Digital Transformation

In the second of a two-part series, career school technologist Kipp Bentley considers challenges that lie ahead for ed tech, including the need to manage screen time, make change equitable and teach media literacy.

The New York school district seeks public input after the pandemic necessitated changes to its three-year technology plan, aiming to codify its policies for a 1:1 student device program and best practices for technology.

Working with the fintech company BondLink, the district has launched a website to increase transparency into how bond dollars are being spent and to track investor interest for possible future reference.

To get discounted rates and save member districts the trouble of doing their own procurement, the Northern Indiana Educational Service Center is working with LINQ to implement cloud-based nutrition software.

Hoping to stem the tide of declining enrollment and rising tuition, universities have partnered with VictoryXR and Meta to use AR/VR technology to create “digital twin” campuses and make online classes more immersive.

The ed tech company, which has created its own VR headsets, announced a learning platform for K-12 that can be accessed by any device and brings students into a virtual environment for lessons and field trips.

Some Alabama school districts are planning to install vape sensors in restrooms after witnessing a dramatic increase in students vaping when they returned to in-person classes after the pandemic.

A study by the Pennsylvania Charter Performance Center found enrollment in online charter schools surged 59 percent in the 2020-21 school year. Boyertown School District estimated this exodus added $5.4 million to its costs.

While a handful of higher ed institutions are now accepting cryptocurrencies for tuition payments, the trend has yet to take off at most universities for reasons such as environmental impacts and market volatility.

At the annual International Society for Technology in Education conference in New Orleans this week, a panel advised school administration and vendors on how to work together on data privacy agreements.

A Pennsylvania district's technology committee has recommended requiring families to pay an annual fee of $15-$20 per student, depending on how many students they have, to cover network service, technology and repairs.

Veteran esports leaders on Tuesday at the ISTELive 22 annual conference explained the myriad benefits of those programs, from promoting social-emotional well-being to laying the groundwork for technical careers.

Seeing a problem with keeping computers organized when they're turned in to teachers, an Ohio school district will assign students one device to keep for fifth through eighth, and then ninth through 12th grade.

A program being developed by Sutter County Probations Office in California will partner with middle schools to teach life skills in the digital age, addressing topics like digital footprints and cyber bullying.

Developers of the newly updated website say it will provide more transparency on how the state’s school districts are spending COVID-19 relief funds, and eventually how it relates to student outcomes.

A Monday panel at the ISTELive 22 Conference in New Orleans revealed how a coalition with the Council of Chief State School Officers and the Council of the Great City Schools is assessing ed-tech products and systems.

Kimberly Carlson, an innovation specialist at Lakota Local School District in Ohio, was named one of America's "20 Teachers To Watch" by ISTE for modernizing classrooms, such as with free laptops and a Cyber Academy.

A Texas school district this fall will implement the Raptor Alert System, which comes with a downloadable app that synchronizes responding entities with a website that manages the flow of K-12 district information.