Software & Online
AMPLIFY READING
(www.amplify.com/programs/amplify-reading/)
Amplify announced its new personalized reading program, Amplify Reading. Amplify Reading combines adaptive instruction with an engaging story world, ensuring that students are working on the skills they need while embedded in an age-appropriate narrative. The program contains over 50 research-based games mapped to specific reading skills and standards, authentic texts allowing students to apply their new reading skills, and robust teacher support tools, including an easy reporting dashboard and PDFs for additional teacher-led instruction.
BOXLIGHT ACQUIRES MODERN ROBOTICS
(mimio.boxlight.com)
Boxlight Corporation announced it has completed the acquisition of Modern Robotics, Inc. (“Modern Robotics”). The acquisition brings significant management talent to Boxlight by adding Modern Robotics’ current CEO Stephen Barker who will fill the role of Vice President, STEM Education. Barker has over 30 years of extensive experience in robotics and technology innovation, including developing sensors and components for Lego Robotics, and brings an incredible wealth of brain trust to Boxlight’s growing STEM offerings.
BRITANNICA LAUNCHPACKS KAHOOT! QUIZ INTEGRATION
(britannicalearn.com)
Britannica Digital Learning announced that Britannica’s LaunchPacks Science and Social Studies classroom learning platforms are now integrated with Kahoot!, a learning games and quizzes platform. Teachers can now use Kahoot! in a variety of ways. For example, a middle school teacher using the Britannica content set on Renaissance art could seamlessly access the corresponding Britannica kahoot quiz or create a kahoot of their own and embed the selected kahoot within the teacher’s view in LaunchPacks.
BULB DIGITAL PORTFOLIOS BULBLIBRARY
(www.bulbapp.com/library)
bulb Digital Portfolios released the bulbLibrary, a resource hub built for educators to help modernize learning for students. The bulbLibrary gives educators easy access to resources, equipping them to integrate the use of a digital portfolio in their classrooms and for professional development. Educators can find model portfolios, sample collections and pages, as well as templated content for customization. The bulbLibrary provides educators with timely resources for documenting their professional development during the summer.
CATCHON ADVANCED AGENT TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
(www.catchon.com)
CatchOn announced the deployment of its new advanced agent technology which provides seamless and secure collection of application and software utilization data across all major operating system platforms. Designed to support anytime/anywhere learning environments, CatchOn provides administrative and technology leaders actionable intelligence and data analytics across all platforms and school devices. CatchOn’s advanced agent technology eliminates the need for extra capital expenditures and lets districts see and experience their data shortly after agent deployment.
CAPSTONE PEBBLEGO DISABILITY INCLUSIVITY ENHANCEMENTS
(www.CapstonePub.com)
Capstone announces significant upgrades to its PebbleGo database coming in Fall 2019. The enhancements are a crucial step in delivering on the publisher’s commitment to inclusivity, equity and accessibility to benefit all students. Among the improvements will include simple and predictable navigation, text-to-speech on all articles, transcripts for all videos, alternative text for meaningful images, screen reader support, access keys for keyboard navigation, and compliance with Section 508 and WCAG 2.0 AA standards.
CDW AND LIGHTSPEED SYSTEMS ANALYTICS POWERED BY RELAY
(www.cdwg.com/cdwanalytics) & (www.lightspeedsystems.com)
CDW, in partnership with Lightspeed Systems, introduced Analytics Powered by Relay, a dashboard solution enabling K-12 schools to make informed decisions about their use of educational technology devices, applications and websites. With Analytics Powered by Relay, schools have access to an easy-to-use dashboard that helps them determine if purchased tools and applications are being used, identify opportunities for professional development, ensure digital equity district-wide, explore educational technology adoption rates and more.
CLASSLINK AND GOGUARDIAN PARTNERSHIP & GOGUARDIAN DNS
(www.classlink.com) & (www.goguardian.com)
ClassLink announced a partnership with GoGuardian to provide instant access to their device management solutions that keep students safer online and make teaching easier. This new partnership brings together two leaders in education technology that are fully committed to improving student learning outcomes in innovative and engaging ways. Additionally, GoGuardian announced DNS, a unified and scalable cloud filtering system with AdDeflect that helps K-12 schools filter all student, staff, and guest devices regardless of platform.
