In the lively world of kindergarten education, blending play with learning is not just beneficial, it’s a joyous necessity. This guide will navigate you through effectively using online games to gently usher your kindergarteners into the foundational concepts of language and numbers. Discover how to tailor this digital playground into an immersive learning experience for your young ones.

Here are seven best practices for using online games to boost learning and development in kindergarteners effectively.

1. Choose Age-Appropriate Games

When diving into the world of online gaming for educational purposes, it’s essential to select games that are geared toward the developmental stage of kindergarten students. Opt for games that capture their attention with vibrant colors and also cater to their learning levels.

This ensures they can navigate and play without feeling overwhelmed or frustrated. Including kindergarten learning activities at ABCmouse in your selection provides a mix perfectly suited for this age group, helping to cement new concepts through interactive play and storytelling.

2. Integrate Learning with Play

Integrating learning with play is a seamless way to enhance a child’s educational experience, especially for kindergarten students. When you choose games that are not just fun but also informative, children absorb concepts more readily and show a greater willingness to engage.

Creating an environment where play and education merge can establish a foundation for lifelong learning. By using stories, characters, and challenges that stimulate their imagination, children begin to associate positive feelings with the acquisition of new skills.

3. Set Achievable Goals

Setting achievable goals is crucial when using online games to teach kindergarten students. You want to create a sense of accomplishment without overwhelming them. Begin with simple objectives and gradually increase the complexity for children to foster academic growth.

Measurable milestones are also important for tracking progress. For instance, you might start with counting games that introduce numbers up to 5 and, once mastered, move on to games advancing to 10. This progression ensures that each child can celebrate victories along the way.

4. Encourage Regular Practice

Encouraging regular practice with online educational games is a strategy that can yield remarkable results in learning consistency. By setting aside specific times for game-based learning, you create a structured routine that students can look forward to.

Make sure the practice sessions are short enough to keep kindergarteners engaged but frequent enough to reinforce what they’ve learned. Consistent practice aids in retaining new concepts and enhances a child’s ability to recall information. It’s about finding the right balance.

5. Use Positive Reinforcement

Using positive reinforcement when guiding kindergarteners through online games can significantly boost their motivation and self-esteem. Celebrate every achievement, no matter how small it may seem. Acknowledging their efforts reinforces their behavior to keep trying.

Rewards such as verbal praise, stickers, or an extra few minutes of game time can go a long way in encouraging kindergartners to persevere. The positive association they develop with learning will carry over into other academic pursuits, creating a healthy feedback loop.

6. Incorporate Variety

Incorporating a variety of games into the learning process is key to keeping kindergarteners engaged and stimulated. A mix of puzzles, story-based adventures, and interactive challenges caters to different learning styles and keeps the content fresh and new for growing minds.

This variety not only holds their attention span but also helps in building a more comprehensive skill set. As they encounter different types of problems and scenarios, students learn to adapt and apply their knowledge in multiple contexts, enriching their overall educational experience.

7. Monitor Screen Time

Monitoring screen time is crucial when integrating online games into a kindergartener’s learning routine. Despite the educational benefits these games provide, it’s important to limit the amount of time spent in front of screens. Be sure to balance online activities with offline experiences.

Adhering to recommended guidelines for screen time helps prevent overexposure and maintains children’s natural curiosity for the world around them. Encouraging breaks during gaming sessions allows for physical activity and rest, which are vital for growth and learning.

If you liked this check out eLeap Launches News Performance Management. 

Featured image credit: Shutter2U. 

The post Online Math and English Games to Help Kindergarten Students appeared first on eLearningInside News.

DECEMBER 29 – The number of reported cyber incidents in K-12 schools and districts in the U.S. stands at 1180. Covid-19 and the introduction of remote and hybrid learning have only made cybercrime more frequent and sophisticated in the education sector. In the past 30 days, Microsoft Security Intelligence has seen 8,253,516 devices in the education industry encounter malware, making education the largest affected industry in front of retail, healthcare, and high-tech.  That number will only increase in the new year.

The K-12 Cybersecurity Act of 2021 was passed by President Biden on October 8th. This legislation comes as a direct response to the growing rise in ransomware and data breaches occurring in K-12 education, as found by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

From the day of its passing, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is to conduct a 120-day study into the specific risks impacting K-12 institutions.

60 days after the study, the director will develop a list of recommendations, including cybersecurity guidelines designed to assist K-12 institutions with potential crimes.

120 days after this, the director will then develop an online training toolkit for K-12 superintendents and officials, both to inform them of the recommendations of the study and to provide strategies on how to implement those recommendations.

Last year, the K-12 Security Information Exchange (K-12 SIX) reported the types of incidents and growing threats present in 2020. Cybercrimes included: Data breaches, class invasions/denial of service, ransomware, and phishing. Such common incidents occurring recently range from holding personal student information for ransom to hijacking a superintendent’s board meeting to project racial slurs.

One explosive incident occurred in March with Buffalo Public Schools, where hackers were able to shut down classes for days, steal sensitive student and employee information, and destroy vital school records. This attack resulted in a $10 million pay-out. A recent exclusive found that IT staff were cautious of an attack months prior, but due to bad judgment and an absent cyber insurance policy, they failed to stop the attack.

