A trending AI song went viral, but in my classroom, it did something even more powerful: it unlocked student voice.
When teachers discuss AI in education, the conversation often focuses on risk: plagiarism, misinformation, or over-reliance on tools. But in my English Language Learners (ELL) classroom, a simple AI-generated song unexpectedly became the catalyst for one of the most joyful, culturally rich, and academically productive lessons of the year.
It began with a trending headline about an AI-created song that topped a music chart metric. The story was interesting, but what truly captured my attention was its potential as a learning moment: music, identity, language, culture, creativity, and critical thinking–all wrapped in one accessible trend.
What followed was a powerful reminder that when we honor students’ voices and languages, motivation flourishes, confidence grows, and even the shyest learners can find their space to shine.
Why music works for ELLs
Music has always been a powerful tool for language development. Research consistently shows that rhythm, repetition, and melody support vocabulary acquisition, pronunciation, and memory (Schön et al., 2008). For multilingual learners, songs are more than entertainment–they are cultural artifacts and linguistic resources.
But AI-generated songs add a new dimension. According to UNESCO’s Guidance for Generative AI in Education and Research (2023), AI trends can serve as “entry points for student-centered learning” when used as prompts for analysis, creativity, and discussion rather than passive consumption.
In this lesson, AI wasn’t the final product; it was the spark. It was neutral, playful, and contemporary–a topic students were naturally curious about. This lowered the affective filter (Krashen, 1982), making students more willing to take risks with language and participate actively.
From AI trend to multilingual dialogue
Phase 1: Listening and critical analysis
We listened to the AI-generated song as a group. Students were immediately intrigued, posing questions such as:
“How does the computer make a song?”
“Does it copy another singer?”
“Why does it sound real?”
These sparked critical thinking naturally aligned with Bloom’s Taxonomy:
Understanding: What is the song about?
Analyzing: How does it compare to a human-written song?
Evaluating: Is AI music truly ‘creative’?
Students analyzed the lyrics, identifying figurative language, tone, and structure. Even lower-proficiency learners contributed by highlighting repeated phrases or simple vocabulary.
Phase 2: The power of translanguaging
The turning point came when I invited students to choose a song from their home language and bring a short excerpt to share. The classroom transformed instantly.
Students became cultural guides and storytellers. They explained why a song mattered, translated its meaning into English, discussed metaphors from their cultures, or described musical traditions from home.
This is translanguaging–using the full linguistic repertoire to make meaning, an approach strongly supported by García & Li (2014) and widely encouraged in TESOL practice.
Phase 3: Shy learners found their voices
What surprised me most was the participation of my shyest learners.
A student who had not spoken aloud all week read translated lyrics from a Kurdish lullaby. Two Yemeni students, usually quiet, collaborated to explain a line of poetry.
This aligns with research showing that culturally familiar content reduces performance anxiety and increases willingness to communicate (MacIntyre, 2007). When students feel emotionally connected to the material, participation becomes safer and joyful.
One student said, “This feels like home.”
By the end of the lesson, every student participated, whether by sharing a song, translating a line, or contributing to analysis.
Embedding digital and ethical literacy
Beyond cultural sharing, students engaged in deeper reflection essential for digital literacy (OECD, 2021):
Who owns creativity if AI can produce songs?
Should AI songs compete with human artists?
Does language lose meaning when generated artificially?
Students debated respectfully, used sentence starters, and justified their opinions, developing both critical reasoning and AI literacy.
Exit tickets: Evidence of deeper learning
Students completed exit tickets:
One thing I learned about AI-generated music
One thing I learned from someone else’s culture
One question I still have
Their responses showed genuine depth:
“AI makes us think about what creativity means.”
“My friend’s song made me understand his country better.”
“I didn’t know Kurdish has words that don’t translate, you need feeling to explain it.”
The research behind the impact
This lesson’s success is grounded in research:
Translanguaging Enhances Cognition (García & Li, 2014): allowing all languages improves comprehension and expression.
Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000): the lesson fostered autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
Lowering the Affective Filter (Krashen, 1982): familiar music reduced anxiety.
Digital Literacy Matters (UNESCO, 2023; OECD, 2021): students must analyze AI, not just use it.
Conclusion: A small trend with big impact
An AI-generated song might seem trivial, but when transformed thoughtfully, it became a bridge, between languages, cultures, abilities, and levels of confidence.
In a time when schools are still asking how to use AI meaningfully, this lesson showed that the true power of AI lies not in replacing learning, but in opening doors for every learner to express who they are.
I encourage educators to try this activity–not to teach AI, but rather to teach humanity.
Nesreen El-Baz, Bloomsbury Education Author & School Governor
Nesreen El-Baz is an ESL educator with over 20 years of experience, and is a certified bilingual teacher with a Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction. El-Baz is currently based in the UK, holds a Masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Houston Christian University, and specializes in developing in innovative strategies for English Learners and Bilingual education.
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Nesreen El-Baz, Bloomsbury Education Author & School Governor
Between kindergarten and second grade, much of the school day is dedicated to helping our youngest students master phonics, syllabication, and letter-sound correspondence–the essential building blocks to lifelong learning.
Unfortunately, this foundational reading instruction has been stamped with an arbitrary expiration date. Students who miss that critical learning window, including our English Language Learners (ELL), children with learning disabilities, and those who find reading comprehension challenging, are pushed forward through middle and high school without the tools they need. In the race to catch up to classmates, they struggle academically, emotionally, and in extreme cases, eventually disengage or drop out.
Thirteen-year-old Alma, for instance, was still learning the English language during those first three years of school. She grappled with literacy for years, watching her peers breeze through assignments while she stumbled over basic decoding. However, by participating in a phonetics-first foundational literacy program in sixth grade, she is now reading at grade level.
“I am more comfortable when I read,” she shared. “And can I speak more fluently.”
Alma’s words represent a transformation that American education typically says is impossible after second grade–that every child can become a successful reader if given a second chance.
Lifting up the learners left behind
At Southwestern Jefferson County Consolidated School in Hanover, Ind., I teach middle-school students like Alma who are learning English as their second language. Many spent their formative school years building oral language proficiency and, as a result, lost out on systematic instruction grounded in English phonics patterns.
These bright and ambitious students lack basic foundational skills, but are expected to keep up with their classmates. To help ELL students access the same rigorous content as their peers while simultaneously building the decoding skills they missed, we had to give them a do-over without dragging them a step back.
Last year, we introduced our students to Readable English, a research-backed phonetic system that makes English decoding visible and teachable at any age. The platform embeds foundational language instruction into grade-level content, including the textbooks, novels, and worksheets all students are using, but with phonetic scaffolding that makes decoding explicit and systematic.
To help my students unlock the code behind complicated English language rules, we centered our classroom intervention on three core components:
Rhyming: The ability to rhyme, typically mastered by age five, is a key early literacy indicator. However, almost every ELL student in my class was missing this vital skill. Changing even one letter can alter the sound of a word, and homographic words like “tear” have completely different sounds and meanings. By embedding a pronunciation guide into classroom content, glyphs–or visual diacritical marks–indicate irregular sounds in common words and provide key information about the sound a particular letter makes.
Syllabication patterns: Because our ELL students were busy learning conversational English during the critical K-2 years, systematic syllable division, an essential decoding strategy, was never practiced. Through the platform, visual syllable breaks organize words into simple, readable chunks that make patterns explicit and teachable.
Silent letter patterns: With our new phonics platform, students can quickly “hear” different sounds. Unmarked letters make their usual sound while grayed-out letters indicate those with a silent sound. For students frustrated with pronunciation, pulling back the curtain on language rules provided them with that “a-ha” moment.
The impact on our students’ reading proficiency has been immediate and measurable, creating a cognitive energy shift from decoding to comprehension. Eleven-year-old Rodrigo, who has been in the U.S. for only two years, reports he’s “better at my other classes now” and is seeing boosts in his science, social studies, and math grades.
Taking a new step on a nationwide level
The middle-school reading crisis in the U.S. is devastating for our students. One-third of eighth-graders failed to hit the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) benchmark in reading, the largest percentage ever. In addition, students who fail to build literacy skills exhibit lower levels of achievement and are more likely to drop out of school.
The state of Indiana has recognized the crisis and, this fall, launched a new reading initiative for middle-school students. While this effort is a celebrated first step, every school needs the right tools to make intervention a success, especially for our ELL students.
Educators can no longer expect students to access grade-level content without giving them grade-level decoding skills. Middle-school students need foundational literacy instruction that respects their age, cognitive development, and dignity. Revisiting primary-grade phonics curriculum isn’t the right answer–educators must empower kids with phonetic scaffolding embedded in the same content their classmates are learning.
To help all students excel and embrace a love of reading, it’s time to reject the idea that literacy instruction expires in second grade. Instead, all of us can provide every child, at any age, the chance to become a successful lifelong reader who finds joy in the written word.
Kim Hicks, Southwestern Jefferson County Consolidated School
Kim Hicks is the Director ESL Program at Southwestern Jefferson County Consolidated School in Hanover, Indiana.
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Kim Hicks, Southwestern Jefferson County Consolidated School
As we turn the corner into a new school year, teachers need a break more than ever. Educators continue to work hard for their students, but the ups and downs of our current environment are not without their tolls.
