The metaverse is a tool that blends experiences typically associated with either the virtual or physical worlds. It can deliver greater immersive learning for students while also creating some new and exciting teaching opportunities. For educators, it is crucial to not only understand what the metaverse is and its uses within education but to also realize the benefits of immersive learning with the metaverse.

The metaverse is an emerging technology that is gradually becoming more mainstream within education, in part because it delivers immersive learning experiences for students. Essentially, the metaverse allows academic institutions and educators to create engaging experiences that teach valuable information, which encourages exploration and experimentation. What’s more, the metaverse itself can be accessed using a variety of devices.

With that being said, metaverse learning is a relatively new concept and one that many educators are still getting to grips with. At the same time, because the metaverse is also being used in areas like social media and the creation of video games, its use as an educational tool has not necessarily been fully understood by all.

In this article, we will cover the topic of the metaverse and its relation to immersive learning in more depth while also highlighting six specific benefits associated with teachers using the technology for this purpose.

Understanding Immersive Learning and the Metaverse

One of the very best ways to teach students and guarantee they understand and retain information is by ensuring they are immersed in the lesson. This is the basis of immersive learning as a concept. However, true immersion is not guaranteed, and issues, such as accessibility, are always important to consider. Thankfully, the emergence of the metaverse has helped to overcome some of these problems.

Broadly, the metaverse refers to the creation of virtual worlds or spaces in which social interactions can occur. The metaverse is most commonly associated with extended reality technology (virtual reality and augmented reality), as well as with social media capabilities and the use of digital avatars controlled by users.

As an article for the Digital Learning Institute explains, the metaverse has been a game changer for immersive learning because classes can both be delivered and accessed in a virtual setting. Additionally, the use of avatars within the metaverse delivers something akin to student-centered learning. This is because there is a degree of learner autonomy and independence associated with it, and students take on more responsibility for more of their own learning.

The Impact of Education’s Digital Transformation

In recent years, education has undergone a digital transformation, and this will be apparent when you consider the average classroom today compared to the average classroom 20 or 30 years ago. For instance, chalkboards have mostly been replaced by digital whiteboards, and most learning environments now utilize computers and various types of software. 

This digital transformation has had a positive impact in many areas, helping to provide accessibility, preparing students for the modern and digital world, and making life easier for teachers who wish to share information. However, it has also meant that students are expected to have more agency when it comes to controlling their own learning.

The metaverse and its ability to offer immersive learning could serve as another means of helping both students and teachers to create a successful learning environment that meets contemporary educational standards and prepares students for modern life.

Benefits of Immersive Learning with the Metaverse

Equipped with an understanding of what the metaverse is and how it works within the field of education, it is worth taking some time to explore some of the specific benefits of using this technology to deliver immersive learning experiences. In the sections that follow, we take a closer look at six of these benefits:

1) Immersive learning is very similar to experiential learning

Experiential learning is the process of learning through direct experience. As a definition published by Boston University explains, it is an example of “learning by doing,” and some of the related activities can include field trips, laboratory experiments, and studio performances. To provide an example, a group of students learning about space and the stars may be able to learn through the experience of going outside and looking at stars through a telescope.

Immersive metaverse learning can help students and teachers to achieve similar benefits without the need to physically experience things in this way. This means that similar learning outcomes can be achieved at any time, even if the conditions are not ideal and if observing something or traveling somewhere is not possible. In some cases, the immersive learning experiences made possible through the metaverse could provide the same benefits as experiential learning.

To stick with the same example, a group of students learning about stars through the metaverse could go into a virtual recreation of space, use an avatar to move around, see stars in close detail, and learn other related information at the same time. For instance, their avatars could be impacted by the effects of gravity, or their avatars could need protective equipment when exploring a specific environment in space.

Immersive learning makes it possible for students to reach learning objectives by activating their curiosity, and engaging with their questioning and experimentation, which ultimately helps in the development of useful problem-solving skills.

2) Immersive learning with the metaverse can be a tool for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I)

As the term ‘immersive learning’ suggests, the primary aim of this type of education is to immerse students in the learning experience as well as their environment. However, making this kind of immersion accessible for everyone, regardless of their circumstances, is a major barrier that must be overcome. Using the metaverse can assist greatly with this by providing the opportunity to invite students with different needs to participate in positive and engaging learning experiences.

Many immersive learning experiences are difficult or impossible to access for students with physical disabilities or impairments. For instance, imagine a class trip to study mountain ranges. The physical act of scaling the mountains or accessing the surrounding area could be impossible for a student in a wheelchair. If this lesson is moved into the metaverse, far more students will be able to participate and experience the mountain environment. 

This is a key reason why digital accessibility has become such a hot topic. The purpose of accessibility is to make educational experiences available to students, regardless of issues like impairments, disabilities, neurodivergence, and economic status. Crucially, equity can be achieved through metaverse learning because the obstacles faced by those with the greatest needs can be overcome, and these students can be immersed through extended reality technology.

In a world where competition for jobs, pay increases, and academic success continues to increase, certifications offer hope to candidates and educators.