The transition into hybrid working has shifted the priorities of IT staff and cybersecurity managers, creating a brittle environment in which they have little experience of working. These attacks have followed a distinct pattern, in which specific types of cybercrime have been identified. The range and scope of these incidents have also been tracked across America.

A team of researchers at CompariTech studied data breaches in U.S. schools across 15 years. The highest number of recorded breaches were found in Nevada with 717,626 exposed records.

Districts most affected included Washoe County (114,000) and Clark County (559,487), both were hit by the Pearson data breach, as were many around the U.S. Regarding ransomware attacks, CompariTech found Nevada again to be the most affected, followed by Texas, Virginia, and Maryland. From both data breaches and ransomware attacks, big school districts have been affected the most by cybercrime.

Dr. Hanine Salem, a managing director at Novus Consulting Group (NCG), who has over 20 years’ worth of experience in public-sector development, explains what types of schools are most exposed to these incidents. “According to research from the K12 Security Information Exchange: larger school districts are at a significantly greater risk for experiencing a cyber incident than other types of school districts, as are school districts located in more densely populated parts of the county. It reports that there are a few reasons that might explain this pattern. First, larger school districts manage more technology devices and systems than smaller enrollment districts and have more students and employees using that technology. Smaller enrollment translates to offering a smaller threat profile to malicious actors and a lower chance of being affected by user actions (whether intentional or by mistake). Second, incidents that occur in smaller school districts may be less likely to become publicly disclosed than in larger, more urban school districts.”

Interestingly CompariTech found no incidents of breaches in Wyoming. According to Governing, Wyoming has one of the smallest numbers of school districts (48), and lowest student enrollments (92,563). These numbers are in parallel to high-risk states like California and Arizona, which were hit the hardest with data breaches. Their total number of districts are (941) and (226), respectively.

There is a clear pattern indicating that schools and districts that deal with a larger number of students, thus larger volumes of information, are most affected by cybercrime.

Dr. Hanine Salem explains how schools are not doing enough to protect and inform students about the cybercrime affecting them.

“With federal funding as a result of COVID, right now, schools have a unique opportunity to pay for training courses like the Cyber Citizenship course.” Said Dr. Salem. “If a school, is improving cybersecurity to better meet the educational and other needs of students related to preventing, preparing for, or responding to COVID-19, it may use Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) funds.”

NCG’s Cyber Citizenship course was designed to teach students the fundamentals of cyber security and how to stay safe online when using technology. Non-governmental cybersecurity platforms have been tirelessly providing online resources and information on cybersecurity since before the pandemic, and have only been developing their services. K-12 SIX has their K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center, which provides an up-to-date map of recorded cybercrime incidents in K-12 schools, and a cybersecurity self-assessment service intended for K-12 IT and cybersecurity managers. Fortinet and Dell Technologies also provide cybersecurity software and information for K-12 schools and districts, with solutions for network and cloud security. Along with these companies, there are numerous courses available online concerning K-12 cybersecurity and how to stay safe online from Coursera to Udemy.

EdTech companies are holding the fort for both assisting schools with their security and teaching students about cybercrime.

“Students need to learn to be their own best defense against cybercriminals. Children and youth are often considered to be soft targets, mainly because they have not yet been trained on basic cybersecurity subjects and ways to protect themselves and their devices, making them an easy gateway into the more valuable home and school devices and networks.” Said Dr. Salem.

The results of the CISA director’s study will be revealed in early 2022. With a large amount of information and resources available online from EdTech companies and organizations, the government can provide K-12 schools with a stronger line of defense from recurring cybercrime.

Featured Image: Mikhail Nilov. 

The post The K-12 Cybersecurity Act of 2021 and The State of Cyber Crime in Education appeared first on eLearningInside News.

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich.- Gale, a Cengage company, has partnered with social and emotional learning (SEL) innovator IMAGO, to launch an online SEL and career readiness platform, Gale Presents: Imago. The video-based platform, covering content from cognitive flexibility to convergent thinking, will be available to K-12 schools and curriculums across the country. With a focus on soft skills development, the learning tool will be used to improve emotional intelligence and social skills among young learners.

“As a society, we haven’t always prioritized personal health and well-being preventively, and we are still helping to normalize mental wellness intervention.” Said Lemma Shomali, a senior director of product management and strategy for domestic learning at Gale. “Gale Presents: Imago will help schools achieve both for their students. The lessons included on the platform will help users understand that wellness, health, and emotional well-being are as critical to developing skills and habits as other “academic” skills, like reading and writing.”

A 2019 psychological study, found among 450 employees of various enterprises, that there was a significant positive effect emotional intelligence had on job performance and satisfaction, which lowered the chances of burnout.

The study also provided evidence showing how high levels of emotional intelligence can act as a competitive advantage for employees. A further study conducted by TalentSMartEQ found among employees of various sectors and levels, that 90% of top performers were high in emotional intelligence, with a higher average income per year.

Gale Presents: Imago is designed to facilitate both synchronous and asynchronous lessons with a wide range of accessibility, so students can access their content at any time, anywhere.

The platform also includes family wellness lessons, which focus on areas such as loneliness, anger, and grief.

“What our partnership with Gale can best control is providing individuals and families with the knowledge, language, mindsets, and emotional intelligence skills to use in their lives and model it in their circles. A healthy home is made with healthy habits.” Said Spencer Wallace, Head of Growth at IMAGO. “Family wellness lessons are a product of the unfortunately frequent school district response to crises such as wildfires in California that annually are closing schools and displacing families. Provided free to families, these wellness lessons are a tool to support well-being in schools and beyond.”