Teachers have been grappling with a significant new development: the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in the classroom. The 2023-24 school year was the first school year AI has been widely available as a classroom tool–and teachers are starting to embrace it. AI has the potential to transform the teaching profession by handling menial tasks, supercharging teacher creativity, and improving accessibility–all while preparing students for an AI-powered future. While technology alone can’t fix teacher burnout, it can certainly be part of the solution.
Here’s why we have much to gain by empowering teachers to safely embrace AI for their work.
Teacher burnout is very real
To learn more about the teacher experience, a recent survey of 1,000 K-12 teachers across the United States asked about burnout–and the results were sobering. More than four in five teachers report they experience burnout, and more than a third experience it every day or most days. This data is deeply concerning and demonstrates the urgency of improving the teacher experience.
Teachers reported a variety of drivers of their burnout, including strenuous classroom management responsibilities, lack of administrative support, and inadequate compensation. Remarkably, most teachers have continued to go above and beyond for their students, with two-thirds of teachers reporting they work beyond contractual hours.
Unsurprisingly, this burnout has implications for students. The survey also revealed that one-third of teachers say burnout has decreased the quality of their instruction. Perhaps the most concerning finding is more than half of teachers have considered quitting or switching schools due to burnout, and two-thirds have considered leaving the profession entirely.
Teachers see AI as part of the solution
The survey indicated 42 percent of new teachers have already used AI, whereas 93 percent of teachers knew “little” or “nothing” about it. Teachers with fewer than five years of experience have particularly taken to AI, with 59 percent saying they use the technology.
Of course, merely using AI isn’t the goal. Ninety-two percent of teachers who are using AI have found it helpful in addressing teaching pain points. Educators highlighted how it can improve work efficiency, promote creativity, and enhance learning. Given those benefits, it’s no surprise that teachers who reported being satisfied in their jobs were nearly twice as likely to be using AI than those who were unsatisfied.
How AI can support our educators
AI tools can be a boon for educators, but one of the largest barriers to adopting new technology is knowing where to begin. Teachers can leverage AI to help in many ways to help lighten their load while increasing their impact:
Generate lesson ideas. Use an AI-powered text-based tool to brainstorm what’s possible, map out activities or even create first drafts of materials.
Personalize materials for every student. Tailor teaching materials to meet the individual needs of each student. AI can help either generate a lesson or take an existing lesson and create level-specific ideas to ensure every student can participate in a lesson.
Create a lesson presentation. Some tools allow teachers to type a prompt with a few words of inspiration and have the first draft of a slide deck be created.
As one teacher said, by using AI, “teachers can foster more creative opportunities for themselves and students while saving time and alleviating some common stressors within this field. I hope that with advancements in AI and sparking more teachers’ curiosity, a more fulfilling environment for educators emerges, benefiting students and school communities.”
Appreciating our teachers
While some have claimed AI could replace teachers, I believe nothing could be further from the truth. What AI can do is allow teachers to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time on delivering creative, engaging instruction that moves the needle for the next generation of the workforce. In other words, AI can help teachers spend more time doing the things that made them want to become educators in the first place. If we want to truly appreciate our teachers, that feels like a worthy goal.
Our teachers are so incredibly important–and we must be doing more to make their jobs easier. With better systems, additional resources, and safe use of technology, we can help them focus on doing the work they love.
Jason Wilmot, Canva
Jason Wilmot is Head of Education at Canva.
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For the last three years, I have worked as a digital integration specialist for Anderson School District 5 in South Carolina. In this role, I support teachers by providing high-quality learning opportunities through innovative integration of instructional technology. One of the schools I serve is a CTE high school and I am always on the hunt for new tools to prepare these students for their future careers.
According to a study conducted by ECMC Group, 81 percent of high school students surveyed said learning skills they need to be successful in the real world is a top criterion in choosing a path after they graduate. But there’s a disconnect between what students know they want to learn and what they do learn. A YouScience survey found 83 percent of today’s learners can’t connect the skills they have and learn in school to future employment. Many students simply don’t have access to industry professionals to get a better look at careers they are interested in and understand what skills and abilities are necessary for those fields. This can lead to thinking that pursuing that career in the future is impossible.
Knowing this, I work to provide students with opportunities for career-focused learning that encourages them to be curious about different careers. Here are some tools that I love to use and have found effective with my students:
Career Connect
I was invited to pilot Discovery Education’s Career Connect platform during the 2023-2024 school year (and I’m happy to report that it is now open to all 4.5 million educators who use Discovery Education!). Through Career Connect, students connect with working industry professionals to learn about career journeys and what it’s like to work in the field. Teachers can virtually connect students with industry professionals to talk about their careers, the concepts they use to solve problems, and the path they have taken to get to where they are today.
Career Connect offers many industry professionals for teachers to choose from, including software engineers, microbiologists, financial analysts and planners, and many more. For example, I worked with our computer science teacher to choose a professional that fit into her curriculum and submit a request through the Career Connect platform. The students were able to connect virtually with a Software Engineer and a Vice President of IT at a technology company.
It’s not just about the connection with the professional, though. I help make the learning last by utilizing the turnkey worksheets. With this resource, students are prompted to share three things they learned, two things they can do to prepare for their future, and one way the speaker inspired them. At the end of both conversations, students were given an opportunity to ask questions and have a meaningful conversation with the professional.
A Day in the Life
A Day in the Life is a free digital archive of first-hand written accounts of what it’s like to work in a specific field or role. Students will be able to find jobs that reflect their interests and get excited about their future. From social media manager, to oncology charge nurse, to video game lead animator, there are countless different career paths to explore.
These blogs are snippets of one day in the life of these industry professionals. Each one is time stamped, starting from when the professional first begins work that day and going until they arrive back home. Some articles provide additional background into their role’s responsibilities, such as explanations of the research conducted by an entry-level scientist in biotech, before going into a description of a typical day.
Students can explore a diverse range of careers connected to their current interests through these short, easily digestible articles. The standardized format, regardless of industry, makes the insights accessible and engaging, allowing students to quickly dive into a wide range of possible careers.
Forage: Free Virtual Work Experiences
Forage offers free-to-use job simulations that expose students to a wide array of careers and skills. Through partnerships with top companies, students get a unique look into what being an industry professional would be like. Industries range from marketing to software engineering, with popular companies such as J.P. Morgan and Lululemon offering job simulations. This is a great tool for students looking to develop industry-related skills and explore real-life projects.
These short, self-paced, open access lessons guide students through a variety of tasks, giving them insight into the company and developing the skills needed to hold this position. Students follow along with videos and text resources and compare their answers and projects to real company deliverables. For example, Lululemon explores Omnichannel Marketing, walking students through creating integrated marketing plans and key data analysis tasks.
My advice: Just begin!
Career planning can seem daunting to students, especially if they do not feel they have the necessary connections or skills to enter the work force. Forging connections between students and industry professionals is key to opening their eyes to future possibilities. These resources are a great way to encourage your students to consider different career paths, giving them access to key professionals and skill development opportunities. So now, the challenge is to just get started.
Joanna McCumber, Anderson School District 5
Joanna McCumber is a Digital Integration Specialist for Anderson School District 5 in South Carolina.
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LUGANO, SWITZERLAND – As part of its mission to make robotics fun and accessible for all, Arduino is launching a brand-new programmable robot – the Arduino Alvik. Catering to teachers, students, programmers and innovators alike, this versatile and robust platform provides boundless opportunities for hands-on learning and creativity.
Alvik stands out for its unprecedented ease of programming. Its integration of MicroPython – a simple-to-read programming language interpreter optimized for microcontrollers – means users can quickly bring their ideas to life from just a single line of code. Once the basics are mastered, they can then progress to more complex robotics projects that are tailored to their skill level and interests.
Alvik is designed to empower young learners and lower the entry barrier to the fascinating world of robotics. With the upcoming integration of block-based programming, it is positioned to support primary school education, making coding accessible and engaging for younger learners.
The robot’s compact and robust design hosts uncompromising functionality. Powered by the trusted Arduino Nano ESP32, the Alvikboasts an impressive array of high-quality sensorsand motion control systems that enable it to perceive and interact with its surroundings. With the additional sensor ports and connectors, these integrated sensors allow users to transform Alvik into a rover, bulldozer, delivery robot, or automated inspection robot for a variety of applications – both in classroom learning and DIY projects. And that’s just the start of the creative learning experience!
Fabio Violante, CEO of Arduino, shares his vision: “Alvik isn’t just a robot; it’s a bridge to advanced robotics. It’s meticulously crafted to ensure that anyone interested in robotics can start with the basics and advance to complex projects. We asked our engineers to make no compromises on technology, and they delivered a platform that will surprise many different categories of users. We envision and encourage any sort of hacks for this open robot.”
Key highlights of the Arduino Alvik include:
Start programming in no time: Alvik streamlines the learning curve in robotics with a comprehensive programming suite that includes MicroPython and the Arduino language. And Alvik soon plans to introduce block-based coding, further enhancing accessibility for younger students.
Unlock robotics potential with multiple integrated sensors: Alvik’s Time of Flight matrix distance sensors, RGB color and line-following array sensors, along with its six-axis gyroscope and accelerometer, allow users to tackle many innovative, real-world projects. From obstacle avoidance to smart warehouse automation, the possibilities are endless!
