Digital Transformation

With funding from the National Science Foundation’s AI-CARING program, a Carnegie Mellon professor and two research assistants developed a free, open-source tool for teaching middle schoolers how artificial neurons work.

U.S. Department of Agriculture doled out seven grants across Illinois to help rural schools and colleges to buy equipment that includes distance-learning equipment, classrooms and spaces for mental health treatment.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine says a federal digital literacy curriculum is necessary to address the harmful impacts of social media on youth. The recommendations will be shared with Congress, the U.S. Department of Education, and social media companies.

Most U.S. schools reported having Wi-Fi access in every classroom in the 2020-21 school year, according to data collected by the U.S. Department of Education released last month. The figure was 96 percent in New York.

Amid the pace and constancy of technological change, it’s easy to overlook how transformational the digital era has been — and how the ability to pause, rewind, record, search and share has revolutionized education.

An initiative by the digital equity nonprofit Digitunity sent devices to over 41,000 students since 2021, but the success of the program hinges on tech support, device refurbishment and digital literacy training.

An informal poll of various IT professionals in education revealed that IT labor shortages and the potential loss of institutional knowledge are keeping CIOs up at night more than artificial intelligence.

The Education Technology Joint Powers Authority was born out of frustration with the procurement process. It could become a national organization in 2024 and expand to public colleges and city governments.

A study funded by the Institute of Education Sciences found that students taught by teachers who had had AI-driven professional development in math increased their competence by as much as one grade level.

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz have been using cloud tools and remote-controlled microscopes to give more students access to cortical organoids used in biotechnology research and education.

The New Hampshire Department of Education will cover the $4.8 million costs of Tutor.com’s 24/7 services for all students in grades four and up, including adult high school equivalency diploma candidates.

The New York State Education Department's budget requests include money for electric buses, a system to track student progress, and hybrid school for students in the juvenile justice system.

The Department of Public Instruction’s Digital Teaching and Learning Division has $1.25 million available to fund digital impact or emerging technologies initiatives at public, charter, lab and regional schools.

The 25-year-old education nonprofit Michigan Virtual is launching a multipronged research effort to study use cases, policy proposals, ethics and back-end logistics for artificial intelligence in education.

A 2022 analysis by the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation found that students who said that they were distracted by other students using digital devices in class scored 15 points lower in mathematics.

The New York State Comptroller's Office criticized the St. Lawrence-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services for failing to maintain accurate and up-to-date inventory records of the district's devices.

Community colleges in New Mexico will be host sites for equipment that will connect all public schools to the Statewide Educational Network, extending access to high-speed Internet to smaller districts.

The digital learning platform Solvably’s new AI Centers of Excellence challenge users to apply AI to academic or real-world problems. The modules can be tailored for K-12, higher education or professional development.