Looking to learn more about what’s trending in education?!? Here’s a recap of this week’s news. Let us know what you think about this week’s news in the comments below.
Virtual tutoring unique way to help students ace their work
(Houston Chronicle)
Leaving the classroom with homework you don’t understand sometimes needs additional assistance, and that’s where virtual tutoring and resources come into play.
The great thing about virtual tutoring is that learning can take place nearly anywhere, whether it’s on YouTube or with online resources such as Khan Academy. Benefits of online assistance, according to Care.com, can range from flexible schedules, personalized approaches, affordable high-quality instruction, empowering techniques, expert assistance and access to a variety of subjects.
(EdTech Digest) By Melissa Maypole
Educational technology continues to open up a world of possibilities for both teachers and students, but let’s be honest—it can be intimidating. With new devices and trends popping up on a regular basis, it’s difficult to know what to embrace and what to ignore. In this article, we’ll discuss three movements in ed-tech that are not to be missed and offer advice on how to incorporate them into your curriculum with minimal fuss and maximum results.
The thought of adapting curriculum to include new technologies can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be.
Trimming personnel costs without cutting instruction a challenge for many districts
(Education DIVE) By Amelia Harper
Dive Brief:
As personnel costs tend to increase when most school district budgets do not, administrators are looking for ways to reduce personnel without affecting educational quality, District Administration reports.
It may be worth the investment of a personnel audit or analytics software to help find overlapping positions or ways in which some non-instructional jobs can be outsourced to save overall costs.
In a school choice market, public schools may also need to market themselves more efficiently to attract more students and the dollars that follow them.
Districts target opioid abuse with curriculum and community outreach
(Education Dive) By Amelia Harper
Dive Brief:
As the opioid crisis reaches epidemic proportions and affects more young lives, the need to address the issue in schools has never been greater.
Middle school students in the Norwin School District in Pennsylvania are among the first to pilot a new science-based curriculum on drug abuse called Operation Prevention, designed by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency and Discovery Education.
Plymouth Public Schools in Massachusetts is taking a more community-based approach, using a combination of education, health and law enforcement resources to fight the opioid addiction.
Survey: Most 8th-grade math students rarely use computers in class
(Education DIVE) By Roger Riddell
Dive Brief:
This year’s edition of the “Technology Counts” survey from Education Week found 74% of eighth-grade math students “never or hardly ever” use computers in class, and just 1% of students say they use computers in math class daily, according to EdTech: Focus on K-12.
In a state-by-state breakdown, Maine leads the way on math class computer usage, with 67% of students using them to play games at least once a month, 53% using graphing programs, and 29% using them for geometry.
Experts note that the simple passive usage of computers for “drill and practice” in class isn’t enough, and that active use with calculation and higher-level problem solving is critical to gaining the full benefits of computer usage in math education.
This is how you build the library of the future
(eSchool News) By Karen Connors
When looking towards the future of education and instruction, hardware will not be the catalyst for change. The people behind the technology will be the ones who transform student learning. Media specialists operating within the demands of 21st-century innovation find themselves tasked with the responsibility not only to be as tech-savvy as possible, but to tap into their creativity to create an inspiring library learning environment. The 4 C’s (collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity) will drive our pioneering approach to developing the libraries of the future.
Is a Spotify approach the future of curriculum?
(Education DIVE) By Roger Riddell
Dive Brief:
With personalized learning’s rise to popularity has come an increasing interest in cloud-based curriculum-as-a-service (CaaS) approaches, eSchool News reports.
Essentially a Spotify for textbooks, CaaS platforms would allow districts to edit, author and curate curricular materials to be student-facing and maximize accessibility, while also providing assistance in managing classrooms and measuring the resources’ impacts.
Evergreen Public Schools in Clark County, WA, has worked with LearnZillion on a curricular strategy in line with this approach, but the efforts also stretch beyond the U.S., with Brazil’s Nova Escola adopting a cloud-based CaaS platform after being inspired by Evergreen.