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.

The simplest elementary school science edtech

During the spring of 2020, the global education community faced tremendous disruption as it transitioned to emergency remote teaching in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfamiliar with the challenges of integrating edtech into instruction within a remote environment, elementary science teachers struggled to apply best practices—such as three-dimensional instruction, collaborative learning, and hands-on experimentation—into instruction.

While teachers in my region have traditionally met technology integration with trepidation, during the pandemic they embraced edtech and learned to rely on it as a mechanism to engage students in the learning process. Today, edtech is as much a part of the fabric of instruction as pencils and paper.

During emergency teaching, the innovative educators I work with sought to implement any edtech tool that purported to help keep students engaged in learning. But, as the pandemic recedes into the rearview mirror, educators have become choosier about the edtech they use. …Read More

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Renaissance Completes Acquisition of GL Education, Positioning Renaissance as a Global Education Leader

BLOOMINGTON, MINN. (PRWEB) — Renaissance, a leader in pre-K–12 education technology, completed the acquisition of  GL Education, a provider of formative assessments for schools and school groups in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and over 100 countries worldwide. The acquisition completed as planned on March 31, 2023.

The acquisition of GL Education supports Renaissance’s mission to accelerate students’ growth and learning on an international scale through a suite of integrated solutions. Together with GL Education, Renaissance can reach and impact more students and teachers, delivering personalized teaching solutions that deliver differentiated insights.

“GL Education’s formative assessments, paired with Renaissance’s interconnected solutions, further empower our educators and help leaders leverage data to make meaningful change based on each individual students’ needs,” said Chris Bauleke, Chief Executive Officer at Renaissance. “We look forward to joining GL Education in driving growth for our students both in the US and abroad.”…Read More

Conga Empowers Edmentum to Boost Operational Efficiency and Increase Contract Processing Speed by 75 Percent

BROOMFIELD, COLO. –  Conga, the global leader in Revenue Lifecycle Management solutions, has partnered with   Edmentum, a global education leader in K-12 learning technology solutions, to streamline its contract management processes with a unified, end-to-end solution to simplify and accelerate the sales cycle. 

Edmentum is the leading provider of K-12 digital curriculum, assessments, and services to 43,000 schools in all 50 states and 100 countries worldwide. Edmentum’s customer base largely includes schools and districts with many business transactions for these customers consisting of purchase orders (PO) and contracts.

 Edmentum previously faced cumbersome processes with order forms and POs, causing delays in time-to-close for the sales teams and more manual work for operations. Edmentum’s legal team also sought an improved process for signing order forms and the consolidation of saved vendor contracts. Overall, the organization lacked a cross-department solution to unify and streamline its processes, leading to more steps to complete an order, resulting in a longer time-to-close.…Read More

Edalex selected for the HolonIQ 2022 ANZ EdTech 50

MELBOURNE, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA, / EINPresswire.com/ —  Edalex, the EdTech company that unleashes the power of skills data, digital assets, and personal credentials, are thrilled to be included in HolonIQ’s 2022 Australia & New Zealand EdTech 50 – for the third year in a row! The 2022 Australia & New Zealand EdTech 50 is an annual list of the most promising EdTech startups from Australia and New Zealand, selected from more than 750 candidates.

HolonIQ is an industry leading market intelligence platform that provides data and analysis of developments in the global education market, providing updates and commentary on companies, countries and industries and how their innovation activities form patterns and trends in the market.

“We are beyond pleased to be recognised for the third year running as one of the most promising EdTech startups in the region by HolonIQ,” said Dan McFadyen, Managing Director of Edalex. “We feel that this continuing recognition is reflective of the large strides made by our team in placing the learner at the centre, fostering cross-sector collaboration, and introducing enhanced features and services that more directly meet their needs as the skills ecosystem continues to evolve,” he continued.…Read More

Incident IQ Releases Integration With ClassLink Single Sign-on

ATLANTA (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Incident IQ, the workflow management platform built for school districts, released an integration with ClassLink—a global education provider of access and analytics products that create more time for learning and help schools better understand digital engagement.

