discovery Education platform are: 

  • A new Discovery Education Original Series, Real-World Phenomena Jr. Featuring short videos in English and Spanish that are paired with ready-to-use instructional activities, this exciting new content brings compelling natural science phenomena alive for students.   
  • 10 new learning games from Arcademics. These skill-building, multi-player games help students build critical skills in math, language arts, and social studies in a fun and entertaining way.   
  • A new collection of compelling social studies and civics education resources from Sesame Workshop which can be found in the Discovery Education platform’s Sesame Learning Channel.  

Discovery Education has also enhanced its Pivot Interactives solution, which  joined the Discovery Education family in 2022. Pivot Interactives makes teaching science with active learning and scientific phenomena engaging and easy with 10,000 authentic, video-based science interactives crafted by Pivot’s expert curriculum team and teacher community. Recently, Pivot’s product team added several new enhancements to the service including the additions of: …Read More

Celebrating Earth Day with Resources from Discovery Education 

Charlotte, NC — In celebration of Earth Day 2023, Discovery Education presents K-12 teachers and students a diverse array of cross-curricular digital resources inspiring exploration of the natural world and environmental stewardship. Available on Discovery Education’s Earth Day website and award-winning K-12 learning platform, this collection of high-quality digital content is organized by grade band and has been curated by Discovery Education’s team of curriculum experts. Discovery Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place. 

The Earth Day resources from Discovery Education and its partners have been curated to be easily integrated into educators’ lesson plans and schools’ Earth Day observances. Included in the resources available on the Discovery Education Earth Day website are sustainability-focused materials created in partnership with Sesame Workshop, Seeker, Vooks, and Scripps News, including: 

Grades K-12 
Vooks: Earth Day Activity Sheet 
Vooks is an entire library of storybooks brought to life with beautiful animation, read-aloud narration, engaging music and sound, and read-along text. Use these fun activities to highlight the importance of Earth Day including discussion questions, a coloring sheet, vocabulary cards, and more. …Read More

My top 3 digital science lab resources

As a former molecular biologist turned college and 7-12 educator, I have taught laboratory science classes for the past 3 decades. I’ve seen a lot of changes in science education (especially digital content) over the last 30 years, but one challenge has remained the same: students have to learn laboratory skills.

As a science department chair at a high-performing public high school in Arizona, I can attest firsthand to the stress this component of science education places on young, new science teachers who may not have the benefit of being a trained research scientist in college and who feel intimidated to lead an entire class of 30+ adolescents through a lab that they must by themselves prepare everything for.

This insecurity can lead to many 7-12 science teachers opting not to complete many hands-on labs with their students either because they lack the resources or the confidence to do so. Add to this the fact that districts often emphasize and require science teachers to host and participate in school and district Science Fairs, and it is no wonder that good science teachers are hard to come by.…Read More

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Nevada Department of Education Renews Partnership with Nevada Gold Mines and Discovery Education Providing High-Quality Digital Content to Students and Educators Statewide

Carson City, NV and Charlotte, NC – The Nevada Department of Education (NDE) is proud to announce it has renewed its multiyear partnership with Nevada Gold Mines, operated by Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE: GOLD) (TSX: ABX), and Discovery Education, the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports both remote and in-person learning.  

The renewal of this partnership, which includes a $2.2 million investment from Nevada Gold Mines, ensures the state’s teachers and students continued access to high-quality digital resources through the Discovery Education’s K-12 platform. Connecting educators to a vast collection of high-quality, standards-aligned content, ready-to-use digital lessons, intuitive quiz and activity creation tools, and professional learning resources, Discovery Education’s K-12 platform provides educators an enhanced learning platform that facilitates engaging, daily instruction in any learning environment.     

“We are incredibly pleased to continue this tremendous partnership benefiting Nevada’s students and are grateful for the support of community partners like Nevada Gold Mines, who are so passionate about investing in the educational resources which are so key to making our state a better place to learn, work, and live,” said Jhone Ebert, State Superintendent of Public Instruction. “The continuation of this powerful partnership preserves Nevada’s students’ access to best-in-class digital resources, and we look forward to the next phase of this powerful collaboration.” …Read More

Louisiana Public Broadcasting Renews Long-Term Partnership Supporting the Design and Delivery of Engaging Learning Experiences in Classrooms Statewide

SILVER SPRING, MD (Wednesday, May 11, 2022)— Louisiana Public Broadcasting (LPB) today announced the renewal of its long-term partnership with  Discovery Education, the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place. 

LPB’s renewal of its 19-year collaboration with Discovery Education provides educators high-quality digital content from Discovery Education’s award-winning K-12 learning platform that supports the design and delivery of engaging learning experiences in classrooms statewide. 