Certification helps to build a skilled workforce that meets the needs of local employers and government tech initiatives. Certification strikes the right balance of academic excellence and real-world skills, giving students the confidence and motivation they need to succeed both in school and in a profitable career.

“According to Pearson VUE’s 2021 Value of Certification study, 69% of IT managers believe certification significantly increases an employee’s productivity,” said Ray Murray, of Vice President and General Manager, Certiport. “Certifications are a great way to help candidates get their foot in the door and be more productive in their future careers.”

Defining certification

A certification is any credential that an individual can earn or achieve that validates a level of knowledge or a skillset related to a specific subject or discipline. Certifications are credentials that stand in addition to, in support of, or independently from degrees and diplomas.

Value of certification

Certifications, as defined above, are often created or supported by industry-recognized businesses or organizations and are administered in controlled environments by authorized and independent agents. Validating technical skill and knowledge has benefits in both academic and workplace settings.

Key benefits of certification in academia

Candidates who earn certifications while in school reap benefits early, including:

• Validation of knowledge
• Enhanced academic performance
• Improved reputation
• Enhanced credibility
• Increased confidence
• Respect from peers

Studies validate the specific benefits listed above, demonstrating the value of certifications for candidates as well as academic institutions. According to the Florida CAPE Performance Report, certification provides tangible improvements in academic performance, including:

• Higher grade point average for certified high school students: 3.12 vs 2.78 (4.0 scale)
• Higher graduation rates for certified high school students: 97.5% vs 78.4%
• Increased post-secondary enrollment: 84% vs 82%
• Reduced dropout rates: 0.2% vs 1.0%

If your school or district is anything like many others across the country, it has undergone transformational changes at a rapid (perhaps even dizzying) pace over the past two years. The challenges you continue to face demand that you influence more change, driven by creative problem solving and a bit of risk.

While innovation takes a unique form in every school, I’ve drawn upon my experience collaborating with innovative thinkers across the PreK-12 landscape to gather a few key practices that I believe will be critical this year. Consider how these changes can impact your daily work and influence outcomes for the teachers and learners you serve:

Reframe your understanding of personalized learning.

While it has undoubtedly become a buzzword in the industry, misused and misunderstood, personalized learning remains a non-negotiable goal for the future of PreK-12 education. Dylan Arena, VP of Learning Science on my team, recently wrote an op-ed on the evolution of the term where he asserts that a modern understanding of personalized learning requires us to know more about our students and use carefully designed technology to accommodate a wide range of student needs from a holistic lens.

Consider: What does your district qualify as successful personalized learning now? The definition likely includes something around meeting every student’s academic needs. But over the past two years, we’ve seen that learning happens in context, and that academic needs are inextricably linked to social, emotional, and cultural needs. The Learner Variability Project from Digital Promise does excellent work in this space. Be innovative in the way that you view the students in your community, in the way that you encourage teachers to respond to them, and in the systems you put in place to enable personalization.

Elevate teacher and student voices.

As a leader, innovative changes must be rooted in actions that you take, not those that rely too heavily on an increased workload for your staff. But this doesn’t mean that change shouldn’t be influenced by the perspectives, experiences, and voices in your community. Truly active and empathetic listening is, in its own way, an innovative practice.

Develop secure, anonymous lines of communication for feedback. Create a culture of agency where both students and teachers are empowered to take risks, be creative, and learn from failures. Make room for educators to share the innovative practices they’ve tried in the classroom and create outlets for peer coaching and collaborative learning among staff. Ensure that students also have a channel to voice their experiences and provide feedback about their needs with both educators and building leaders.

Challenge curriculum and edtech providers to be purposeful in design.

School leaders face no shortage of edtech purchasing options. New apps and solutions appear on the market constantly. Be innovative in your selection of tools not simply by seeking out exciting technological capabilities, but by challenging providers to identify how their technologies have been shaped by learning science and how they support the standards and objectives aligned to your school’s needs. Demand purposeful design informed by what we know about how learning happens in even the most cutting-edge emerging technologies, like augmented reality and voice recognition.

Draw on the feedback you’ve received from teachers and students in your conversations with edtech developers, elevating their voices and experiences throughout the procurement process. Seek out solutions that empower teachers to embrace their personal styles, enable students to own their learning, and even foster deeper relationships between students and teachers. Edtech doesn’t have to be flashy to enable true innovation and teaching in learning – but it must be purposeful.

Broaden your circle of inspiration.

Finally, seek out innovative practices by forging connections beyond your learning community. Read blogs by other district leaders, join networking groups online or in-person, and build relationships with leaders. Strive to make connections with those who lead learning communities that are far different from your own – either in demographics, location, or resources – for more valuable exposure to varied ways of thinking and doing. If you don’t already belong to organizations like NASSP, NAESP, or AASA, there’s never been a better time to get involved and connected.

If you’re looking for an opportunity to connect with peers and thought leaders in the industry, I invite you to attend the upcoming McGraw Hill Innovation Conference. Available in person or virtually through the Metaverse, we’ll be collaborating with school leaders and hearing from some of the most prominent voices in edtech on the future of innovation in PreK-12 education. Details regarding the location and date are coming soon – be sure to stay tuned.