Enjoy advanced motor control: Alvik leverages motors with encoders, advanced motor drivers, and a dedicated MCU.
Customize and expand with Alvik’s extension capabilities: Alvik comes equipped with LEGO® Technic™ connectors, allowing users to personalize the robot and expand its capabilities. Additionally, it features M3 screw connectors for custom 3D or laser-cut designs.
Amplify Alvik’s flexibility for dynamic movement: The Servo, I2C Grove, and I2C Qwiic connectors allow users to expand Alvik’s potential and take robotics projects to a whole new level. Add motors for controlling movement and robotic arms, or integrate extra sensors for data collection and analysis – the choice is yours.
CSTA and NGSS-aligned curriculum for education: Teachers, students and self-learners have access to a free, easy-to-follow Explore Robotics and MicroPython course developed by Arduino to help them understand the core principles of robotics and MicroPython through project-based learning concepts.
For more information about this innovative new robot, visit the Alvik store page now.
About Arduino
Arduino is the leading open-source hardware and software company in the world. Born to provide an easy-to-use platform for anyone making interactive projects, Arduino has reached a growing community and adapted to new needs and challenges, branching out into products for IoT, wearables, 3D printing, and embedded environments. As of today, the Arduino community includes over 33 million active users.
With Arduino Education, Arduino supports educational institutions and educators around the world in bringing STEAM subjects to life in the classroom with hands-on kits and digital content that make learning engaging, for students at any age and stage.
eSchool Media staff cover education technology in all its aspects–from legislation and litigation, to best practices, to lessons learned and new products. First published in March of 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information necessary to help K-20 decision-makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and colleges and achieve their educational goals.
What does it take to run the tech for a school district in 2024? A lot more than resetting the router. At #CoSN2024 next week, a cohort of news CTOs will convene as part of the year-long CTO Academy. Kelly Sain, Thompson School District (CO) CTO, was gracious enough to give eSchool some details. She emphasizes the evolving role of a CTO, moving beyond technical aspects to focus on improving student learning experiences through technology; Stresses the necessity of digital access and equity for students and the integration of technology into curricula; And underscores the value of collaborative learning and mentorship provided by programs like the CTO Academy in addressing challenges and staying updated with industry trends. Have a listen.
Details for the program: The CTO Academy For K-12 Early Career and Aspiring CTOs is a program to address the needs of education technology leaders who are new (less than four full years) to their CTO or Technology Leadership position or aspiring CTOs and EdTech leaders currently working in a technology department. Participants will have the opportunity to develop edtech leadership skills including; managing diverse teams, leading a variety of projects simultaneously, and collaborating with a variety of stakeholders. Academy participants make a positive impact on student-centered and digital learning in their school district and enhance their career trajectory.
Last week, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), in partnership with SAS, launched the Missouri Data Visualization Tool (MO DVT), a web-based application that offers easy-to-use reports and analysis on academic performance, including achievement and growth data aggregated by subject, year, and grade. MO DVT was created in response to stakeholder questions about interpreting and using Missouri Growth Model data.
I was able to get into the weeds with Missouri Commissioner of Education Margie Vandeven & Dr. John White, VP of SAS Education Visualization and Analytics Solutions (EVAAS) to discuss the genesis and strategic goals of the MO DVT, the integration with Missouri’s broader educational strategies, and how quality data is improving decision-making in Missouri schools.
According to both Margie and John, the tool allows educators to access longitudinal data on student performance, track progress over time, and identify areas for improvement. It provides insights at both individual student and group levels, enabling teachers to tailor instruction to meet diverse student needs. Additionally, it supports decision-making at the policy level by analyzing academic impacts, such as the effectiveness of a four-day school week.
By actually using the wealth of available data, the emphasis is now on translating it into meaningful insights to drive improvements in teaching and learning. The goal is to foster a culture of continuous improvement and empower educators with the tools needed to support student success.
Some highlights of the conversation:
Actionable Data for Teachers: The program aims to make growth data actionable for teachers, moving beyond using it solely for accountability purposes to inform classroom instruction and support individual student needs effectively.
Privacy and Security: Measures are in place to ensure data privacy and security, with access restricted to authorized personnel and adherence to regulations like FERPA.
Longitudinal Tracking: Educators can track student progress over time, analyze historical data, and make projections for future performance, enabling targeted interventions and support.
Group-Level Insights: The tool provides insights at both individual student and group levels, allowing educators to identify trends, disparities, and best practices among different student populations.
Policy-Level Decision Making: The program supports policy-level decision-making by analyzing academic impacts, such as the effectiveness of initiatives like the four-day school week, to inform future strategies and interventions.
Promotion of Data Literacy: Educators are encouraged to engage with the data to understand student performance trends, measure growth, and identify areas for improvement, fostering a culture of data-driven decision-making in education.
Continuous Improvement: The overarching goal is to foster a culture of continuous improvement in education, leveraging data insights to drive positive outcomes for students and empower educators with the tools and knowledge needed for success.
Below is a machine-generated transcript of the recording:
Transcript
00:00:04 Speaker 1
OK, great. Thanks so much for joining me today. I really appreciate your time. I know you’re busy. Lots of news. Let’s jump right into it. Doctor, maybe you can start by just talking about the program where it began. How long has it been in process to where we’ve gotten to the point now that it’s an active tool for your users?
00:00:23 Speaker 2
So in the state of Missouri, we have a history of of using growth data to inform our accountability decisions. But what we’re doing now is moving to a step further to to not just let it inform accountability policy decision making at the state level, but really making the data actionable for our teachers in the classroom.
00:00:45 Speaker 2
And that’s really where it’s at. We know that’s that’s what helps improve and performance for our students is when we can actually take data and make it an A usable, actionable place for our teachers.
00:00:59 Speaker 1
Yeah. And John, I know you’ve been working in this field for a long time. It used to be, at least when it came to our readers and listeners over the years that sometimes data would be seen as a dirty word, a little bit of a boogeyman, especially when you would get down to the teacher level, many of whom consider themselves.
00:01:19 Speaker 1
Artists, not necessarily scientists when it comes to their kids and how to teach their kids. I think a lot of that has changed, but I think there’s still some remnants of it. Maybe you could talk a little bit about how you see.
00:01:32 Speaker 1
The these tools and I think would support when when Doctor mentioned that it is for the teachers, not necessarily for the the Superintendent or the principal, right.
00:01:42 Speaker 3
Yeah, that’s right. So what this tool really allows is for people to see longitudinal data over time at the student level, track the progress of students through all the way starting from 3rd grade all the way through whatever grade they may be sitting in in that year with what, what teacher that.
00:02:02 Speaker 3
Maybe teaching them at that time?
00:02:05 Speaker 3
So allowing a teacher to have access to how much growth a student made in previous years and in the most recent year can be really helpful in trying to understand what may be best for an individual student. Now the data not only is available at the student by student level, but also aggregated.
00:02:24 Speaker 3
At the group level, maybe for schools and for Elias, so schools and Elias can reflect on trends in growth data to see if they implemented different strategies in previous years. What may have worked best to help make the most growth possible with the different groups of students.
00:02:42
Yeah.
00:02:43 Speaker 1
So and I I mentioned the cut of the data is a dirty word and sometimes seen as a boogeyman and one of the big reasons for that over the years has been the the worry about student privacy, right. And data privacy and the use of that. Maybe you could talk about how this solution is able to kind of distinguish between you’re talking about getting that at the granular level with a particular.
00:03:05 Speaker 1
Student. I’ll assume that there is protections in there in terms of that data when it comes to not only test scores, but maybe ISP’s or behavioral sort of data.
00:03:17
Yes.
00:03:17 Speaker 3
That’s absolutely right. So what the system is, is there is a public site access, but that available that data is only available in the aggregate level at the school in LA kind of aggregated level. But you have to have login credentials for any individual access to get into the system and see individual student level.
00:03:38 Speaker 3
You can.
00:03:39 Speaker 3
Then you know it would be dependent upon the school in which a an educator is at, for what individual students that they are able to access and see data for. So we certainly follow all the security standards and requirements as well as legislation like FERPA to make sure that only the.
00:03:59 Speaker 3
Appropriate individual educators have access to the appropriate student level.
00:04:05 Speaker 2
Yeah. And I’ll just, I’ll just piggyback on that. I think that’s probably the very first thing we.
00:04:09 Speaker 2
Need to assure.
00:04:10 Speaker 2
Everyone of is that this is always protected data to the highest level that we can ensure that our our parents are counting on that. We certainly make sure that all those protocols are in place.
00:04:22 Speaker 1
Yeah. Can you paint me?
00:04:24 Speaker 1
A little bit of kind of a.
00:04:25 Speaker 1
Day in the life.
00:04:26 Speaker 1
When it comes to the use of this, especially when you’re talking about maybe a teacher, I mean just kind of walk through the day is this, is this still intended to be used on a daily basis or on something maybe at the end of the quarter when they’re compiling grades? Can you give me some real world examples of of how you intend it to be?
00:04:46 Speaker 2
Well, I’ll, I’ll speak from the day in the life of of us at a policy level and then try to bring it down to the, to the teacher level. So again these the the particular model that we are currently using is is still dependent upon that end of the year State assessment data that we get that.