CURRICULUM ASSOCIATES READY CLASSROOM MATHEMATICS
(www.ReadyClassroomMathematics.com/LearnMore)
Curriculum Associates designed Ready Classroom Mathematics to help teachers deliver discourse-based instruction while empowering students to think mathematically and discuss mathematical ideas. This new standards-aligned mathematics curriculum provides engaging mathematics content for Grades K–5. The program uses multi-day lessons and instructional routines to help students understand important mathematical concepts, make connections between multiple mathematical strategies, and deepen their conceptual understanding by leading the majority of the classroom discussion.
EDGENUITY FULL ONLINE CURRICULUM
(edgenuity.com)
Edgenuity has announced that its Instructional Services offering will now include over 30 online courses for K-5th students. With these additional courses, Edgenuity is now able to offer an online learning solution for K-12th students. The courses feature self-paced learning, which allows students to spend more time on what they need and less on content they’ve already mastered. Educator tools including course customization and progress monitoring also foster a dynamic classroom experience.
GLIMPSE K-12 BUNDLE
(www.bundlek12.com)
Glimpse K12 launched Bundle, a solution that provides schools and school districts with insights on peer-school spending and provides the opportunity to group with other schools and districts for better buying power and lower pricing. Bundle integrates with schools’ financial accounting systems, aggregating the data so that schools across the network can see what their peers have spent per student on different products and services, and even for specific vendors.
ITSLEARNING MICROSOFT OFFICE FUNCTIONALITY ENHANCEMENT
(itslearning.com)
The latest updates for itslearning increases the functionality of the system’s built-in Microsoft tools and ensuring that content is accessible for all students. In addition to being faster when starting up, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint now support accessibility checking. The Word tool now comes with word count and emojis; PowerPoint has more transitions; the Excel tool now supports conditional formatting, sort and filter functions, improved pivot tables, pictures and shapes, additional charts and more.
JUNIPER & MIST SYSTEMS
(www.juniper.net) & (www.mist.com)
Juniper Networks announced that the company has acquired Mist Systems. The deal will combine Mist’s next-generation Wireless LAN (WLAN) platform with Juniper’s wired LAN, SD-WAN and security solutions. Mist has built the world’s first AI-driven wireless platform and an AI-driven virtual assistant, Marvis, to simplify wireless troubleshooting and provide insight into client and network behavior. Mist also offers scalable and cost-effective location-based wireless services to customers via Bluetooth LE technology.
METAMETRICS QUANTILE SEQUENCING SERVICE
(metametricsinc.com)
With the Quantile Sequencing Service from Metametrics, publishers can help teachers understand where their students are when learning math. Publishers provide MetaMetrics with their math content which is calibrated to the math skills and concepts of the Quantile Framework. Then it is sequenced using the Quantile measures of these skills and concepts. The publisher then receives a report to help determine the best way to personalize learning in their content for students with different Quantile measures.
ODYSSEYWARE & EDGENUITY PARTNERSHIP
(www.odysseyware.com) & (www.edgenuity.com)
Edgenuity welcomes blended learning curriculum provider Odysseyware to the company. Combined, Edgenuity and Odysseyware also serve more than four million students in thousands of schools and districts across the country. Demand continues to grow for personalized, targeted learning to improve student outcomes. With Odysseyware and Edgenuity together, educators now have access to more solutions to address blended and online learning, intervention, credit recovery, and instructional services and support.
NEARPOD FLOCABULARY
(nearpod.com)
Nearpod announced that it has acquired Flocabulary, a video and student creativity platform that uses educational hip-hop to engage students and increase achievement. With Flocabulary, Nearpod is deepening its commitment to bringing culturally-relevant and media-rich content into the classroom. Nearpod elevates student voice by providing a variety of ways for all students to learn and demonstrate their understanding. Nearpod and Flocabulary create the most comprehensive Student Engagement Platform that leverages creativity, culture, interactivity, and media.