In a world where competition for jobs, pay increases, and academic success continues to increase, certifications offer hope because they are a credible, third-party assessment of one’s skill and knowledge for a given subject. According to a study conducted across the state of Florida, those who earn certifications while in school are more likely to have a higher GPA, are more likely to graduate, are more likely to enroll in a post-secondary program, and are less likely to drop out. Furthermore, once the candidate is in the workforce, certification improves a candidate’s marketability and earning power, with some professionals making up to 7% more than their non-certified colleagues.

Building a certification program from the ground up often involves significant legwork from educators and administrators. Get advice below on the best ways to build a successful certification program at your school.

Research Funding Options

One of the common issues faced by many educators is a lack of funding. Asking for additional budget to grow or increase resources in your classroom can be a frustrating process.

Luckily, there are funding sources dedicated to expanding career and technical education. Educators can explore a variety of funding options: The Carl D. Perkins Act; federal and state grants; and non-traditional options. The Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act is designed to increase the quality of career and technical education (CTE) across the United States. The Perkins Act provides almost $1.3 billion in federal support for career and technical education programs in all 50 states, including support for integrated career pathways programs.

In addition to the Perkins Act, each state will most likely have programs and grants that you can access. For example, California has established the Career Technical Education Incentive Grant (CTEIG), which provides funding for K12 institutions who help prepare students with the knowledge and skills necessary to transition to employment and postsecondary education.

If you’re ready to go the non-traditional route, consider connecting with your local library or workforce services team, your PTA chapter, or even leverage Donors Choose to gather contributions from your community.

Decide on the Program Structure

Once you’ve secured funding, you’ll need to finalize your program structure. Some states, like North Carolina, have built certification pathways into their CTE program. Other states offer certifications through community centers and workforce development programs. There’s no right or wrong way to structure your certification program. It’s important to consider which course of action will work best for your school, district, and state.

If you decide to incorporate certifications into existing courses, keep in mind the prevalence of technology in today’s job landscape. Certifying students’ technology skills first and foremost provides a solid foundation for any career path they choose. Whether students pursue careers in construction management, IT, culinary arts, or organizational leadership, they’ll be set up for success.

Market the Program

You’ve done all the legwork, but it’s not enough to build the program. You need to get students in seats and make sure they’re learning successfully. Make sure to market your program throughout the year, but especially when students are registering for classes. Connect with guidance counselors to make students aware of your program and its many benefits. You can also get students excited through club week, or by partnering with organizations like National Honor Society and Future Business Leaders of America.

Marketing your program doesn’t need to stop with students. Connect with other educators to show how certifications can help students be successful in their classes. Bring in experts from the community to help students understand how certifications are leveraged in the real world. Those who have earned certifications are incredible advocates for their value and relevance in the workforce.

While in college, Bruce Beuzard IV was able to earn a staggering 13 industry-recognized certifications. Bruce was able to put those certifications on his resume, landing him a job as a Data Center Technician at Amazon Web Services. Bruce encourages students to get certified, “A lot of companies love when applicants have earned certifications because it serves as a form of work experience. For any student running into roadblocks getting their degree, I totally recommend getting certified. Certifications can help you achieve the career of your dreams.”

Networking with professionals, like Bruce, also creates connections for internships and jobs for students in your classroom, allowing them to apply their certified knowledge and gain valuable work experience. After all, that’s what education is all about. Creating opportunities for students to succeed as productive employees and citizens in their communities.

Interested in learning more about the value of certifications for your students? Get a free digital kit here.

Content provided by:

Web filtering is undoubtedly an essential when it comes to school cybersecurity. However, when the service is not set up correctly or a number of blocked categories is way too high, it starts to annoy both staff, and kids. Let’s see how to use web filtering to stay safe out there on the internet and make full use out of it.

Starting with the basics, it makes sense to remind ourselves what CIPA is. The Children’s Internet Protection Act, signed into law in 2000, is a document that regulates the exposure of inappropriate content to children. To be precise, the content that shall be filtered or blocked is divided into 3 groups: obscenity, child pornography & content harmful to minors. To receive funding, an educational institution must follow the guidelines of the act. The easiest way to comply with it is to purchase a web filtering solution. Needless to say, K-12 schools must be CIPA compliant to use E-Rate discounts, but those schools and libraries that do not receive the fundings do not have this obligation.

Web filtering solutions work on a DNS level, blocking all unwanted websites: both malicious ones with viruses lurking around, and all kinds of explicit content. In a nutshell, the DNS system matches IP addresses and the names of the websites working as a phonebook of the Internet. DNS filtering, however, also categorizes the website to see if it belongs to any restricted groups. This part is usually customizable: you choose which type of sites you want gone (or vice versa – you create an Allow list, which contains only the resources you want your students, staff & guests to see, and everything else is blocked), and leave it be.

Now, here’s the main question – how can web filtering possibly be of harm for the kids? It protects them from things their minds are not ready for, it saves them from being hacked. However, sometimes blocking way too much content might limit the kids’ learning process. CIPA clearly states that content “harmful to minors” must be blocked, which sometimes is read as “block everything” by adults. Mary Beth Hertz, the art/tech teacher and technology coordinator at Science Leadership Academy at Beeber, a public high school in West Philadelphia, shared an opinion on blocking content for kids: “We limit their opportunities to succeed, explore their passions, and discover their strengths and talents.”