Career readiness is an essential conversation for students. Career counselor Jonie Watanabe Tsuji stressed the importance of starting conversations early for young learners and giving them the space to figure out what they want to do outside of academia. “To me, career readiness is a student who has a good sense of him/herself and is willing to listen and have a conversation about the world of work,” Tsuji explained.

On the purpose of Gale Presents: Imago, Wallace says, “our mission is to embed social and emotional learning into every aspect of the human experience to equip students with the critical skills and knowledge for workforce readiness, success, and beyond.”

Though currently available only on K-12 curriculums, IMAGO has mentioned that they are interested in collaboration and looking into expanding Gale Presents: Imago to a higher education audience.

Featured Image: Gale, A Cengage Company. 

The post Social and Emotional Learning and Career Readiness As Necessity: Gale Presents: Imago appeared first on eLearningInside News.

The E-rate funding application window is expected to open in January 2022. Officially known as the Universal Service Schools and Libraries Program, E-rate supports eligible K-12 schools and libraries across America with access to affordable telecommunications and information services. For the program, participants must carry out a competitive bidding process where they select the most cost-effective companies to provide the goods and services they requested.

The challenges brought about by the pandemic and remote/hybrid learning, have highlighted the main issues and resources needed by education institutions. From network connectivity to cybersecurity, schools and libraries have more insight than ever to invest in resources that strengthen their online reach to their students, wherever they are situated.

Though the window is opening soon, the E-rate bidding season has yet to pick up. According to E-rate compliance services firm, Funds for Learning, though most competitive bids will be posted later on in the year, schools and libraries will fair better by starting early with the bidding process. According to the firm’s research, a key contributor in E-rate delivering faster connection speeds at low costs is the increase in competition in Form 470 competitive bidding process.

As someone not so familiar with the E-Rate bidding, how does the E-rate process work?

The bidding process is designed to increase competition and lower costs. Once an eligible school or library determines what telecommunications goods or services it needs, it files Form 470, and possibly a request for a proposal (RFP). These forms provide a specific, detailed description of what the school or library is looking for, and serve as the formal request for competitive bids. Vendors review the requests and submit bids, outlining how their specific products and services can best support school and library needs. Schools and libraries then select the vendor they want to work with and apply to the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) for purchase approval.

Why is E-Rate so important for schools and libraries, and why should they prioritize it when looking into new technology?

Technology touches every part of our lives, and that’s a trend that shows no signs of slowing down or reversing. Schools and libraries can use the internet, apps, IoT devices, and more to give students unique learning experiences, make research and studying easier, and prepare them for future careers. E-Rate makes even the latest technologies affordable for any school or library.

COVID has naturally made an impact on E-Rate bidding, the count of Form 470s is lower than it has been in recent years. Why do you think there has been a steady decline in applications?

I think many eligible schools and libraries aren’t aware of how many technologies can be purchased using E-Rate. In the beginning, E-Rate was largely seen as a great way to bring high-speed WiFi to schools, and it is, but there are so many more products and services available that can help students, teachers, librarians, administrators, and staff. I think we need to do a better job sharing that information.

Has COVID highlighted anything specifically in bidding behavior?

The government realized the additional burden that was suddenly put on the IT staff, and allowed additional time for certain forms.

There are a variety of technology offerings and solutions available to schools right now. What kinds of technology do you think schools and libraries should be investing in? Especially during this time of remote and hybrid learning?

It’s important to keep students and all library users connected and engaged – with each other, with teachers, and with the world. Technologies that support that – whether by improving the WiFi, providing apps or VR simulations for an out-of-the-classroom experience, or more – are a good investment.

It’s also critical for schools and libraries to have remote access to their WiFi networks, so any technology that provides that is key right now. With remote access, IT can analyze, troubleshoot, and optimize networks even if teams are unable to be onsite. This keeps everything running smoothly, and makes sure that end-users (students, staff, teachers, etc.) have uninterrupted access to everything that depends on the WiFi – which is a lot.

Schools and libraries will currently be in the process of planning their bids. From previous years, what factors should they consider before making their bids, and how should they best prepare for this season?

Ideally, they all have access to historical network data and can see how network behavior and performance have changed over time. This includes the performance of connected devices and infrastructure. This data helps decision-makers predict future needs, which is great when it comes to preparing E-Rate bids. If anyone doesn’t already have access to that data, I recommend taking a month to gather as many data points as possible from the entire network, and then use that information to decide what goods and services are most needed.

Is there anything schools and libraries should avoid when placing bids/sending applications during the E-Rate process?

E-Rate is a time-based process, so the sooner one can start the better it is. Our recommendation is to not wait until the last minute to submit Form 470/471. There is a 28-days waiting period after Form 470 has been submitted. Similarly, there is a deadline to submit Form 486. On the process side, it is always a good idea to state “equivalent products are acceptable”, to allow an open bidding process, and prevent PIA queries.

It is very important to choose not only the right Category under which a selected product or service belongs but also the correct “Service Type”. Having either of these incorrect can result in funding request denial from USAC. Since USAC does not allow amendments to a Form 470 that has already been submitted, it is often good practice to reference an RFP linked externally, even if it is an empty one. Some changes can be indicated via an RFP amendment.