00:05:04 Speaker 2
Has historically been important, but sometimes falling a little flat, and here’s what I.
00:05:09 Speaker 2
Mean by that, if we.
00:05:10 Speaker 2
Focus solely on the proficient score. Like if we just look at where a child scores on the proficient level, then that becomes the target for teachers or for parents or for the students even. And what we’ve learned over I think over since the implementation, particularly of NCLB.
00:05:30 Speaker 2
Over a decade ago is, if you focus just on proficiency, you can lose sight of kids on both ends of of that spectrum there. So those kids that are really scoring.
00:05:40 Speaker 2
Well, sometimes can be that they’re going to score proficient no matter what this is. This is a value added model that says for all kids, even those highest performing, how do we make sure that we are driving improvement at every level. So all those kids get get paid very close attention to and all teachers pay attention to every kid.
00:06:01 Speaker 2
Don’t get me wrong, they certainly do. But I’m talking about from the.
00:06:04 Speaker 2
State level when?
00:06:05 Speaker 2
We used to hear a term that.
00:06:10 Speaker 2
Sometimes teachers or school districts would refer to as our bubble kids, like kids who are just about to get over one level into proficiency, and what the growth model does, it says, hey, let’s pay attention to every single child on that roster and let’s see how far whether they’re well below proficiency. And we’re going to move them towards that or whether they’re.
00:06:30 Speaker 2
Well above proficiency, and we’re going to continue to make sure that we’re pushing those highest.
00:06:36 Speaker 2
Achievers, even higher. So for us at the state level, that’s how I like to look at that data and say we are paying attention to every single child. Now how does the teacher take that data then? There, I’m going to let John speak to that a little bit more too. But as a teacher, you want to know who am I most effective with in the classroom? I really moving performance.
00:06:56 Speaker 2
For all kids? Or am I able to step back and say, gosh, I wonder what was?
00:07:00 Speaker 2
Happening with with this group of students that I that I as a teacher, didn’t have as much value. Add to that learning opportunity for those kids because we want to be successful with with all students. And then you add a few more tools to that toolbox. But I I wouldn’t say that that the initial results are a day-to-day operational piece because.
00:07:21 Speaker 2
We are still we we depend on that state state assessment that we get annually to to talk about what’s happening gives us great power at the.
00:07:33 Speaker 2
State Board of Education level or others when we can say which schools really are serving various populations of students and still showing tremendous growth and that’s that. Then you can say what are they doing because we have a like population over here who we’d like to see those kinds of results to. Can we connect those two?
00:07:53 Speaker 2
Schools can we connect those two districts to say, what’s happening at all in the spirit of of improvement and serving our kids better?
00:08:04 Speaker 3
Yeah. So, so I’ll just add a.
00:08:05 Speaker 3
Couple of thoughts here.
00:08:09 Speaker 3
As an educator goes into the system at the individual student level, they would be able to see all of the prior student testing history of that student. So as the Commissioner said, each and every year with new state assessment data, that data would be up loaded into the system and so there would be new assessments.
00:08:26 Speaker 3
Available annually in that system, but to your earlier point point Kevin about security and access throughout the year, students may move from one building to another, and so the system has to be updated to make sure that as students move around the state and move into different buildings, that the permissions and security are updated so that.
00:08:47 Speaker 3
And educator can gain access to the student level data for students sitting in their classroom at that moment. So that’s something that.
00:08:55 Speaker 3
Because get updated throughout the year now within the system, as the Commissioner was saying, so an individual educator can see all of the testing history and math and reading and and all the various subjects on the state assessment system, they can look at how much growth is being made by that student in years past.
00:09:15 Speaker 3
They can also look forward.
00:09:18 Speaker 3
More proactively to get a likelihood of success on a future assessment, so they may be seeing a student in their classroom and we may be saying something like based on all the prior testing data of that individual student and the average experience that you may see, this student has a 70%.
00:09:38 Speaker 3
Chance of being proficient, let’s say, on.
00:09:41 Speaker 3
On their next grade level assessment, they haven’t taken. So as they are administering kind of interim assessments throughout the year to gauge where that student is, they can reflect back on that projection probability to see if that student seems to be on track throughout the year.
00:09:58 Speaker 3
Also, when you aggregate this data up a level, you can see the amount of growth that students were making. Let’s say that were in the lowest achievement group or the highest achievement group. You can disaggregate the student level data into different types of student groups such as.
00:10:15 Speaker 3
Your higher poverty student groups versus lower poverty or English learners versus non-english learners, just to see if.
00:10:24 Speaker 3
An individual group or a certain subject in grade you are making more growth with certain types of students. For example, one group of teachers within fifth grade math might be doing really well with their highest achieving students, but not as well with their lowest achieving students. Or maybe vice versa, so they can reflect on those practices and see.
00:10:44 Speaker 3
You know what can we do a little bit differently with our lowest achieving students to make sure that they’re able to make as much growth and progress as we’re making with some of the other students. And then there’s a lot of comparative features too, that allow a school to see the amount of growth that another school may be making. That’s of a similar.
00:11:05 Speaker 3
On a student group, so they may have similar groups of students within their building or a similar makeup of students within their building their achievement level so they can find another school and locate them to maybe again just share best practices or try to understand a little better of what they may be doing differently that’s having more or less success.
00:11:25 Speaker 3
With their students.
00:11:27 Speaker 1
Yeah, that seems that the idea of sharing best practices is something that is is really strong and when you have the numbers to back it up, it just it makes it that much more powerful. I know that there’s been other at the state level, you know, initiatives such as the, the, the four day school week that has has gone back and forth. Can you talk a little bit about how this sort of data?
00:11:47 Speaker 1
Was able to kind of reinforce some of those ideas.
00:11:53 Speaker 2
Well, I’m going to start off with just talking about what we were trying to garner from the study itself and then I’ll let John speak to how they were able to to do that for us. And so for us in the state of Missouri, again, we have had the option of a four day school week for quite some time now for probably just over a decade that legislation.
00:12:13 Speaker 2
Changed back in a time when it was, it was really to try to address fuel, fuel charges and you know, busting issues and that sort of thing it was. Can we save money?
00:12:26 Speaker 2
And well, that really didn’t come to great fruition. We found out that it wasn’t really a great cost saving metric for it. So a lot of districts did not go to the four day school week. What what we’re seeing now is that a number of our districts are finding it to be what they see as an effective teacher recruitment and retention.
00:12:46 Speaker 2
Strategy. So we had a large number of our districts sort of what what I call the domino effect you you have one district start here and then the neighboring districts start to to follow suit because they’re trying to pull from the same pool pool of teachers.
00:13:02 Speaker 2
And so the statute does give the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education the authority to really look at what is the academic impact of that four day school week.
00:13:11 Speaker 2
And should they?
00:13:11 Speaker 2
Keep that option in place, so that was.
00:13:14 Speaker 2
Our very, very.
00:13:15 Speaker 2
First question is to look at again, going back to the sort of value add concept, does it add value to go to a four day or does the five day?
00:13:23 Speaker 2
And how do?
00:13:24 Speaker 2
We measure that. So that’s when we called upon Sass to say, could we look at the growth data to help inform that academic?
00:13:31 Speaker 2
Side I’ll let John speak to that, but just as a data person, you’ll you’ll know and understand that that only became the the first layer of the onion peel. Once we started talking about academics, then people want to know, well, did it impact attendance? Does it really successfully recruit and doesn’t help retain your teachers?
00:13:48 Speaker 2
What are the?
00:13:49 Speaker 2
How do the families feel about it? What is the social implication? Who’s feeding the kids?
00:13:53 Speaker 2
And there’s a million questions that follow. So I like to be very specific that our request to Sass was to really help us to understand academic impact. And John, I’ll toss it to you now to talk about how that study was done.
00:14:09 Speaker 3
Yeah. So all of our work with the state of Missouri has been around using longitudinal student level data.
00:14:15 Speaker 3
And so we have a lot of information over time at the student level for all of the students in the state on these statewide assessments. And So what that allowed us to do with this particular research question is follow the achievement levels of school districts over time then to.
00:14:35 Speaker 3
Identify where that school district may have made a change to a four day.
00:14:39 Speaker 3
Full week and to see if using their own prior data as kind of a control. Did they have some type of significant impact when they moved to a four day school week on their achievement information and we were able to look at that for all the school districts given they moved at maybe a different point in time to that.
00:14:59 Speaker 3
Four day school week, not only did we look at just kind of generally how high achieving.
00:15:05 Speaker 3
Were they, and how much did that change when they moved to a?
00:15:08 Speaker 3
Four day school.
00:15:08 Speaker 3
Week.
00:15:10 Speaker 3
But we also looked at their growth data, so growth data being a little bit different. You know how much growth are they making with students given all of the prior achievement levels of their students? And did the amount of growth that those school districts did that?
00:15:25 Speaker 3
Amount changed from the point prior to after them moving to that four day school week, and the answer was there was there was really no significant up or down movement in both the achievement or growth data when school districts moved over to that four day school week.
00:15:43 Speaker 3
So we have we didn’t.
00:15:45 Speaker 3
Find anything in terms of a a significant change in those academic indicators.
00:15:50 Speaker 3
As the Commissioner was mentioning.