Online tutoring is becoming more accepted for people every day. With the coronavirus pandemic still affecting the world, there’s never been a better time to work remotely.

Advancements in technology are opening doors to new ways of learning and removing geographical boundaries for everybody. Many traditional teachers are finding success in learning how to teach online. The ability to work from anywhere in the world while managing your own time, rate and workload is hugely appealing. Meanwhile, the number of students looking to learn online is skyrocketing.

That’s not to say that becoming an online tutor doesn’t come with its own challenges. Such a shift in the style of work can be overwhelming. But, fear not! Starting to teach online is easier each day. This guide will show you how to teach online classes and help you find your footing in your new career.

#1 Pick Up Some Basic Technology

You really don’t need much technology to start working as an online tutor. The only essential tech is:

• A computer
• A fast and stable internet connection
• Video calling software
• Your computer will likely have its own camera and mic already built in, but, if you want to level up your lesson quality, then it’s well worth investing in a proper microphone and a better camera.

Having this technology makes it possible to give online classes. But it also highlights a key difference between online and physical classes—if something goes wrong with your setup, there’s no IT professional around to help you fix it. Having a decent understanding of your equipment, both the hardware and the software, can save you from missing classes. If something vital gives up on you, it’s important to have an alternative to offer your students, like a replacement class with extra time or activities.

#2 Set Up Your Classroom Environment

By far the best place to set up your dedicated workspace is at home. Working from home gives you control over your classroom environment. You might want to try removing things that distract you, ensuring your desk is clean each day, and investing in a truly comfortable chair. The more it feels like your own space, the more productive and focused you can be!

Whether you’re working from home, in a café, or in a co-working space, it’s always good practice to test your calls before you start tutoring there. Try calling a friend and see if they can hear you clearly. A quiet space is essential. You want your students to be able to hear every detail of how you speak. If there’s lots of background noise, you’ll need to fix it before you start giving classes. You should set your camera up in front of you so you’re looking towards the student, not sideways at a screen. Try to angle it so your face and any hand gestures are easy to see. For the best lighting, sit with windows in front of you.

#3 Engage With Your Students

Truly engaging with your students means getting on their wavelength. The more you can understand online culture and platforms, the better you can engage with them. This is something many tutors struggle with when moving from offline to online classes. It’s not always an easy transition because so many factors are different. For example, the element of physical space is lost, and you can’t bring real objects to an online class. However, online tutoring also has its own advantages to boost engagement. Being able to digitally track progress and give feedback on set goals allows tutors to gamify their students’ progress—a proven method of improving educational outcomes. You can take progress tracking a step further by including reward systems for students who do their work consistently, hit deadlines, and learn by themselves outside of class.

#4 Encourage Communication

Fostering a genial atmosphere is important for making students feel welcome in your class. Working in a remote, digital setup can cause the class to lose some of its warmth and connection between tutor and student. Here are three ways to encourage communication:

• Make sure your students know when you’re available, as well as how they can contact you. It’s important to be as accessible as possible so that students feel that you support them.

• Set weekly class on the same day and hour to make it easier for students to schedule their week, and associate this time as “lesson time”. Also, checking in with students at least once between classes can go a long way to improving attendance.

• Consider common ground for group classes. A good way to foster communication between students is to find something they all enjoy, such as a popular TV show, and incorporate it into the lesson plan. The more fun the entire experience is, the more comradery there will be.

#5 Plan Your Classes

In an online setting, your ability to improvise becomes more limited, especially since the student is not physically in front of you. And, with 1-on-1 classes, you can’t split the students up to practice speaking together. On the flip side, these limitations can be to the students’ advantage. If you make lesson plans and materials accessible on an online teaching platform before the class begins, your students can set expectations about the class, and even get a head start on reading. As with traditional classes, it’s important to keep in mind that students learn differently and that one lesson plan may not work for all your students. Private classes make it more practical to customize your plans. Since you have a single student to focus on at a time, you can gear the lesson to what works best for them.

Content provided by:

We live in a world where learning and technology are intrinsically linked, especially in the minds of our youth. But do today’s students process information differently because it comes on a digital device? Is there a correlation between technology use and plummeting literacy rates?  And is the way our young people consume information negatively impacting their growth as learners?

I recently discussed these questions with two education experts on my podcast, What I Want to Know. Earl Martin Phalen is the founder and CEO of Summer Advantage and the George and Veronica Phalen Leadership Academies, and Dr. Maryanne Wolf is the Director of the UCLA Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice. Phalen is well-known for his work improving literacy in marginalized populations, and Dr. Wolf has done extensive research on brain development and literacy.

Technology can engage students and enhance their literacy skills

Phalen is a firm believer in the power of literacy. “Practicing reading and getting comfortable with language helps you become a better writer, helps you become a better critical thinker, and allows you to express yourself better when you’re speaking,” he explained. And he is enthusiastic about the role technology can play in engaging students.