Why is WiFi automation necessary, and how do you get Wifi Automation technology through E-Rate?

School and library WiFi networks often consist of hundreds of devices – everything from access points to laptops, projectors, printers, thermostats, and more. These devices send thousands of data packets a second, and those packets have the information that IT needs to understand network health and behavior. It’s impossible for a human to analyze that much data, identify issues and their root causes, and resolve them in real-time, yet, that’s exactly what is needed for reliable, optimized WiFi. This is why WiFi Automation is necessary.

WiFi Automation platforms automate the analytics process. Depending on the platform, they can keep eyes on the entire network ecosystem 24/7, automatically alert IT to any issues, and provide actionable resolutions for quick troubleshooting, often before end-users are affected. This saves schools and libraries significant amounts of time and money. Wyebot’s Wireless Intelligence Platform is an award-winning, vendor agnostic WiFi Automation platform and it is E-Rate eligible.

Is there anything else you’d like to mention which I have not covered?

In case there is a need to amend a Form 470, one would need to submit a new Form 470. A commonly-used trick is to use a nickname, and then later change the nickname to “Cancelled”. This will indicate to bidding vendors to respond to the correct/updated Form 470.

Featured Image: SCREEN POST, Unsplash. 

The post E-Rate Bidding Process Open: What Should Schools Prepare For? appeared first on eLearningInside News.

As Covid variants make the current school year for both K-12 and higher education a continued balance of hybrid and in-person learning, education institutions are staying firmly in the crosshairs of cyber attackers. Just recently, Stonington Public Schools in Connecticut was forced to bring in a wave of the third-party breach investigation, mitigation, and response experts — and even seek assistance from the FBI — after it fell victim to a ransomware attack. And before that, an attack on Howard University that compromised its network and rendered WiFi unusable forced the school to cancel all its online and hybrid undergraduate classes.

Indeed, when vulnerable schools fall into the hands of crafty cyberattackers, the fallout is often dismal from both a monetary and reputational standpoint, but also because of the severe inconvenience caused too. A concerning reality for teachers, administrators, and IT teams across the country as they seek to protect the post-Covid classroom, where distance learning will undoubtedly remain in some capacity for the foreseeable future.

And while the Biden Administration’s recently signed K-12 Cybersecurity Act is a positive step forward for schools preparing for the future, the state of cybersecurity in education is one with a lot of room for improvement. Because the reality is that every educational institution is under more pressure than ever before to protect its endpoints against attackers who are becoming harder and harder to detect. The number of U.S. educators who say hackers targeted their school or institution is multiplying year-over-year is evidence of this, with the number of K-12 schools attacked jumping from just 9% in 2020 to 21% in 2021.

Unfortunately, there are warning signs that this is only going to get worse post-pandemic. Here are three lessons to help school districts and universities reverse this, and strengthen their classroom cybersecurity.

School Boards Need to Speak Up on the Cyber Threats Endangering Classrooms

The cybersecurity crisis has dominated headlines almost as long as Covid has. Yet, it seems like school boards have been relatively lax when pulling together a strategy to thwart attack attempts — or even talk to their teachers about the severity of the crisis. According to Morphisec’s 2021 Education Cybersecurity Threat Index, which surveyed 500 U.S. educators to gauge how increasing cyberattacks have impacted them, just 17% of superintendents or chancellors and 15% of school boards have expressed concern about the threat of ransomware to their institution.

This silence is placing students’ and teachers’ data at even greater risk, as school boards’ delay in educating their staff about the escalating consequences of cyberattacks means some educators are probably not aware of how damaging they have become. This silence also leaves their school or institution more susceptible to attack. Cybercriminals will likely have more vulnerabilities to exploit within a district or organization that doesn’t treat cybersecurity with the sense of urgency it deserves.

In the post-Covid classroom, where hybrid learning will be a long-term reality, superintendents, chancellors, and school boards must become more vocal on the cybersecurity issues threatening continuous learning and the safety of their most sensitive data. Failure to do so will undoubtedly have negative consequences, something the laxest districts and institutions shouldn’t wait to find out after they become a victim of a cyber attack.

IT Teams Must Call into Question Their Vendors’ Security Hygiene

This year’s supply chain attacks like the devastating SolarWinds and Kaseya breaches will go down in history as among the largest cyber attacks. They’re also becoming increasingly popular, due to how they allow attackers to target hundreds or even thousands of organizations by infiltrating just one. Data from the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) shows that supply chain attacks increased 42% in the first quarter of 2021 and impacted about 7 million people in the U.S. This is why it’s unsurprising that 40% of U.S. educators believe third-party vendors pose the biggest cybersecurity risk to their school or institution, more dangerous, they say than students (31%), faculty (24%), and parents (5%).

These concerns are certainly substantiated, with a March attack on Austin ISD proving that schools remain vulnerable to their third-party vendors’ security flaws. Austin ISD was breached when one of its technology providers, PCS Revenue Control Systems, was hacked. Even the SolarWinds attack, which prompted a probe from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, affected several colleges and universities, including Kent State University, The University of Texas at San Antonio, and Iowa State University. Meanwhile, Kaseya’s breach disrupted learning and forced 11 schools in New Zealand offline.

With the frequency of these types of attacks likely to increase — alongside the damage, they have the potential to inflict — IT teams and education decision-makers need to put more pressure on their third-party vendors to boost their cybersecurity protocols.