00:15:52 Speaker 1
Interesting. Well, so now that UM, this tool is launched and is in use, what’s next I.
00:16:00 Speaker 1
Mean what are are there?
00:16:01 Speaker 1
Hopes and goals that maybe some.
00:16:05 Speaker 1
Not some surprises, but some. Some new ideas on which you guys can use this data to further improve the student experience.
00:16:16 Speaker 2
Well for me.
00:16:17 Speaker 2
For me again at the state level, I’m just really happy to hear the feedback from the school districts who are understanding and using the tool for so long.
00:16:25 Speaker 2
They’ve been giving them a score and a score without information is a score, right? Like it doesn’t really. And we understand that and recognize that it doesn’t help inform the next steps.
00:16:39 Speaker 2
Or the school district or the teacher. We think this putting this tool in the hands of our school districts allows them again to to move beyond. Just looking at a report card and saying, OK, how do I, how do I transform some of the work that needs to take place here? And again that.
00:16:59 Speaker 2
Can’t always happen on one year. You want to look at multiple trend data. You want to look at what’s happening in your school, in your environment.
00:17:05 Speaker 2
And and what the data are telling you, but that’s that’s how I see it is is again that it was coming from the the school districts who were really asking us for assistance. How do I get better? How do I how do I move the needle here. And so how you do that is by making sure we’re reaching every single child in the best way that we can.
00:17:26 Speaker 2
Right. So to me, that’s exciting. I’m. I’m excited to see what we’ll be able to do.
00:17:31 Speaker 2
And and and garner from more information we I’ll just wrap up with this statement. You’ve heard it a million times. If you’re in the data world, but it is just true when you’re data rich and information poor, that’s a challenge, right? We have a ton of data. So what are we doing with it and how do we use that information?
00:17:51 Speaker 2
For the betterment of our kids.
00:17:54 Speaker 1
Yeah. And John, any last thoughts?
00:17:56 Speaker 3
Yeah, we’re. I’m just really excited. I’m we’re. We’re really proud to be working with the state of Missouri on making this information more accessible and being able to put it into the hands of educators. I think that, you know, when they can actually see this information, they can find it very they they will find it very intuitive.
00:18:15 Speaker 3
They will be able to.
00:18:16 Speaker 3
Look at the data at the individual student level.
00:18:19 Speaker 3
You will.
00:18:20 Speaker 3
Start to help them seek and why measuring growth is so useful and valuable.
00:18:25 Speaker 3
And just we’re really excited to just help promote the usage of this and see where it goes.
00:18:30 Speaker 1
Well, congratulations on your work and know it’s going to have a huge impact for the the students in the state of Missouri and hopefully sharing these insights will help inspire some of our readers and listeners to maybe put a little pressure on their own state governments to get their their data house in order. So thanks again for your time. I really appreciate it.
00:18:49 Speaker 2
Thank you.
00:18:50 Speaker 3
Thank you so much.
Kevin is a forward-thinking media executive with more than 25 years of experience building brands and audiences online, in print, and face to face. He is an acclaimed writer, editor, and commentator covering the intersection of society and technology, especially education technology. You can reach Kevin at KevinHogan@eschoolnews.com
One of the biggest announcements out of FETC24 this year involved Lightspeed, the leading provider of instructional audio solutions that create equal access to learning, and their launch of Cascadia—a networked instructional audio platform that not only projects the teacher’s voice within the classroom but also empowers teachers to call for help and communicate outside of the classroom directly from their lanyard microphone.
I had a conversation with Tony Zeikle, Senior Vice President of Revenue at Lightspeed Technologies, Inc. about the features of the new product, its integration with existing school systems like phone networks and paging solutions, and its potential benefits for teachers and students, especially in light of challenges posed by the pandemic. We also touch upon the evolving landscape of educational technology, including the role of audio in augmented reality, virtual reality, and language learning. Have a listen:
More details about the launch:
Cascadia delivers all the benefits of instructional audio and integrates with existing life-safety and building communication systems, providing the ability to initiate mobile, silent emergency alerts and make two-way calls to the office from anywhere in the building.
“The need for teachers to communicate with resources outside of the classroom continues to grow, whether in an emergency or simply when help is needed,” said Shaun Fagan, Senior Vice President of Product and Lightspeed. “With Cascadia, schools can now meet this need by providing teachers with a communication tool that offers mobility, simplicity, and immediacy.”
Cascadia connects to a school’s network, providing centralized monitoring and control, along with key integrations to critical building-wide communications. The Cascadia platform provides:
Timely alerts from anywhere in the building
Communication to the office with two-way calling
Real-time teacher location during an active alert
Power over Ethernet Plus (PoE+) to leverage network infrastructure
Integration with classroom multimedia
Student sharing with Sharemike
“By integrating with leading life-safety and building communication providers, our solutions provide schools with the flexibility to leverage their existing investments and build the best systems to meet their needs,” said Fagan.
This networked communication system can enhance existing safety protocols and procedures, which is vital for students and parents. Students (87%), parents (96%), and educators (98%) all agree that school safety is extremely important to them, according to the 2022 State of School Safety Report by Safe and Sound Schools.
Below is a machine-generated transcript:
00:00:05 Speaker 1
OK, Tony. Thanks so much for joining me today. I really appreciate it. Looking forward to off, etc in a couple weeks and I know lightspeed’s going to be down there. Maybe we could just get right into it, talk a little bit about the news and any announcements that that you guys might be promoting on the show floor.
00:00:22 Speaker 2
Absolutely. You know, we go to FTC every year. We love the opportunity to be able to interact with a lot of school districts and just across the entire industry of the Ed tech space. And you know, we are well respected and known for what we do in the classroom with instructional audio, putting a microphone on a teacher and providing a low volume, highly intelligible speech through speakers.
00:00:42 Speaker 2
So that every student in the classroom can effectively hear the instruction.
00:00:46 Speaker 2
The new product that we’re launching this month and it’s just gone on to our website this week is called Cascade, Cascadia and it’s an instructional networked platform. It’s our first foray into being a networked system, so that our our technology directors can have visibility into all of their instructional audio solutions.
00:01:05 Speaker 2
Across an entire school.
00:01:07 Speaker 2
And also adding some additional features. You know, the thing that we really realized was as we put microphones on, teachers and teachers are wearing a microphone, you know, both in their classroom and around the school is that that microphone can have some additional features and abilities beyond just that. We have an important piece of real estate.
00:01:27 Speaker 2
So to speak, by having that microphone right here at a, you know, hands distance away.
00:01:33 Speaker 2
For the teachers, So what we’re doing is adding some components of being able to integrate our microphone for safety and security purposes and that can be incorporating it in as a discrete silent alert that can notify the office that there’s something wrong in a classroom or somewhere else in the school. And we’re also integrating it with the school’s phone system so that the.
00:01:55 Speaker 2
Teacher is actually able to make a teacher initiated call to the office.
00:02:00 Speaker 2
Sometimes a little bit more information is required. You know with that discrete alert or something like that, and the teacher being able to have a quick conversation with the office and it could be something as minor as a student needs help in the hallway. It could be just instruction, maybe a teacher or a student’s heading to the office just so that quick information can provide a little bit more.
00:02:20 Speaker 2
Information for the teacher and staff to be able to communicate the thing we really realized coming out of the pandemic.
00:02:27 Speaker 2
Was that gone? Are the days that a teacher just walks into their classroom at the beginning of the day doesn’t interact with any other adults the rest of the day? And you know, they’re just with their students in that classroom. The dynamic has changed and teachers need support, whether it’s for behavioral purposes, whether it’s just standard communication across the school campus.
00:02:48 Speaker 2
And we realized that we could add some value there by adding some additional buttons and additional features onto our microphone.
00:02:56 Speaker 1
You know, it sounds like a pretty significant upgrade. And when you talk about significant, you’re also talking about sophisticated and and and complicated especially I guess when you’re tying in phone systems or IP based, if any of our readers or listeners here are responsible for those sort of IT systems. Can you give us some of the the?
00:03:16 Speaker 1
Weak speak when it comes to how those are being integrated.
00:03:19 Speaker 2
Yeah, absolutely. What we really desire to do is stay in our space from an instructional audio standpoint. That’s what we’re known for. That’s what we’re respected for. So we’re really staying there. But what we have done is identified that we can integrate with existing paging and intercom solutions through our network system. So that from a wireless standpoint, we use deck technology for our wireless.
00:03:41 Speaker 2
Transmission, but from the amp we’re now connected through the through the network and integrate with that paging system so that we’re integrating with what the school is already used to using.
00:03:52 Speaker 2
And being able to navigate and then those buttons can do different things based upon what the school desires it to do based upon their safety and security protocols and those kinds of things. One of the things that we really wanted to make sure that we did through this process is there can be complexity on the back end for sure, but how do we keep it simple for the teacher? How do we make it so that it’s very easy and intuitive?
00:04:14 Speaker 2
For them to use, you know, one of the things that we realized was when it comes to school wide communication, there’s different ways that teachers were interacting, whether it be, you know, maybe a walkie.
00:04:24 Speaker 2
Bucky and those are kind of bulky and they might be taking them to recess or different places across the school. They’re not very wearable, so to speak, but they serve their purpose. You think about other things that they’re using sometimes they’re using their own cell phone, which sometimes isn’t on the school’s network, isn’t a school.