“Technology can stimulate our scholar’s imaginations in different ways,” Phalen said. “A scholar at one of our campuses reenacted Rosa Parks. They wrote the play. They modernized it, as if Rosa Parks lived in 2020. They directed it. They did the sound on it. They did the green screen and learned about all those things. And that’s just one example of using technology to enhance writing skills, public speaking skills, and stimulating imagination while learning about a critical historical moment.”

But integrating technology into lesson plans can be a challenge. “Some of our teachers had never really used technology so we stumbled,” he shared. “But I loved the fact that folks stuck with it to help the children learn.”

This is one of the more clear-cut examples of how technology can have a positive impact on literacy. But it’s also important to know the potentially negative impacts so we can address them head on.  

Digital devices inhibit the development of deep reading skills

Dr. Wolf explained that thirty years ago, 60 percent of children read weekly. Today only 12-15 percent of kids pick up a book each week.   

Students are still acquiring knowledge from digital devices, but there are complexities in reading paperback or hardcover books that today’s children are missing.

“The reading brain is plastic, that will reflect the affordances or characteristics of the medium,” Dr. Wolf explained. Adults who grew up reading a printed book or a magazine weekly have what she calls a “deep reading brain,” which is better equipped and developed to use “deep reading processes” such as empathy and critical thinking.

Today, young people are reading on digital devices at an increasingly fast pace. This causes students to miss much of the information, the smaller details that contribute to a holistic, deep-reading brain.

“There’s a lot of data now that shows that kids are not comprehending what they’re reading in the same way because that attention is being so distracted,” Wolf said. “They’ve learned a mode of reading that’s more involved in just getting the main words and doing it fast, which literally neglects the most important parts of reading,” like comprehension and analysis.

Parents and teachers should take a measured approach to technology

With all of that in mind, what I truly wanted to know was what should we be doing differently? What can we do to get kids to focus on the most important parts of reading? What can teachers and parents do to help their students develop a deep reading brain?

“The first five years [of life] I want all children and all parents to be involved in reading, at the very minimum, make it a nightly ritual of affection and association with books,” Wolf said. “And no child can be allowed to go into fourth grade without being as fluent and automatic [with reading] as possible because fourth grade is when we lose our kids.”

Data from Annie E. Casey Foundation shows that students who were not proficient readers by the end of third grade were four times more likely to drop out of high school. 

Reading kids physical books while they are young might sound like an obvious solution to this problem, but in reality, that isn’t happening enough. Parents and educators need to do a better job of finding a middle ground between technology and literacy that starts when kids are born.

Technology has become a pivotal tool in expanding the possibilities for how we learn. But that doesn’t mean we can simply abandon our roots. There is tremendous value in picking up a physical book and carving out that reading time to stimulate our students’ brains.

To discover more about how literacy education needs to evolve in a modern society, listen to Episode 7 of my What I Want to Know Podcast and join the conversation using #WIWTK.

Content provided by:

A virtual reality field trip. A lesson on how to create a podcast. A tutorial on how to create a paper circuit board that uses LED lights. For a new generation of educators, these pursuits have something in common: They’re all appropriate learning exercises that can take place in the school library. Makerspaces, or library media centers that encourage collaboration and support student invention, are on the rise across the United States.

This has always been the case, but in a prevailing learning culture that promotes outside-the-box problem solving, these activities are growing more common in the 21st-century school library. At the intersection of analog and digital learning opportunities, the value of school libraries has increased at all levels of education. And at the helm of these spaces, school librarians must negotiate how best to support students with library resources, adapt to new technological advancements in education and pass on the fundamental tenets of digital and information literacy to students.

As the U.S. public education system has evolved throughout its history, school libraries have also developed with a consistent central goal: to give students the best opportunity to succeed academically.

The Evolution of the School Library

Before school libraries would begin to morph into multimedia digital information centers, they supported student literacy-building practices by providing access to their on-site book collections. From the first plans for a school library in the United States drafted in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin, school district libraries would continue to sprout across the nation during the next two centuries. By the mid-1950s, schools would adopt localized, attached libraries in which librarians are considered qualified teachers, educating both students and instructors.

The face of public education has fundamentally changed since then, through the nationwide integration of schools, the rapid progress of education technology and the academic opportunities offered to students, to name a few. Because of these dramatic changes to the world of education, the expectations and  responsibilities of school library faculty have understandably seen a dramatic shift as well.

Today, school librarians are not only responsible for administering and collating their collections. Instead, librarians promote creativity and discovery in student learning by offering multimedia resources. With school libraries beginning to function as digital media centers, these tools enable students to explore new modes of thought and include:

• Planning, drafting and executing podcasts or audio essays
• Access to audiobooks and online tutorials
• Online or in-person tutorials on how to use video-, audio- or photo-editing software
• Workshops on internet and information literacy

Modern Librarian Roles and Responsibilities

With these new responsibilities, librarians now occupy a multitude of additional roles, too. The Association of College and Research Libraries, which is an organization of college educators and librarians and a division of the American Library Association, lays out the seven roles of librarians in school systems today. The goal with highlighting these different titles librarians must take on is “to conceptualize and describe the broad nature and variety of the work that teaching librarians undertake as well as the related characteristics which enable librarians to thrive within those roles.”