Decision-Makers Need to Allocate More Cybersecurity Resources to IT

Schools and education institutions across the country have been trying for too long to fend off attackers with few resources. A reality that has disproportionately impacted public schools and state colleges, whose funding sources are far less prominent than larger, private institutions. As mentioned prior, this is something the current Administration is addressing through the K-12 Cybersecurity Act and also within its $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill, which has set aside money for state and local governments and school districts to protect themselves from worsening threats. Yet the question remains as to whether or not these districts and institutions will leverage this funding. As it turns out, some don’t have the best track record.

According to Morphisec, just 18% of U.S. educators say they’re aware of their educational institution or school inquiring about government grant programs and initiatives designed to assist them with implementing strong cybersecurity standards and protocols. This is despite 44% stating that they believe providing their IT department with more resources would be most valuable to their school to handle cybersecurity. The current cybersecurity landscape is far too dangerous for it not to be a top budget priority. And in truth, investing in an effective security strategy is a lot less costly than falling victim to ransomware, with the average victim spending more than $2 million on remediation costs alone.

However, tackling this crisis is most definitely a collaborative effort between school boards, administrators, educators, and students. They must all educate themselves on the specific threats targeting their counterparts across the country. There must be pressure from parents too, who have demanded little of their children’s educators until now. (Only 18% of K-12 and higher-ed educators say that more parents have inquired about their institutions’ cybersecurity policies over the past year-and-a-half of remote-first learning versus the prior 18 months). As these learning institutions prepare for the post-Covid classroom, reducing their attack surface within in-person and remote learning environments must be prioritized.

Featured Image: Sigmund, Unsplash

The post The State of Education Cybersecurity: 3 Lessons for Protecting the Post-Covid Classroom appeared first on eLearningInside News.

From universities to corporate offices, learning management systems (LMS) have become an essential tool for people who want to share and distribute information online. CYPHER LEARNING, a leading provider of learning platforms across multiple mediums, has re-invented the way we use LMS, prioritizing user accessibility and retention.

Early last month, CYPHER LEARNING launched a range of new features for its suite of learning management systems, this includes its new graphical dashboard system for administrators, teachers, and students, the dark mode feature, and their site-wide surveys feature. These additions came fresh from their previous LMS updates, one of which is their integration with the popular payment service YooMoney.

We caught up with the CEO of CYPHER LEARNING, Graham Glass, to discuss the new developments of the company’s LMS.

“A lot of the learning management systems are pretty clunky, they’ve got tons of features, but when you log into them, it’s like 1980 or something,” said Glass. “We wanted to build something that was like the Apple of LMS […] we wanted to do a consumer product, but at the same time a very deep, very rich feature set. So we spent a lot of time on the user interface design of our product.”

CYPHER LEARNING’s LMS operates beyond the education sector. They provide LMS to universities and schools with NEO LMS, businesses with MATRIX LMS, and most uniquely, entrepreneurs with INDIE LMS, which the company is planning to invest more into in 2022. When discussing the different LMS, Glass explained how users across all sectors are looking for more accessible ways to share, and that even though NEO, MATRIX, and INDIE cater to different audiences, what attracts them to LMS are many of the same features.

“I was predicting that K-12 would love gamification the most followed by higher education followed by business and it’s actually the opposite way round,” said Glass when discussing which demographic responded most vehemently toward the LMS user interface.

Gamification is becoming an important factor in learning management systems, and online learning as a whole. Systems like Blackboard and, most recently Microsoft SharePoint have taken further measures the embed game mechanics into their products, as it has shown to drive user engagement. A report from Fortune Business Insights, which forecasts the trends in the LMS market for the next seven years, highlights the driving force for success in LMS is with platforms that give users the ability to “administer, report, track and automate the process of online learning courses.” This is why many organizations and companies, as the report lays out, have adopted LMS platforms to implement online learning methods.

MATRIX LMS has been adopted by businesses across America, from retail chain COSTCO to personal care brand Dermologica. Earlier this year, CYPHER LEARNING managed to secure a $40 million growth equity round from Invictus Growth Partners, marking their first outside financing.

Talking further on the mechanics of the LMS and their appeal, Glass explained, “if you use automation and gamification and some of the other features that are built into our platform, it’s almost like you are a moviemaker, you can script out the adventure that your students are going to have with your course, and you can make it so your course really surprises and delights. It’s not a boring thing anymore.”

According to a recent report by Adroit Market Research, CYPHER LEARNING is a key player in the international Corporate Learning Management System marketplace

The learning provider currently hosts over a million users across 20,000 organizations, their LMS specifically, supports 40 languages. The worldwide reach of CYPHER LEARNING is due in part to their focus on giving users a sense of community. As Glass puts it, by expanding to 25 offices around the world and providing an automatic translation feature for all LMS, users “in Poland or Malaysia or the Philippines if they want to select a learning platform, the fact that we actually have an office in their country, we speak their language, we know their customs, we adapt to their local pricing, all that kind of stuff, it’s really appealing to them.”

This push in international reach and scope in features are CYPHER LEARNING’s effort at creating an LMS which can operate on all levels, so users do not have to work outside the system to carry out necessary tasks. LMS which do not adapt to the needs of users in terms of accessibility and ease, rarely fair well with their audience. It is with this incentive that CYPHER LEARNING has developed the features it has, from their survey feature, or their in-system report card feature, a new NEO feature more typical of student information systems (SIS). Glass has mentioned this new addition will be launching in the coming weeks. The inclusion of adaptable features is important for LMS, especially at the height of remote and hybrid learning, as it eliminates the need of using different tools to complete an otherwise simple task, like filing report cards.