As school districts continue to rely on more technology in today’s classrooms, Incident IQ offers advanced integrations that provide data-rich help requests to K-12 IT teams, while being easy to use for end-users. ClassLink’s single sign-on platform gives teachers and students access to classroom resources with a single login. Using this integration, tech support is only a click away, providing users with immediate access to support workflows. 

“Keeping classroom time dedicated to teaching and learning is essential for Incident IQ and ClassLink,” said Matthew Krivanek, Vice President of Marketing. “Incident IQ and ClassLink work together to eliminate the unnecessary back-and-forth that can come with classroom technology support. This integration allows teachers and students instant access to the Incident IQ platform and relevant support workflows using their ClassLink credentials, returning more time to teaching and learning, instead of troubleshooting tech issues. We are dedicated to providing a supportive, streamlined support environment for K-12 districts through our continued partnership with ClassLink.”…Read More

Promethean Works With Merlyn Mind To Increase Classroom Productivity and Support Innovative Teaching

SEATTLE /PRNewswire/ —  Promethean®, a leading global education technology company, today announced it has entered into a US-based exclusive distribution agreement with  Merlyn Mind, Inc. With the new agreement, Promethean will distribute Symphony Classroom™, the artificial intelligence (AI) solution that brings the Merlyn digital assistant to teachers powered by voice-activated AI. With the alliance, customers will be able to purchase Symphony Classroom directly through Promethean’s network of resellers.  

Symphony Classroom delivers the Merlyn digital assistant custom-built for the unique needs of education — enabling teachers to use voice commands or a remote to control their laptops, interactive displays, internet browsers, apps, and more. Powered by Symphony Classroom’s EdgeAI® technology that provides lightning-fast responsiveness, Merlyn frees teachers to move around the classroom so they can interact with students, simplifies everyday classroom tasks, and improves overall efficiency and productivity.

“Promethean’s  ActivPanel is the interactive display of choice for millions of teachers who rely on technology to drive student engagement and spark their imagination,” said Vin Riera, chief executive officer at Promethean. “By adding Symphony Classroom to our portfolio, we will make it easier for educators to teach untethered, supporting a student-centered environment that increases participation.”…Read More

Texthelp Names Industry Veteran Gus Schmedlen as Chief Revenue Officer

WOBURN, Mass. /PRNewswire/ — Texthelp, a global leader in literacy and assistive technology, announced it has appointed Gus Schmedlen, Ed.D., as its Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). In this new role, Dr. Schmedlen will help Texthelp meet its goal of advancing the literacy of 1 billion people by 2030.

Dr. Schmedlen brings over two decades of experience in the education technology sector to Texthelp. Before joining the company, he served as President & CRO at Merlyn Mind, a venture-backed AI technology company focused on the global education market. Gus also served as VP and Head of Worldwide Education at HP, a multinational technology company. There he oversaw a period of rapid expansion that led to the creation of a multi-billion-dollar global education technology business. During his time at HP, he also led international efforts to improve access to quality education for marginalized students.

“Gus has an impressive background in education technology. He is deeply passionate and committed to improving outcomes for everyone — in education right through into the workplace,” said Martin McKay, CEO and founder of Texthelp. “As Texthelp’s new Chief Revenue Officer, Gus’ background and expertise will allow us to expand our sales capabilities further than ever before. He comes to us with extensive experience in scaling revenues and accelerating growth for global organizations. His role will play a substantial part in our mission. We want to help create inclusive classrooms and inclusive workplaces around the world. We are very excited to have Gus as a part of the Texthelp team and I look forward to working with him.”…Read More

Promethean Announces the All-New ActivPanel with ActivSync, Delivering a Transformational and Intuitive User Experience

SEATTLE, WA and NEW ORLEANS, LA–June 27, 2022– Promethean, a leading global education technology company, has announced the all-new ActivPanel with ActivSync that delivers the most robust, seamless, and secure user experience yet. With the new interactive panel, Promethean meets the needs of teachers and IT administrators with intuitive, cutting-edge technology that enables a seamless classroom experience. With its easy, secure sign-in options, streamlined connection to content, flexible lesson delivery software, and personalized user experience, ActivPanel 9 offers the tools needed to transform how teachers use technology.