While these roles were drafted to appeal specifically to university and college librarians, they are universal enough to be relevant to school librarians working in primary and secondary school media centers, too.

• Advocate – As advocates, library teachers are responsible for encouraging and outwardly supporting the advancement of student learning and information and digital literacy in education. Moreover, school library faculty must partner with administrators and teachers to ensure students adopt effective critical thinking and research skills.
• Coordinator – In order for a library to run smoothly and enable students to engage with different literacies, school librarians must facilitate an inclusive and supportive learning environment. This means that coordinators need to make a point to stay on the same page as teachers, administrators and parents to serve students best.
• Instructional Designer – Library materials often carry the unfair stigma of being boring. And it makes sense – the image of the uptight librarian has persisted through the past century. In the current technological landscape, though, librarians are positioned to provide students engaging, dynamic library resources as instructional designers. As instructional designers, librarians collaborate with teachers to develop learning materials to reach students best.
• Lifelong Learner – Librarians as lifelong learners lead by example. Lifelong learning librarians can motivate students through an unrelenting pursuit of knowledge, which can inspire students to engage in independent research curiosities.
• Leader – School librarians must lead not only in their library spaces but, additionally, across an array of contexts. As leaders, librarians are prepared to guide students through reading and research processes at the same time that they offer necessary support to teachers.
• Teacher-Librarian – As teachers, librarians evaluate the best kind of learning practices for students, faculty and administrators. In other words, school librarians should be trained educators charged with providing information literacy opportunities to learners across an array of contexts. For example, while librarians help students understand how to navigate databases to collect research, they also provide support to teachers to educate their students on the best informational and digital literacy practices.
• Teaching Partner – To highlight the importance of collaboration, librarians should work as teaching partners with other educators in the school to build engaging learning materials for students. This collaboration can take place in the form of guiding a class discussion, creating assignments and responding to student work.

Many of us can recall scratchy, static-muddled murmurs of elementary and high school administrators making announcements over the public address system, accepting such antiquated technologies as the norm.

Fortunately, a better way has emerged. Today, educators can install screens in classrooms that easily and effectively serve many purposes over the breadth of a typical school day, including pushing out important messages and reminders.

A public address system gives a school principal or someone else in the building one shot each morning to reach yawning youngsters with key information. A screen in each classroom changes the dynamic from easily tuned-out audio to hard-to-miss visual messaging that can run for as long as necessary. That messaging can also be scheduled and targeted by location and serve many needs, limited only by imagination.

Moving Screens Into Classrooms

K-12 schools have been adding digital signage screens to common areas for years now, including:

• Menu and lunch special screens in cafeterias
• Directories and interactive mapping in the main entry and decision points in large physical footprint facilities
• Screens in main halls and gathering points celebrating great academic, athletic and student group achievements
• Costs have lowered for screens and media players, and management software is now simple and easy for anyone to use — from tech-savvy adolescents to digital immigrant administrators.

With digital signage content already being developed and distributed to common areas, the next logical step is to extend that messaging into classrooms. Educators can roll out new screens or make full use of those already in place for learning and collaboration tools.

Reach and Frequency

In the advertising world, brand marketers have for decades talked in terms of reach and frequency. They buy a lot of media in a lot of formats because they want to reach as many sets of eyes as they can. They also buy enough “time” on media, such as broadcast and online, to ensure their messages are seen frequently.

Reach and frequency, when combined, tend to result in messaging that gradually sticks in heads and has the desired effect.

WHITE PAPER
See how displays are enhancing the student experience from the lobby to the classroom. Download Now 
 

That may sound vaguely cold in the context of addressing impressionable young minds in schools, but this messaging has a different dynamic and intent than advertising. The only thing most educators and administrators want to “sell” to kids is need-to-know information. The point is that adequate reach and frequency can make an impact.

Students may see messages on screens in common areas like hallways and lunchrooms perhaps once or twice in a school day. Important messages to students — like permission forms that need to be signed and handed in, sign-up deadlines for clubs, tryouts for teams and notices about special events — can all run passively on classroom screens, all day long.

They’re not meant to captivate the attention in classrooms that should be focused on listening and learning. The screens are just there, and through repetition, messages will stick.

Screens as Lifesavers

Displays in classrooms also have a powerful role in classroom safety. Sirens, bells and alarms can jarringly alert students and educators of some sort of campus emergency, but screens tied to in-school networks and cloud-based systems can take the next step by not only alerting, but also explaining what the emergency is all about and what to do.

Software can often tie into emergency notification systems, or trigger messages at the push of a button. In the case of a weather emergency, like a tornado, within seconds of an alert being issued, it can be up on classroom screens directing everyone where to go for safe shelter. In the event of a campus intruder, as soon as the situation is identified, the main office can instruct teachers and students what to do, such as lock doors and shelter in place.

Designing Content Plans

Smart displays with built-in media playback capability and wireless networking reduce the installed footprint of a stand-alone classroom display to one cable for power. They’re easily set up and managed, with a variety of options for management software.