LMS as a Learning Companion

Developing LMS with multi-functionality and an acute focus on personalization pushes toward CYPHER LEARNING’s biggest goal for 2022.

“So one of the things we’re doing with NEO is that we’re incorporating matching learning and artificial intelligence so that NEO is going to become an active learning assistant. So if you are a student and you learning biology at school, or you’re in a large company and you are in technical support, and you’re doing various courses, our site is going to give you recommendations on how to improve your learning goals. We’re are also going to allow students to include their own learning goals, and we’re going to allow tutors and teachers to include learning goals on behalf of the students. Our learning platforms are going to be like this intelligence platform which is going to start helping people proactively on their learning journey.”

CYPHER LEARNING, much like its competitors, is in a constant state of innovation and improvement. The push toward an AI-backed system is a new development in the EdTech sector and one which proves most in line with the LMS 2021-2028 market report. Whether it be synchronous in-person learning or asynchronous remote learning, CYPHER LEARNING is leading a growing trend among LMS providers, in making learning management systems the first point of directory for learning and working online.

Featured Image: Van Tay Media, Unsplash 

The post CYPHER LEARNING and the Reinvention of Learning Management Systems appeared first on eLearningInside News.

The often-politicized idea known as school choice states that parents should be able to send their kids to whatever school is available. That can mean a choice between brick-and-mortar public, private, or charter schools along with virtual options. But a Pennsylvania district is beginning to offer an even greater degree of freedom. This coming fall at Garnet Valley High School, learners will have the option to take 11 different courses in person, online, or a combination of the two.

While virtual charter schools typically do very poorly in state and national testing, blended learning has begun to prove itself as a highly effective method of teaching, one that in some instances has been shown to be more effective than traditional education.

eSchool @ Garnet Valley

But as Garnet Valley director of technology, innovation, and online learning Samuel Mormando told the Philadelphia Inquirer, you don’t need to put all your eggs in one basket.

“We believe ultimately that for schools in the future, all courses at high-school level should be offered as traditional face-to-face, online, or a combination of the two — blended learning,” he said. “We believe that’s where education is going.”

“Our goal over the next five years or so is to offer every single course at Garnet Valley High School in all three formats and let the student choose what format best suits their learning style.”

The potential benefits of this approach are myriad. Learners will see a great deal of flexibility in how they approach a given subject. They won’t need to make sacrifices in choosing one learning style over another. They will also enjoy a great degree of flexibility with their schedule.

Garnet Valley created the 11 hybrid courses following the completion of a successful pilot program which debuted the model last year in an 11th grade U.S. History course taught by Jenn Lavender.

Lavender enjoyed the pilot because she saw different learners thriving in different environments.

“One particular thing that I noticed is that some of the quieter students — on the shy side, won’t speak out in class — it really gave them a voice,” Lavender told the Inquirer. “In some of the discussion boards … the students would really speak out, they had such amazing thoughts and comments … [but] in traditional class you could see they were still shy and quiet.”

The Challenges of Mixing Virtual, In-Person, and Blended Learning

This system also has its own challenges. Because learners are able to study in person, online or both, a class needs to stay on the same page. To make that possible, Garnet Valley teachers need to develop their curriculum for the classroom and an online setting. And that’s one side of online teaching that can often turn an instructor off altogether.

Still, many instructors are welcoming the change.

“That’s been my biggest shift, trusting them and trusting myself to step back a little bit,” said Christine Gumpert, who has taught at Garnett Valley for 15 years, according to the Inquirer. With blended learning, “it doesn’t have to be one particular topic they have to research. [The teacher can say,] ‘Here’s the whole area, here are a bunch of topics, what speaks to you? What are you interested in?’ ”

Garnett Valley has the benefit of using the Schoology learning management system, which is increasingly becoming a popular K-12 product. Teachers also make themselves available to blended and virtual learners via videoconferencing.

Garnett Valley administrators believe this investment in online learning will eventually lead to a financial return. Once the program is up and running, they will offer the online courses to learners in other districts. Tuition will cost $10,737 for high schoolers and $19,000 for learners with special needs.

“Instead of students going to traditional cyber-charter schools where the level of instruction and rigor is not comparable to Garnet Valley,” said Mormando, “they can send students to us.”

Cover Image: Wikimedia Commons.

The post In-Person, Blended, or Virtual Instruction? A Pennsylvania School Is Letting Students Choose appeared first on eLearningInside News.

In the face of poor student performance and potential state intervention, a Kentucky district is taking a novel approach to public education. Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) announced this week the “Backpack of Success Skills” initiative. The program, among other things, will help educators and parents stay informed on a student’s progress and make learning a more competence-based process with the use of digital backpacks.

Despite multiple images depicting backpacks that announce the effort, JCPS will not be providing students with ‘smart’ knapsacks IoT-style. Instead, each student will be assigned a digital repository online. When they complete a project, a test, a particularly expressive art creation, etc., they’ll be able to put a copy or a record into their digital backpack. At the end of 5th, 8th, and 12th grade, students will be asked to demonstrate their competency in five different learning goals to advance.

