Digital Transformation

Since the SAT went fully digital in March, California has seen demand exceed capacity for SAT weekend administrations because of a shortage of high schools and other institutions willing to serve as weekend test centers.

About 1,400 students came to the Marriott Hotel in downtown Oakland, Calif., some from considerable distances, to take the SAT exam, which is now entirely online. Officials had to cancel the test due to Wi-Fi problems.

A speech language pathologist in New Orleans praises the use of alternative and augmentative communication devices in classrooms to help students with autism, learning disabilities, brain injuries or sensory impairments.

The Oklahoma Educational Technology Trust will give $40,000 each to schools across the state to buy iPads, Chromebooks, esports equipment, various robotics, virtual reality equipment and other tech supplies.

Schools that had already embraced the imperatives of Internet access, digital literacy and 1:1 device plans fared better for it during the pandemic. AI could be a similarly urgent pragmatic concern.

A public community college in Kansas aims to rely on Open Education Resource (OER) materials, or online sources, rather than hard-copy books. The college offers over 160 OER-certified courses, most of which are online.

While school leaders at Orange County Public Schools are not second-guessing the need to provide devices to students, which they've been doing since 2013, they are looking at leasing and other ways to curb costs.

The Academy at Larragoite in New Mexico rebranded in 2020 as Desert Sage Academy, an almost entirely online school for K-12. Some of its latest graduates say it offered flexibility at a time when they really needed it.

Two years after the Dougherty County School System in Georgia partnered with Apple to train teachers to use iPads, MacBook Airs and other devices to enhance lessons, teachers say student engagement is up.

Since implementing online tutoring services from Paper in fall 2022, Elko County School District in Nevada has seen significant year-over-year growth in the number of students using the service.

Pittsburgh Public School students and staff from 39 buildings, which are not air-conditioned, will learn remotely this week as outside temperatures exceed 85 degrees. Grab-and-go meals will be available for students.

In Bakersfield, Calif., Chris Cruz-Boone and other school leaders gathered input from parents, teachers and industry leaders on what every graduating student should have. An ability to innovate was one priority.

While generative artificial intelligence is getting all the headlines, K-12 district leaders still rank cybersecurity, data privacy and staffing as bigger priorities, followed by training and funding.

With help from a $1 million donation from Google, an all-male historically Black college in Georgia set up a new multipurpose space to serve as a classroom and collaborative computer lab for students and researchers.

The Howard County Public School System has contracted with an outside firm to investigate what happened last August when 20 bus routes were cancelled, leaving more than 2,400 students at 34 schools without transportation.

More than four years after it sold thousands of unneeded iPads to Cornerstone Technologies, Rochester Public Schools is suing the company for allegedly making late, insufficient or no payments.

To prepare students for a world of misinformation, legislation expected to pass in early 2025 would establish guidelines to teach digital media literacy in K-12 based on pilot programs at a handful of schools.

The college tabled a proposed agreement with CampusWorks for managed IT services, which would have required members of the college's IT department to either agree to work for CampusWorks or resign by Friday.