00:04:45 Speaker 2
Piece of property.
00:04:47 Speaker 2
And there’s some challenges tied to apps and things like that. On their own personal device that can be challenging for a school to navigate, and then, you know, they have their phone system maybe or their, you know, in the school and it’s fixed. And it’s not a wearable technology, so to speak. So we felt like there was a little bit of a gap in terms of just communication that we can make a little bit simpler.
00:05:07 Speaker 1
Yeah. And you mentioned the pandemic in in some of the the changing behaviors.
00:05:12 Speaker 1
Is that something that that as as a company as as a technology company who’s emphasizing these technologies as being an enhancement, has there, has there been a change in terms of maybe convincing faculty members who maybe were resistant? Like why do I need a microphone? I’ve always, I’ve always taught my algebra class for for 30 years and never seem to have necessary like.
00:05:34 Speaker 1
And always felt awkward about. So maybe now that they’re more comfortable and see those benefits.
00:05:39 Speaker 2
Yeah, really kind of two purposes that the pandemic really highlighted the need for this technology. One was when teachers were wearing masks in their classroom, you know, that mask was at 10 decibel drop in their voice. And also you had the loss of the visual cues of the mouth through that mask. And so I think that necessity of audio and the challenge of communication through the pandemic.
00:06:02 Speaker 2
Just heightened teachers awareness of why this technology is important. One of the first responses we’ve gotten for years when teachers put a microphone on and they hear that low volume, highly intelligible speech coming through, is that they didn’t have to repeat their instructions nearly.
00:06:17 Speaker 2
This much students were more attentive and at the end of the day the teacher had more energy. They realized I don’t have to raise my voice all day, every day for my students to be able to hear me, you know another, you know, we talked a little bit about maybe the rise in behavioral issues in a school. You know, I I went to a lot of Superintendent conferences towards the tail end.
00:06:37 Speaker 2
Of the pandemic and.
00:06:38 Speaker 2
After the pandemic and a lot of superintendents would just say we are just seeing an A significant increase in behavioral issues tied to all of the challenges that the pandemic had for students, their home life and all the things that they were going through. And, you know, there was an increase in room clears just.
00:06:55 Speaker 2
You know things that are every day in a school that you know a lot of people maybe don’t hear about, but they’re the challenges that teachers are facing every day and they’re very aware of it. So increased communication across the school campus was one thing that we just wanted to really focus on. And, you know, one of the things that I’m sure that you’ve thought about too, and you’re hearing from other companies.
00:07:16 Speaker 2
As well.
00:07:16 Speaker 2
Well, is how technology needs to evolve. You know, we talked about AI and ChatGPT and how that’s being incorporated into the classroom. And there’s a lot of different things. And I think coming out of the pandemic and in the next few years, we’re gonna continue to see a lot of really innovative technologies that are going to change the way that the classroom is shaped and the way teaching and learning.
00:07:38 Speaker 1
Yeah, because especially we’re talking about the future of education technology conference, right. And I’m I’m looking forward to getting down there and now that we’re.
00:07:45 Speaker 1
Kind of finally free to a certain degree from the pandemic and kind of start to look forward on some of these technologies, the augmented reality, the virtual reality audio is a big part of all of those things, right? So I mean you can, are you anticipating other new kind of applications where?
00:08:06 Speaker 1
Audio will be part of that.
00:08:09 Speaker 2
Yeah, absolutely. You know, the other component is just making sure you have clear audio for extended learning. You know, students that are outside of the classroom. How do you make sure that audio is clear on both ends? You know, if you have a group of students that are in another classroom across the school campus or, you know, in a different part, or if you have a teacher that’s remote.
00:08:29 Speaker 2
How do you make sure audio is clear through that whole process and we continue to think through that and we have a lot of various innovative solutions that we provide to be able to make sure that that can happen. One of the things that.
00:08:42 Speaker 2
Provided during the pandemic was our T3 solution, which is basically being able to provide a student with every a microphone. Every student in the classroom, and that became really applicable for remote learning where you might have a teacher that’s remote because if a student has a question that teacher needs to be able to hear it and.
00:09:01 Speaker 2
Being able to interact that way and really making the classroom setting different than what it has been in the past, and I think we’ll continue to see that evolve and change. But audio is at the heart of a lot of.
00:09:12 Speaker 1
Things one especially too. I I’ve noticed that when you look at various AI applications, various transcription applications, I mean specifically just Microsoft Word, the character recognition.
00:09:28 Speaker 1
It’s kind of across the Rubicon, right? I mean, it used to be like it was pretty good, but you’d have to spend a lot of time kind of cleaning.
00:09:36 Speaker 1
I notice now that just I mean the the character recognition when it comes to audio transcriptions, it’s just really spectacular. But the key comes down to.
00:09:47 Speaker 1
The microphone and what that technology can capture, right? I mean, so that’s kind of like the the front lines of any of this stuff working at all.
00:09:56 Speaker 2
Yeah. And you think also even about, you know, English language learning and the way that’s evolving in in K12 right now, I think over 10% of our student population.
00:10:05 Speaker 2
And now is falling into that category. So how can we do translation services through that process as well? So there’s a lot of exciting things that are happening through all of that.
00:10:17 Speaker 1
And the one piece of the the audience here that I don’t think needs much convincing are the students themselves.
00:10:26 Speaker 1
Right. I mean this is just.
00:10:27 Speaker 1
This is the technology is not a novelty to them. I mean, of course we’re all going to be speaking into microphones.
00:10:34 Speaker 2
Absolutely. And you know, I think students, especially now with, you know, headphones and everything else, they’re used to a more immersive experience when it comes to audio. So how can we deliver that to them, whether they’re in the classroom, whether they’re at home or whatever medium that they’re doing in the learning environment? We need to be thoughtful of that and engage them where they are.
00:10:53 Speaker 1
Well, lots of exciting stuff. Uh, I look forward to seeing you in person, not just on the on the zoom platform where we can kind of go more in depth. But thanks for your time to kind of.
00:11:04 Speaker 1
Let our listeners and let our readers kind of know what’s on the on the forefront here when it comes to audio.
00:11:09 Speaker 2
Absolutely. And what you know will be on the showroom floor, but we’ll also have a demonstration room where we can show Cascadia and demonstrate it on a first hand level in an enclosed space. So we look forward to being able to meet with many people at FTC.
00:11:23 Speaker 1
Excellent, Tony. Thanks again. Appreciate it.
00:11:25 Speaker 2
Thank you.
Kevin is a forward-thinking media executive with more than 25 years of experience building brands and audiences online, in print, and face to face. He is an acclaimed writer, editor, and commentator covering the intersection of society and technology, especially education technology. You can reach Kevin at KevinHogan@eschoolnews.com
Eighty-eight percent of CIOs say their role is becoming more digital and is increasingly focused on innovation, which begs the question: How is education, a notoriously slow industry, going to keep pace with digital transformation?
During a session at FETC 2024, Marlon Shears, CIO of IDEA Public Schools, offered a realistic view of what CIOs across all sectors are prioritizing and how digital transformation is driving changes and investments in education.
Defining digital transformation, though, isn’t quite as easy as it sounds, because digital transformation will look different for every organization. But while there’s no set definition, in general, such transformation can be defined as the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, creating fundamental change around how business operates and how the business delivers value to stakeholders, Shears said.
But to drive this transformation, CIOs must challenge the status quo and must be comfortable with failure, Shears said.
“You must challenge, ‘We don’t do that here,’” he said. “You have to become the leader who challenges that. You may not always be liked, but you have to build a culture where you can lean in and trust one another to take on that digital transformation. It’s not an overnight success story.”
In pursuit of transformation, CIOs must be comfortable with failure. “This is one of the hardest ones,” Shears added. “No one’s perfect when you’re trying to change, integrate, and do different things to bring value into your organization. If we’re not comfortable failing, if the organization isn’t comfortable with us failing, are we really doing digital transformation? You have to push that to your superintendent.”
CIOs across other industries are prioritizing AI—80 percent are spending their time on AI and machine learning, up from 55 percent in 2023, according to new research on CIOs. Seventy percent are focused on cybersecurity, and 61 percent are focused on data privacy and compliance.
Challenges include staffing and skills shortages, changing business conditions, addressing security threats, and budgetary constraints/demonstrating ROI.
CIOs are looking for their tech budgets to increase in 2024, citing needs for security improvements, to keep pace with rising costs of tech and services, investments in emerging technologies such as AI, investments in new skills and talent, and modernizing or migrating infrastructure.
“Digital transformation isn’t just computers–it’s how to get your organization to the next level,” he said. “This is something we’ve all started, but we also need to know where we want to go. It means bold choices.”
Laura Ascione is the Editorial Director at eSchool Media. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland’s prestigious Philip Merrill College of Journalism.
D2L, a global learning technology company, today announced a new partnership with Unity, the world’s leading platform for creating and operating interactive, real-time 3D (RT3D) content with a goal to transform the education landscape through classroom integration of immersive Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and RT3D technologies. The partnership is a direct response to the increased demand for innovative and engaging learning experiences in the classroom.