Using New Digital Backpacks, Students Will Defend their Progress

These goals include becoming a “Prepared and Resilient Learner,” a “Globally and Culturally Competent Citizen,” an “Effective Communicator,” and a “Productive Collaborator.”

On the one hand, this effort advances district goals to generate deeper learning outcomes. It asks teachers to guide students in applying what they’ve learned in a given subject to a more tangible real-life goal.

But it also seeks to fix a real problem in Louisville public schools. The student population at JCPS schools tends to be mobile. As families move, their children go to different schools. The district does not currently have any way of tracking student progress outside of their report cards. As a result, teachers have long struggled to identify students who are falling behind at new schools. On top of the backpacks, the district has also just invested $1 million in math and reading assessments. Those scores will be recorded in students’ backpacks as well.

“What we have right now is pockets of excellence around the district, where you have some schools that are doing some really impressive work,” said Superintendent Marty Pollio according to the Courier Journal. “But it’s not every kid, all the time.”

“We wanted to design a system where every kid, every student — no matter what ZIP code, what teacher, what school, what program they’re in, what level — has access to this type of learning,” Pollio said.

JCPS Faces State Intervention

In a sense, we’re burying the lead. JCPS is currently in the midst of an educational scandal. Following a 14-month audit of the district by the Kentucky Department of Education, it was found to be lacking in numerous areas. Interim Education Commissioner Wayne Lewis recommended the state take over operations to right the ship.

Lewis’ reasons included issues with the physical restraint of students, low achievement test scores, and a system that tends to leave JCPS’ most vulnerable students behind.

Lewis had been in his post for two weeks when he made the recommendation. Last month, members of the JCPS board voted unanimously to oppose the state takeover.

The decision is also questionable because Governor Matt Bevin has highly praised the work of Pollio and voiced optimism that the district is back on track. Facing a state takeover that would last up to three years, it’s difficult to see how policymakers could improve a district that’s doing supposedly phenomenal work.

The Editorial Board at the Lexington Herald Leader believe the move may be politicized. “Bevin and his former Education Secretary Hal Heiner, once a candidate for governor and Louisville mayor, may see advantages for themselves in using Louisville to impress Republican donors who want to break teachers unions and privatize education through charter schools,” the staff write.

Meanwhile, Lewis has expressed his intent to leave Pollio with a large amount of responsibility if the state assumes control. The digital backpacks are expected to roll out regardless of the outcome.

The post Kentucky District Will Introduce Digital Backpacks to Track Student Progress and Stave Off State Intervention appeared first on eLearningInside News.

On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos approved North Carolina’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) state plan for education. At this point, many states are still awaiting approval in the expectation that the law will go into full effect for the upcoming school year. North Carolina has joined many other states by encouraging educators to test personalized and adaptive learning in the classroom. But they’ve also taken a somewhat unique approach. The state law stipulates that, once certain measures and pedagogies are shown to be effective, they’ll be scaled and implemented throughout the state.

As the approved law states:

“North Carolina promotes new strategies that translate into emerging initiatives. Once shown to improve outcomes for students, such promising practices will be scaled and replicated into proven programs across the state. By continuously innovating and improving at each step, North Carolina will create adaptive environments for personalized, digital-age learning. Schools will support individualized professional development of educators and empower these professionals to adopt their own innovative ideas and strategies for instruction. In our classrooms, personalized, digital-age learning will allow students to determine the pace at which they learn and will inspire students to take ownership of their preparation for their own path to success through an immediate career, post-secondary education, or both.”

In other words, education policymakers are saying, ‘Try this out. If it works, we’ll use it.’ Given the current state of personalized learning and the use of technology in the average U.S. classroom, this is a deft move by politicians.

Personalized Learning Is Popular

On the one hand, personalized learning, helped by the incorporation of digital technology in the classroom, has increasingly grown in popularity over the past few years. Some have hailed it as a means to promote equity in public education. It has been found to be especially useful in improving literacy, learning new languages, and early math education.

But the research suggesting the merits of personalized learning is still limited. Especially outside of the subjects mentioned above, it’s wholly unclear how well the pedagogy and use of technology actually work. A 2017 review of existing research by the Brookings Institute goes into this in much greater detail. It also identifies certain phenomena that tend to skew findings. The authors write that research “commonly finds that when innovations are spread to new contexts and scaled up to serve larger samples, they produce smaller effects than were seen among the earliest adopters.”

Possibly more telling, the leader of a personalized learning company has recently expressed doubts of the efficacy of his own product.

“You start with a map of all the things that kids need to learn,” said Amplify CEO Larry Berger to Education Week in February. “Then you measure the kids so that you can place each kid on the map in just the spot where they know everything behind them, and in front of them is what they should learn next. Then you assemble a vast library of learning objects and ask an algorithm to sort through it to find the optimal learning object for each kid at that particular moment.”

“Here’s the problem: The map doesn’t exist, the measurement is impossible, and we have, collectively, built only 5% of the library.”

North Carolina’s Tact

North Carolina’s model, therefore, marks a highly effective response to the current state of the pedagogy. It’s not at the point where states can be confident in investing large sums, knowing that if they do it right, it will work. But there’s also a few good reasons to at least try it out, especially if that trial can occur in diverse districts. With enough research, the pedagogy is sure to move forward.