Many software platforms come with content templates that allow educators or student volunteers to easily produce polished, professional designs for everything from celebrating academic performance to hyping up students for prom night.

Standalone digital signage displays can easily be multipurposed to act as presentation tools or for showing video streams — whether a video showing rainforest life or a feed from a remote educator.

Existing Platforms, New Programs

Many classrooms already have interactive displays that are used by educators for learning and collaboration — from full e-boards that take the place of passive whiteboards to Samsung’s innovative Flip, a digital take on old paper flipcharts. There may be classrooms where these technologies are steadily in use, but often they’re just part of the teaching tool set. When idle, displays can be set to the equivalent of a screensaver mode, cycling through a playlist of digital signage-driven messaging.

Technology is increasingly a central part of classroom teaching — using everything from tablets that can push content to larger classroom screens to touchscreens that allow the youngest pupils to finger paint without needing to clean up after.

But school life for both educators and students is also about celebration, recognition and effective communications. Most students may know about the volleyball team getting a big win the previous night, but it’s an equally big deal when those students win a science fair, or a teacher is honored by their peers.

PA announcements and print-outs on corkboards may be the start, but the way to get a student population informed, excited and motivated is through omnipresent screens.

Learn more about digital signage’s ever-growing presence — and need — in the classroom in this free white paper. Explore the ways signage is already informing students and staff in this 360-degree video.

Teachers around the country have a lot of questions this fall. How will the lack of summative assessment data from last spring impact the school year? How quickly can I determine what students may have missed in the chaotic close of the 2019–2020 school year? Are remote assessments accurate? How can I parse the interim and formative assessment data of incoming students and focus on the areas that will provide the greatest return?

The answers will vary from school to school, but across the board, assessment is going to be critical in getting students back on track.

Missing and Remote Assessments: Do We Have the Data We Need?

The majority of schools closed in the spring before they had a chance to perform their standard end-of-year summative assessments. That’s one source of data that teachers didn’t have as they planned for the new academic year.

Compounding this issue, students’ abilities are likely going to be far more varied than they are at the beginning of a typical school year. Again, there are many unanswered questions: What material did students still need to cover when school buildings closed? How much new instruction was provided via distance learning? Did students have internet access? Did students stay engaged or disconnect from school completely? Did students have family members who were able to step in and support their progress, or were they struggling along alone?

Teachers will have to more heavily rely on fall assessments to understand where their students are, and what learning gaps exist within their classroom. Of course, many schools are starting the fall with virtual instruction, raising the question of whether remote testing is as effective or accurate as in-person assessment.

The folks at Imagine Schools, a charter network with 30,000 students at schools in seven states and the District of Columbia, answered this last question by 1) conducting remote assessments in the spring; and 2) commissioning a study of that data. Dr. Bill Younkin of the Biscayne Research Group examined the scores of approximately 5,000 students at 16 of Imagine’s schools and found that remote assessment was as effective as in-person assessment, with a couple of minor exceptions.

“Particularly low scores were a little less common among students being assessed remotely,” noted Younkin, “while exceptionally high scores were slightly more common. These effects were both observed at the lower grades, but virtually disappeared at the higher grades.”

Most librarians are familiar with reading challenges — the challenge format is a type of reading program that provides a more engaging way to get students to read. Challenges give students a set of goals to accomplish within a defined period of time.

Libraries and schools around the country run all sorts of reading challenges, and there are lots of ways to do it, themes to use, and ways to promote it — if you’re thinking of running one, feel free to take our quiz to see what type of challenge would work best for you.

But reading challenges don’t have to be run by one teacher or media specialist independently. Many K12 educators are finding success with reading challenges at the district level as a way to engage all their schools and students at once. It’s easier to get started than launching multiple individual school/grade level challenges all over the area, and students (and their parents) stay more engaged when they hear it promoted more broadly.

This approach is especially useful for districts that are trying to build a culture of reading. One great example is Atlanta Public Schools – when they first launched their Beanstack reading challenge for the 2018-19 school year they originally challenged students to 2 million minutes. They surpassed that initial goal early on in the challenge and had to increase it to 13 million!

Below are some reasons why running a district-wide reading challenge might be right for you.

1. District-wide reading challenges improve reading proficiency for all ages.

Though some districts focus primarily on student reading ability at certain assessment points, many have found it more important to encourage independent reading for all ages and grade levels. We have long since known that independent reading volume ​is ​the single best predictor of reading achievement in elementary students (Anderson, Wilson & Fielding, 1988), and a challenge is a great way to start.

A district-wide reading challenge allows educators to support reading development in a way that is applicable to all students, regardless of their proficiency level.

2. Encourage students to read books on your state booklist.

What are the top awarded books in your state? Get students to read more starting with acclaimed titles, like those of the California Young Reader Medal, Georgia Peach Book Award, or your state’s equivalent.

QUICK TIP: Encourage students to choose books from your list by including additional activities related to each book. For example, you might award extra points to students who submit a 3-sentence biography about the main character of a specific book.

3. You can collect meaningful data…if you use the right tool.

Chances are your teachers and media specialists are already running some type of reading challenges in their classes. Some may be using paper logs, others may be entering data manually into spreadsheets. But how are you measuring progress and outcomes?