LPB is Louisiana’s largest classroom over the air, on every device, in schools, and in the community. LPB’s Educational Services Department is committed to providing extensive information, lesson plans, materials, and digital resources to support formal K-12 education statewide. Through its nearly two-decade long partnership with Discovery Education, LPB has offered educators and students a host of digital resources including Discovery Education’s flexible K-12 platform. …Read More

Sora App’s New Curated Bundles of Digital Comics Save Schools Time and Money

CLEVELAND – March 14, 2022 – In response to educators’ need for more digital content to engage students, OverDrive Education now offers popular digital comic books to schools around the world via the Sora student reading app. Schools can purchase age-appropriate and cost-effective curated bundles totaling more than 1,500 digital comic books. These titles include simultaneous use rights so all students can access titles for their age group instantly. Sora is the leading student reading app available in more than 53,000 schools worldwide.

An award-winning app known for assigned and choice reading of ebooks, audiobooks and magazines, Sora also provides a simple user experience for students to browse and read comics, even on phones. The “All Access Comics” bundles are grouped into three age ranges and contain the most popular titles for schools, including Avatar The Last Airbender, They Called Us Enemy, My Little Pony, Plants vs. Zombies, Samurai Jack, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Astro Boy, Hellboy, and Skyward. See the full lists of titles.

All Access Comics in Sora bundles also include Marvel titles that are not currently available in any other simultaneous use digital model for schools, such as brands or characters like Avengers, Spider-Man, Eternals, Star Wars, Hulk, X-Men, Thor and Venom.…Read More

4 tips for an effective digital citizenship program

Today, students are not merely digital natives; they are voracious consumers and creators of digital content both in school and out. This increased access has also increased the risk that students will engage in riskier behaviors online or be exposed to content that’s inappropriate, or even dangerous. How to interact online in an appropriate way, and how to navigate difficult issues such as sexting and cyberbullying, often aren’t addressed in school curriculum, despite the huge impact they can have on students both emotionally and academically if things go wrong.

At the San Juan School District in Utah, we took some concrete steps in an effort to get out in front of the issue. As the district’s HR director and Title IX coordinator, I was hearing more concerns and seeing some worrying trends relating to cyberbullying, hazing, and sexual harassment, including some serious allegations involving students that occurred off of school grounds.

As a leadership team, we recognized the need to be proactive in order to ensure incidents like this would not happen in the future, and to accomplish this we needed tools to help us facilitate better communication among both students and staff about sensitive student safety and wellness topics.…Read More

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Digital Magazines Now Available to K-12 Schools Worldwide in Sora Reading App

In response to educators’ need for more digital content to support classroom learning, OverDrive Education now offers popular digital magazines to schools around the world via the Sora student reading app. Schools can purchase an affordable bundle of 50 always-available educational and recreational magazines for all students who use Sora. Sora is the student reading app available in more than 50,000 schools worldwide.

An award-winning app known for ebooks and audiobooks, Sora unifies a simple user experience for students, including easy issue selection and single article view. Educators can now purchase the curated collection of the most popular titles for schools includes National Geographic Kids, TIME for Kids, The Week Junior and more. Schools can choose Juvenile, Young Adult and Adult packages and remove any titles from their collection as needed. More information about the magazine titles can be found here (title availability may vary by region).

“We’re so excited to offer a range of periodicals across the grade levels,” said Susan Nakasone, Librarian at Ewa Beach Elementary in Hawaii. “Adding these to our shared collection will provide greater accessibility and choice in reading material to all our students. Our students’ nonfiction informational reading engagement just got a huge boost!”…Read More

OverDrive Education Donates Juvenile & Young Adult Titles to Schools Worldwide

CLEVELAND – September 1, 2021 – To help schools meet growing demand for digital content without increasing budget, OverDrive Education donated over 280 juvenile and young adult titles to more than 50,000 schools around the world. This updated Sora Starter Collection bundle includes high-interest ebook, audiobook and Read-Along titles that are always available to students through September 1, 2023. Sora is the leading student reading app for schools worldwide.

This free collection allows over 50,000 schools and millions of students with the Sora app to encourage community engagement with young readers through book clubs, classroom discussions and more. The Sora Starter titles expand schools’ individual digital collections, removing barriers and providing access to more resources for literacy 24/7 anytime, anywhere. Notable titles include The Great Gatsby, Iggy Peck, Architect, Separate Is Never Equal and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Ebooks, audiobooks and Read-Alongs in this collection come from Sourcebooks, Jump!, Bellwether, Triangle, Lerner, Kaleidoscope, Rosen, Abrams and Duke Classics. More information about the titles can be found here (title availability may vary by region).

“The collections of Simultaneous Use ebooks and audiobooks have been wonderful during the pandemic – the titles are often among our most circulated,” said Denise Hull, Technician, Learning Resources at Aurora Public Schools in Colorado. “I want to offer my sincere gratitude to the Sora team and to the publishers for making this happen. We’re excited for our students to enjoy the new titles added into this refreshed Sora Starter Collection.”…Read More