“Immersive technology revolutionizes learning by breaking down traditional barriers, turning education into a dynamic and engaging experience that goes beyond the limits of classrooms,” said Natalie Mai, Global Head of Education Sales at Unity. “We’re excited to see how D2L can more deeply connect educators and students through Unity.”
With Unity education licenses now available through D2L Brightspace, D2L’s learning innovation platform, educators can have access to tools, professional training, and certifications to help create immersive learning experiences that can transcend traditional boundaries of learning. From virtual science experiments to medical-training simulations, students can have the opportunity to test their knowledge and benefit from a more engaging and hands-on experience.
“Over the past few years, we have seen exciting possibilities for the use of XR technologies (virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality) in teaching and corporate learning environments. At D2L, we believe that education should inspire, engage, and prepare students for the future,” said Katie Bradford, VP of Product Partnerships at D2L. “By partnering with Unity, we continue in our mission to explore how emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR), can be leveraged to help enable new ways of learning and we look forward to continuing to transform the future of learning with partners like Unity.”
Training and learning management system support will be available through D2L for Business to help users successfully integrate, harness and track the progress of how immersive learning can impact students.
Learn more about D2L’s partner ecosystem here. And visit D2L’s Partner Integration Hub here.
About D2L
D2L is transforming the way the world learns—helping learners of all ages achieve more than they dreamed possible. Working closely with clients all over the world, D2L is supporting millions of people learning online and in person. Our growing global workforce is dedicated to making the best learning products to leave the world better than they found it. Learn more about D2L for K-12, higher education and businesses at www.D2L.com.
The D2L family of companies includes D2L Inc., D2L Corporation, D2L Ltd, D2L Australia Pty Ltd, D2L Europe Ltd, D2L EU B.V., D2L Asia Pte Ltd and D2L Brasil Soluções de Tecnologia para Educação Ltda.
All D2L marks are trademarks of D2L Corporation. Please visit D2L.com/trademarks for a list of D2L marks.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners
eSchool Media staff cover education technology in all its aspects–from legislation and litigation, to best practices, to lessons learned and new products. First published in March of 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information necessary to help K-20 decision-makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and colleges and achieve their educational goals.
CALGARY, AB –SMART Technologies is proud to announce the launch of the company’s latest innovation for education: the SMART Board® RX series. This revolutionary display is designed with accessibility in mind and provides teachers with the tools they need to make learning more engaging for students, while saving precious time for teachers, too. This performance display comes with optically bonded glass and a multi-color stylus for an effortless inking experience, as well as leading student device integration, putting it in a category of its own.
At the heart of the SMART Board RX series are the features and functionality, purposefully designed to help make classroom time higher quality time and engage all students in inclusive and accessible learning experiences. Most notably, the RX series comes with SMART’s exclusive Tool Explorer® technology that enables all students – including those with diverse learning needs – to actively engage with content and easily communicate with their peers and teachers.
Tool Explorer digitally recognizes blocks that come in pre-programmed sets with images such as emojis that can help enable social and emotional learning. The blocks are also programmable, giving teachers or students the ability to program any image onto a block. Tool Explorer provides a unique way for students to communicate and participate – including those students who are non-verbal, those who struggle to hold a pen or to write, and those who require or simply prefer different methods of communication. Tool Explorer is only available with the SMART Board RX series.
The SMART Board RX series is Google EDLA certified, giving users native access to the Google Play™ store, Google Classroom, Chrome™ Browser, and other Google services so that teachers can have all their favorite apps at their fingertips. It comes with a completely refreshed embedded experience – iQ 4.0. The new version of iQ is designed to simplify workflows for teachers and make lessons engaging for students.
The RX series also includes SMART’s exclusive ability for continuous differentiation of all interaction types, which enables multiple users to intuitively write, erase, and touch at the same time, without interfering in each other’s work for a truly collaborative experience.
“The SMART Board RX series represents a major leap forward in classroom technology,” said Nicholas Svensson, CEO of SMART Technologies. “Our goal was not just to create another interactive display but rather an investment that helps to create inclusive, accessible classrooms that will stand the test of time.”
The SMART Board RX series offers an array of features, including:
Android 13 for enhanced security and smooth performance, with expandable storage up to 576GB.
Optically bonded glass which provides a smooth, precise inking experience and unmatched viewing clarity.
Simultaneous Tool Differentiation so multiple students can intuitively collaborate at the display together.
An all-new multi-color LED stylus for easier color switching and simple, intuitive inking with color built right into the pen.
NFC and QR code-based sign-in with one-click sign-out for added security and convenience.
Integrated sound bar with two 20W speakers and a 15W subwoofer.
New environmental and air quality sensors including a particulate matter sensor and volatile organic compounds sensor.
All the software educators need, for free.
The SMART Board RX is designed to serve districts for years to come. The RX series has an energy-efficient design that is designed to be a sound investment for many years. Automatic over-the-air updates keep customers up to date with new features, patches, and operating system upgrades—keeping pace with market trends and new options and features without spending budget on a new display. Schools and districts can get more out of their technology investment and continue to deliver high-quality learning experiences for years to come.
About SMART Technologies ULC
SMART isn’t just a leading tech company, but a connections company working tirelessly to create and advance technology that helps teachers, learners, businesses, and teams make meaningful connections every single day. The original SMART Board® launched in 1991, and has continued to innovate through Lumio™, an award-winning cloud-based learning software. With a full range of products, including an impressive selection of easy-to-use interactive displays used by millions of businesses, educators and students around the world, SMART creates connections that matter. To learn more, visit www.smarttech.com.
eSchool Media staff cover education technology in all its aspects–from legislation and litigation, to best practices, to lessons learned and new products. First published in March of 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information necessary to help K-20 decision-makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and colleges and achieve their educational goals.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – DECEMBER 01: The Salesforce logo is seen at Salesforce Tower on December 1, 2020 … [+] in San Francisco, California. The cloud-based enterprise software company announced on Tuesday that it will purchase the popular workplace-chat app Slack for $27.7 billion. (Photo by Stephen Lam/Getty Images)
Salesforce NFT Cloud, a new non-fungible token marketplace, will allow users to mint, manage, and sell NFTs, whilst being a no-code platform.
Also, in a pilot that began in July and had a September release, Commerce Cloud users will start to be able to sell through TikTok by actively switching on the site as a usable sales channel within Commerce Cloud’s social media channels which include Instagram and Snapchat. Users will also have features introduced that are associated with the platform, including measuring ad performance and segmenting audiences for ad retargeting.
“We’re making it much easier for merchants to engage in channels on all social channels like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat [and create] relevant offers for their customers through automated feeds and curation,” said Scot Gillespie, executive vice president and general manager of Salesforce Commerce Cloud. “Payments, speed and flexibility continue to be critical for our customers.”
PARIS, FRANCE – OCTOBER 08: In this photo illustration, the social medias applications logos, … [+] Twitter, Google, Google+, Gmail, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are displayed on the screen of an Apple iPhone on October 08, 2018 in Paris, France. Google has decided to close its Google+ social network after discovering a security vulnerability that has affected the data of at least 500,000 users. (Photo Illustration by Chesnot/Getty Images)
Getty Images
To support sustainability, Salesforce NFT Cloud will exclusively support transactions on more energy-efficient blockchains, this comes after a group letter signed by 400 Salesforce employees listed concerns about security, the unregulated nature of the concept, and the potentially unsustainable byproduct of using mass amounts of energy on – currently – less sustainable blockchain platforms like Ethereum ETH .
Talking to TechTarget TTGT , John Hughes, an NFT technology consultant and CEO of NearMintNFT said, “I’ve heard them all, [but] if you have legitimate responses to calm the fears, people respond,”
“Every artist I’ve approached has said the same thing to me: ‘Oh, these things are a rip-off, and they’re bad for the environment.’”
“Once a company proves it’s an ethical NFT broker that takes security and sustainability into account — and makes that a team effort in conjunction with marketing staff — it’s possible to build success with an NFT program,” Hughes said.
Talking about the new additions to the Salesforce structure, Matt Meyers, who has been working in the ecosystem for 15 years, runs cybersecurity company Adaptus – the owner of EzProtect that extends the capabilities of Salesforce and other SaaS platforms – and holds the highest certification of Certified Technical Architect said, “I have worked my way up in Salesforce over the years to now having the distinction of being a Certified Technical Architect, which only 400 people in the world hold. I’ve seen a lot.”
BARGTEHEIDE, GERMANY – MAY 03: (BILD ZEITUNG OUT) In this photo illustration, a TikTok App in the … [+] IOS App Store on May 03, 2021 in Bargteheide, Germany. (Photo by Katja Knupper/Die Fotowerft/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
“Coming from a middle-class family that was not wealthy it’s very upsetting to see people losing large swathes of money on crypto and NFTs. Sometimes being people’s retirement money or savings. The Federal Trade Commission indicated this recently with a detailed report, cybersecurity in crypto is paramount and a sector I am also honing in on.” He said.
Through his company, Meyers is also writing a Salesforce security short-form book that is geared at helping to educate companies on how to avoid leaking data in their Salesforce Public Sites and Communities. He is also starting an Instagram channel to help those who are on their journey to grow their career.
Matt Meyers – Salesforce To Integrate With TikTok And New NFT Platform.