Offering a districtwide reading challenge gives teachers the benefit of a more organized system and the resources they need to meet their goals. It also gives administrators the opportunity to glean meaningful data that can be used for benchmarking and evaluating the curriculum.

Using an online solution is a modern and engaging way to make participation easy for both teachers and students, and it can give school and district leaders more insight into student reading activity.

QUICK TIP: Tools like Beanstack allow you to use your own rostering/SSO tool for students to participate in reading challenges. This way, when it comes to reviewing the data you can analyze student activity as a whole or break it down further by grade level, school, classroom, etc.

4. Most importantly: reading challenges keep reading fun.

Remember, reading should be fun for students! We know that reading outcomes improve when students do more independent reading, and they’re more likely to read in their downtime if they truly enjoy it.

Reading challenges keep reading fun by promoting achievement without the added stress of taking a quiz at the end. A challenge can be aimed toward a community-wide goal, like 1 million minutes total across the district. Or give students an encouragement boost by fostering healthy competition between schools. Or why not run a challenge that does both?

If you want to create a reading challenge for your school district or school, take our quiz to see what type of challenge we’d recommend, and see our challenge design lookbook for some inspiration on themes.

Whatever type of reading challenge you do, it will be great — the only way to do it wrong is to not do one at all.

Research shows that reading at least 20 minutes a day, every day, all year long, can make a world of difference for students at all levels. We know that daily reading practice helps students avoid the dreaded summer slide that can rob them of gains they’ve made during the school year.

The challenge is how to get and keep students engaged in reading over the summer months, without regular contact with teachers, school librarians, and others who provide that reading message during the school year. The solution is a summer literacy initiative that motivates students with the support of both families and community partners.

A successful summer initiative should mirror the school culture and serve as a connector between the prior school year and the upcoming school year. Well-executed summer initiatives that become part of the fabric of a school community result in an expectation that “Of course our students will continue reading over the summer months. Why wouldn’t they?”

Creating a just-right summer initiative

• Planning is key. Some schools and districts begin planning for the following summer as soon as their current summer initiatives have wrapped up. Others tackle it early in the calendar year. Still others may wait until Spring. Regardless of when planning begins, an important first step is to identify a summer literacy coordinator who can lead the planning and implementation processes.

Whichever assessment practice model you use—be it Response to Intervention (RTI), multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS), or any other—building a positive culture of assessment is the key to success for both students and teachers.

Tech tools alone cannot transform your data culture, but the right knowledge and strong leadership can. We’ve found that schools and districts are most successful if they possess these five common traits.

The school or district has a broad definition of assessment.
The word ‘assessment’ should not be a substitute for the word ‘test’ or ‘grade.’ When teachers, schools, and districts broaden their overall definition of what an assessment can be, teachers are able to get a more complete sense of what a student has learned and where there is still room for improvement. These don’t need to be limited to benchmarking, check-points, or end-of-level tests, and not all assessments factor into a student’s gradebook. Whether it be performance-based evaluations, rubrics, or even a one-on-one conversation about frustrations and successes, think of an assessment as any time you allow a student to demonstrate what they know and don’t know.

Any investment you make in your network infrastructure should be driven by the learning objectives you’ve set. Creating a plan for your network upgrade begins with understanding how your network will be used over the next 3–5 years to advance teaching, learning, and school administration.

Setting goals should be a community-wide process, with input from students, teachers, parents, and administrative staff. If you don’t already have a forward-looking strategic plan in place or if it needs to be updated, use surveys, focus groups and a strategic planning committee. Be sure to include representation from all stakeholder groups to set your vision and identify your goals.

Download this step-by-step guide to planning a network infrastructure to help you achieve your learning objectives.

Great principals lead effective schools. Under the leadership of a great principal, teachers thrive, students engage with core content and school administrative functions run smoothly.

Conventional wisdom recognizes the value of school principals, and research backs it up. A report by the National Association of Elementary School Principals found that, of the most important factors affecting students’ academic achievement, leadership comes second only to instruction.

This finding makes sense as principals serve as the head of their schools, and their decisions affect school culture, parent involvement and overall community satisfaction. The level of influence a principal possesses, along with the benefits that can accompany the position, make it a post that many motivated educators aspire to hold.

Not everyone has what it takes to execute the job effectively, however. Serving as a principal requires specific skills and characteristics that positively affect the school as a whole.

The importance of a school principal

Before considering the qualities of a great principal, it’s important to realize just how vital a principal’s role really is. Research published in the Hechinger Report showed that school principals account for 25 percent of students’ academic gains, and only teacher effectiveness had a greater impact. Researchers now believe that what makes a great principal also makes a great school. Setting clear direction, mentorship and investment in professional development – these things matter in the classroom, at the school level and at the district level.

An article written by The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement stated that leadership’s effects show the greatest impact in the areas where they are most needed. A troubled school, for example, is unlikely to turn around without an effective leader’s guidance. Increasing awareness of a school principal’s influence on student and teacher performance is reshaping how educational leaders and thinkers view school reform.