PANORAMA EDUCATION INTERVENTION MANAGEMENT FOR MTSS AND RTI
(www.panoramaed.com)
Panorama Education, a leader in developing technologies for K-12 schools, recently announced the launch of a new multi-tiered system of supports and response to intervention tracking system as part of its Panorama Student Success Platform. Educators can now easily assign and manage evidence-based interventions across multiple tiers of support—universal, targeted and intensive—and can collaborate with interventionists, support staff, and administrators to support students’ social-emotional learning and academic growth.
SWING EDUCATION EXPANSION
(www.swingeducation.com)
Swing Education has expanded its services to help schools and districts across Arizona connect with qualified educators using the company’s user-friendly, web-based platform. In addition to Arizona, Swing Education is now helping to address the substitute teacher shortage and relieve the burden of substitute teacher hiring, screening, and management in California, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington, D.C.
SOAPBOX LABS & MICROSOFT CHILDHOOD LITERACY PROGRAM COLLABORATION
(www.soapboxlabs.com) & (azure.microsoft.com/en-us)
SoapBox Labs announced a partnership with Microsoft in which SoapBox Labs will bring its AI-driven child-specific speech recognition technology to Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to deliver a scalable and cost-effective solution for child literacy that will be available across global markets. The pilot project, which will start in Ireland and the UK, aims to demonstrate how the two programs can be used together to support accessibility, literacy and language learning for young children.
UBTECH & CEI NYC UKIT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
(ubtecheducation.com) & (www.the-cei.org)
UBTECH Education and The Center for Educational Innovation (CEI) will provide direct support to educators across New York City with professional development programming designed to facilitate the integration of the UKIT supplemental STEM curriculum into classrooms. The curriculum integrates scientific and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, English language arts, and math to cultivate 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, communication, creativity, team-based work and use of technology.
Hardware & Software
Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America (SIICA) (siica.sharpusa.com) launched two new lines of its 4K Ultra-HD LCD (3,840 × 2,160-pixel resolution) commercial display line. Sharp’s PN-HM Series includes the PN-HM651 65" Class, PN-HM751 75” Class and PN-HM851 85" Class displays. They each provide a brightness of 500 nits, are designed for 24/7 environments and are built to handle a range of signage needs, from simple set-ups to large networks with multiple displays.
LEGO Education (education.lego.com) revealed SPIKE Prime, a hands-on classroom robotics and coding system for grades 6–8. SPIKE Prime offers lessons designed to be completed within a 45-minute class period, including build time, coding and execution, a “Buddy Build” system that encourages students to collaborate, and an “integrator brick,” which allows for building together with both the LEGO Technic and the LEGO system platforms, further expanding systematic creativity and building possibilities. A digital app is also included.
Acer (www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/home) announced several new PCs for gaming and school use, including the Acer ConceptD, the Predator Helios series, the Nitro series, Aspire Notebooks, Chromebooks, the Spin 3 and the TravelMate P6. The ConceptD is a high-end Windows 10 lineup of desktops, notebooks, and monitors optimized for graphic designers and other digital creators. The Predator Helios and Nitro series feature gaming-oriented notebooks ideal for e-Sports, and the Aspire notebook covers a wider range of consumers’ needs.
Edthena (www.edthena.com) has announced the release of a new paper tripod. Constructed from a single, die-cut piece of paper folded into a triangular shape, the tripod allows educators to capture high-quality video of their instruction using mobile devices. One of the benefits of the paper tripod is its ability to fold up to the size of a business card, allowing the tripod to be stored and carried around with ease.
Casio America (www.casio.com/home) announced the new Superior Series of LampFree Projectors. Ideal for classrooms and conference rooms, the projectors offer incredible benefits to presenters including high brightness, low maintenance, flexibility and a new suite of Education Solutions. Features include brightness up to 4000 lumens, full HD resolution with crisp images and vibrant colors, a 1.7X zoom lens, and a next-gen mercury-free LED and Laser hybrid light source, and an operating lifetime of about 18 years.