Adapts
Meyers added, “I had dedicated my life and career to Salesforce and finally it had paid over. I continued to work my way up until finally I reached a director level and led all of Salesforce’s program architects in the public sector. It was at this time that I realized again that I wanted more. I decided that I wanted to be more independent and run my own company.”
“So I left Salesforce and made a relationship with a major Salesforce consulting firm and while working independently for them partnered with someone and started to grow my own company.”
He continued, “I found that I met many new and younger people wanting to join the journey just as I had years before. I saw their struggles so I decided to start to help them to succeed and taught them as I wished I was taught.”
“Even as I grew my company I still wanted to help others on their journey as well. So I realized that the best way to do this was to look to social media as that is the best way to connect with people.”
Meyers insisted that Salesforce will continue to introduce new – and perhaps daunting – features as time goes on but it’s key for the company to remain at the forefront of technology and user experience, otherwise it could lose its spot as arguably the most renowned SaaS platform in the world.
HotelRunner awarded Best Overall Performing Provider, a very prestigious award within the scope of Booking.com’s Connectivity Partner Achievement Awards 2020
Press Release –
updated: May 20, 2021
LONDON, May 20, 2021 (Newswire.com)
– The leading sales channel management platform and B2B network for the travel industry, HotelRunner has been awarded Best Overall Performing Provider by Booking.com, one of the world’s leading digital travel companies, a very prestigious award within Booking.com’s 2020 Connectivity Partner Achievement Awards 2020.
HotelRunner has long collaborated closely with Booking.com to increase the revenue of its property partners through digitalization. The partnership has seen HotelRunner crowned Premier Connectivity Partner for three consecutive years since its inception including 2021, Preferred IT Partner for four years before that, Top Connectivity Performer in 2018, and Connectivity Advisory Board Member for more than two years.
Despite the many pandemic-related challenges facing the hospitality and tourism industries over the last year, HotelRunner has continued to achieve extraordinary success with Booking.com, offering operational, technological, financial, and educational support to ensure their accommodation partners remained connected, continued to develop their businesses, and invested in the future of their properties.
HotelRunner exceeded every performance benchmark set, including quality of service delivered, agile support provided, increase in bookings via Booking.com, and the technology infrastructure required to integrate Booking.com APIs successfully in 2020.
Eddy Veldhuizen, Director Connectivity Partnerships at Booking.com, said “The partnership programme is the foundation of how we want to collaborate with providers and what we expect them to deliver. The partnership programme has three levels, and we are delighted that HotelRunner has been at the highest level (the Premier partnership) for many years. This means that both Booking.com and our accommodation partners are working with the best of the best. This year, more than ever, we value the dedication and hard work of HotelRunner and are glad they are committed to growing together.”
Riza Kaynak, Director of Demand Partnerships at HotelRunner, said “Our long-standing partnership with Booking.com and the dedicated and hard work of both companies, especially during the pandemic, are very valuable to us. As HotelRunner, we are thrilled and proud to receive the Best Overall Performing Provider title within the scope of Connectivity Partner Achievement Awards 2020. With the common goal of maximizing the performance of our properties on Booking.com, we ensure that all necessary technology is developed, integrated with our platform, and made available affordably, and we increase the bookings and revenues of our properties by initiating the creation of new business and integration models. As we did during the pandemic, we will continue to work shoulder to shoulder for the success of our joint properties in the future. We look forward to making a difference in the travel technology industry and reaching outstanding achievements together with Booking.com in 2021.”
Aiming to bring together the right property with the right guest audience in the right market and increase the revenues of the accommodation properties on its platform exponentially with every innovation it undertakes, HotelRunner continues to lead the industry thanks to its successful strategic partnership with Booking.com. As a result, they serve as the pioneers of the industry in terms of connectivity experience, powerful technology, and innovation.
HotelRunner, which has more than 41,000 accommodation partners from 193 countries of all types and sizes including boutique hotels, chain and resort hotels, bed and breakfasts, bungalows, and villas, will continue to increase the revenues and performances of its joint properties and the newly acquired ones. The company will cooperate closely with Booking.com to make sure the accommodations get the most out of this partnership in the upcoming period.
Hosting more than 50 million transactions a day, offering an end-to-end platform to the entire world with dozens of different products and services, and working to offer new markets to both property and agency partners with strategic partnerships, HotelRunner will continue to lead the industry globally with innovative products and features and new acquisitions, which will be announced in the upcoming period.
Media Contact:
Andrew Gogus media@hotelrunner.com
About HotelRunner
HotelRunner is a distribution platform and B2B network for accommodations and travel agencies to find, contract, connect and transact with each other online. HotelRunner has more than 41,000 accommodation partners and over 150 travel agency partners from 193 countries. HotelRunner is a Booking.com Premier Connectivity Partner, Expedia Elite Partner, Airbnb Software Partner, Agoda Innovative Supplier, Oracle Gold, Hotelbeds and Google Hotel Ads Partner.
About Booking.com
Founded in 1996 in Amsterdam, Booking.com has grown from a small Dutch startup to one of the world’s leading digital travel companies. Part of Booking Holdings Inc., Booking.com’s mission is to make it easier for everyone to experience the world whenever it’s safe to do so again. By investing in the technology that helps take the friction out of travel, Booking.com seamlessly connects millions of travelers with memorable experiences, a range of transportation options and incredible places to stay – from homes to hotels and much more. As one of the world’s largest travel marketplaces for both established brands and entrepreneurs of all sizes, Booking.com enables properties all over the world to reach a global audience and grow their businesses. Booking.com is available in 44 languages and offers more than 28 million total reported accommodation listings, including more than 6.4 million listings of homes, apartments and other unique places to stay. No matter where you want to go or what you want to do, Booking.com makes it easy and backs it all up with 24/7 customer support.
The Expedia Group Connectivity Partner Program recognizes and rewards top connectivity providers for maintaining high-quality software connections and helping lodging partners grow their business on the Expedia Group platform.
Press Release –
updated: May 12, 2021
London, United Kingdom, May 12, 2021 (Newswire.com)
– HotelRunner, the leading sales channel management platform and B2B network, today announced their status as an Elite Connectivity Partner, the highest designation available in Expedia Group’s Connectivity Partner Program. The Expedia Group Connectivity Partner Program recognizes and rewards top connectivity providers – including channel managers, property management systems, central reservation systems, and other vendors – for maintaining high-quality connections and helping lodging properties grow their business on the Expedia Group marketplace.
The Elite Connectivity Partner designation is awarded to an exclusive group of top-performing Expedia Group lodging connectivity providers, including HotelRunner, who offer the highest-quality software connection to the Expedia Group marketplace and comprehensive functionality. To be eligible for Elite status, Expedia Group connectivity providers are rated on several technical and performance criteria to ensure they:
Enable a wide range of tools and capabilities in the Expedia Group marketplace.
Provide a quality Expedia Group connection with a reliable user experience.
Streamline the Expedia Group onboarding experience with high-quality support for properties.
Maintain a strong portfolio of high-performing properties in the Expedia Group marketplace.
“Our Elite Connectivity Partners are leaders in the industry, demonstrated by their innovative technology efforts to ensure their customers perform on our platform and clear understanding of traveler needs,” said Lisa Chen, Vice President, Global Lodging Connectivity & Solutions at Expedia Group. “By choosing to work with HotelRunner, an Elite Connectivity Partner, lodging property managers can be confident in a high-quality connection that will empower them to perform at their best in the Expedia Group marketplace.”
Ali Beklen, Founder and Managing Partner at HotelRunner, said, “We have a strong and constantly growing partnership with the Expedia Group. On our way to achieving the Elite Connectivity Partner status, we have connected thousands of new properties to the Expedia Group, and we have worked together intensively to ensure that our existing properties benefit from this partnership in the best and most beneficial way possible for them. We are delighted that HotelRunner’s state-of-the-art technology and dedicated team have been awarded by the Expedia Group worldwide. We look forward to the new era of our partnership.”
As a part of its designation, HotelRunner will work together with the Expedia Group on the new tools and features, also piloting and integrating these into their platform. HotelRunner team will also work directly with Expedia Group’s leadership team, providing feedback and helping shape future products and technology solutions.
Media Contact
Andrew Gogus media@hotelrunner.com
About HotelRunner
HotelRunner is a distribution platform and B2B network for accommodations and travel agencies to find, contract, connect and transact with each other online. HotelRunner has more than 41,000 accommodation partners and over 150 travel agency partners from 193 countries. HotelRunner is Expedia Elite Partner, Booking.com Premier Connectivity Partner, Airbnb Software Partner, Agoda Innovative Supplier, Oracle Gold, Hotelbeds, and Google Hotel Ads Partner.
About Expedia Group
Expedia Group, Inc. companies power travel for everyone, everywhere through our global platform. Driven by the core belief that travel is a force for good, we help people experience the world in new ways and build lasting connections. We provide industry-leading technology solutions to fuel partner growth and success, while facilitating memorable experiences for travelers. The Expedia Group family of brands includes: Expedia®, Hotels.com®, Expedia® Partner Solutions, Vrbo®, Egencia®, trivago®, Orbitz®, Travelocity®, Hotwire®, Wotif®, ebookers®, CheapTickets®, Expedia Group™, Media Solutions, Expedia Local Expert®, CarRentals.com™, and Expedia Cruises™.