To be clear, North Carolina defines personalized learning with four “pillars”:

• A student having a “learner profile” that documents and stimulates self-reflection on his or her strengths, weaknesses, preferences, and goals;
• • A student pursuing an individualized learning path that encourages him or her to set and manage personal academic goals;
• • A student following a “competency-based progression” that focuses on the ability to demonstrate mastery of a topic, rather than seat time; and,
• • A students’ learning environment being flexible and structured in ways that support individual goals.

That certainly maintains the essence of personalized learning, but it also doesn’t necessarily attach some of the fancier tools tech startups have dreamed up to aid in the process.

Personalized learning has been hugely popular in states as they write new legislation as stipulated by ESSA. According to a report by KnowledgeWorks earlier this year, 17 states have included personalized learning specifically in their new legislation. Many others have adopted elements and/or pedagogical approaches that look a whole lot like PL.

North Carolina is by no means the first to test the personalized learning waters. Rhode Island has already begun a pilot program of the pedagogy. The pilot, however, was school-wide and their Lighthouse program received significant support from the [Mark] Zuckerberg [and his wife, Priscilla] Chan Initiative.

Personalized learning has already received a good deal of help and support in individual instances. It’s time to see whether it’s workable as a grassroots effort.

Cover Image: Patrick Fore, Unsplash.

The post What North Carolina Got Right About Personalized Learning appeared first on eLearningInside News.

Last month, eLearning Inside news reported on Washington implementing new technology learning standards for their state K-12 education system. Washington educators did not write them. Instead, they adopted the widely acclaimed International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) technology standards. Taking into account the dropping performance of U.S. students based national and international testing, and considering the often-vague nature of ISTE’s standards, we questioned the rigor of the standards. In certain districts and classrooms, it might not be the ideal governing document. But for highly motivated, creative, and up to date tech teachers, it’s a different story.

Benjamin Kelly teaches technology at the Caledonia Regional School near Moncton, New Brunswick. (He was the subject of a previous article about using Minecraft for game-based learning in the classroom.) About seven years ago, he came to a critical point in his career.

“I was doing the traditional tech program. I started to look around and I said, ‘If I’m going to stick out my career in this building, this isn’t good enough for me. The real life changing moment came when I asked ‘How is our little, rural school known? How is it known throughout the province?’ And the answer I got was, ‘We’re a pretty good Division B basketball team.’

(In Canada, high school sports divisions go AAA, AA, A, B.)

“I remember staring at the person and saying, no really, how are we known?”

“I realized at that point that our school needed to be on the map for something more than being a fourth-level basketball team. And I said, let’s try to make our edtech program not only known in the province, but let’s push it.”

“So I got involved in ISTE and the discussion happening on Twitter. So I’m pretty aware of what’s going on in the world right now—not just New Brunswick or Canada, but the world. And so when I come to work in the morning, I’m trying to make my program world-competitive vs. what the district is saying, that I should be at this standard.”

To be clear, New Brunswick doesn’t use ISTE. But Kelly participates in the community and is a huge supporter of the organization’s standards. He also finds himself in a situation where he has wiggle room without them. 

The New Brunswick technology curriculum is designed such that a majority of courses must follow guidelines up to grade 10. Both during and following those lessons, Kelly does what he can to bring in new tech.

Grade 11 and 12 electives “are pretty much 90-minute open slates because the person who created the course didn’t get too specific about what was required,” Kelly said. So you basically walk that line of what the suggested things to do in the course are and you bend them to your will.  So kids in grades 11 and 12 can pretty much do 40 hours of drones. They can switch to Unity, they can do Hololens work, anything they want really.”

New Brunswick’s Provincial Standards Work for Kelly, but they Could Be Better

“They’re not abreast. There’s a guy from the New Brunswick University and he was just heralded and tasked with coming up with NB’s own digital literacy strategy. And the whole time I was reading the article I was like, “Uh, ISTE has standards, and they’re a little more widely accepted.’ So I found it funny. I’m all for this guy doing the work, but there are also plenty of organization with standards already. So why are we recreating the wheel? Why don’t we just look at those and tweak them to suit New Brunswick.”

Canadian Edtech Groups Have Made Significant Contributions

“Our country has some amazing standards being thrown out there by C21 and others,” Kelly said. “ISTE is taking are looking at these standards and taking the best of them and putting them together. ISTE just has the mighty power of their size behind them.”

“If a school has somebody in a technology post who’s not even half as into it as I am, they’re not even looking at standards. They’re still introducing PowerPoint 25 years as the base block to a Grade 9 class. And that’s still happening in our own province. I think the teachers on social media really are starting to get sucked into it with discussions and chats at night, they get shown new things and then they dive into it themselves. But teachers who are just scheduled in—and this is a problem everywhere, teaches who get penciled in because there was no one else to teach technology—they’re doing the bare basics. They’re doing what they think is right, but they’re certainly not taking the time to look up digital literacy standards and they’re certainly not paying the price I’m paying in four weeks to fly to Chicago to attend a conference that charges $700 CAD just for the right to be there.”

“But it is happening. It’s one of those things where the principal says, ‘suck it up for the team, get in there and teach tech.’ And you really have to ask the question: what are the students getting there vs. what are the kids getting here?”

The post ISTE Standards–Which Tend to Be Broad, and Not Prescriptive–Benefit the Motivated Tech Teacher appeared first on eLearningInside News.