After listening to more than 1,300 customers across the globe, Promethean designed the interactive panel to facilitate navigating a changing environment. The only interactive panel with ActivSync, Promethean’s patented technology, eliminates digital barriers between devices and enables increased connectivity, customizable settings, and enhanced mobility so that teachers can move around the classroom freely. Furthermore, Promethean redesigned the user experience, providing a solution for instructional models, such as hybrid, synchronous, and asynchronous learning that integrate hardware and software in all scenarios.  

“With our commitment to providing educators the ability to transform learning and collaboration, ActivPanel 9 is our most innovative release to date,” said Lance Solomon, chief product officer at Promethean. “We addressed the challenges teachers, IT administrators, and district officials face by creating an interactive panel that is more secure, easier to use, and works better with other technology in their classrooms.”…Read More

Kajeet Appoints Industry Veteran Chris Felix as Vice President of Education Sales

MCLEAN, VA. — Jan. 8, 2022 — Kajeet®, a leading provider of IoT connectivity, software and hardware solutions that deliver safe, reliable and controlled internet connectivity to nearly 3,000 customers, today announced the appointment of Chris Felix to the newly created role of vice president of sales within its education business. In this role, Felix will spearhead business development and account management for Kajeet’s global education customers, further bolstering its mission of closing the digital divide in education and beyond.

“While significant progress has been made to eradicate digital inequities, over a billion school-age students worldwide are still without adequate internet access at home. We at Kajeet feel that this is unacceptable,” said Daniel J.W. Neal, Chairman, CEO and founder of Kajeet. “The addition of Chris to our mission-focused team will support our strategic growth in the global education market and reinforce our position as a leading provider of safe, reliable and secure IoT connectivity solutions for students and educators alike.”

Felix is a seasoned and strategic leader who brings more than 30 years of telecommunications experience to his new role. Before joining Kajeet, he served four years as vice president and general manager of government solutions at Sprint, where he successfully revitalized its federal government sector and aligned two sales organizations into a single, unified team on the heels of its merger with T-Mobile. Felix started his career in telecommunications at Verizon Wireless, where he quickly worked his way into management roles. Throughout his 27-year tenure at Verizon, Felix held several executive-level leadership positions, including a three-year stint as regional president of Verizon’s Upstate New York region and three years as vice president of federal government sales.…Read More

AtlasRTX Partners with Instructure to Provide AI-Powered Digital Assistant, Serving More than 30 Million Students

PARK CITY, Utah– AtlasRTX™ (www.atlasrtx.com), a leading AI-powered digital assistant SaaS solution building sophisticated real-time experiences, announced today a successful partnership with Instructure (www.instructure.com), a leading global education technology company supporting more than 30 million students, to seamlessly engage parents, teachers and students via web chat in over 100 languages 24/7, 365 days a year.

“Without our AtlasRTX digital assistant handling many of our inquiries, we wouldn’t be able to provide the level of service our customers deserve,” said Michelle Suzuki, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Instructure. “We needed a solution that would satisfy many needs, be affordable and easy to architect and manage. With AtlasRTX, many inquiries that previously required human responses are now being handled through automation, leaving the more complex inquiries to be routed through proper human contacts and departments in real-time.”

Powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and optimized by experts, AtlasRTX is a comprehensive end-to-end customer chat solution that offers the most engaging and natural experience available today via web chat, text, What’s App, and Facebook Messenger through automatically recognized multi-lingual translation, consistent messaging, effortless customer integration, and real-time data and insights.…Read More