Edtech By Marketscale

Teachers are perceptive. They know which of their students need a little boost when doing equations or who will spend extra time with a book. That’s become a much taller task, however, with education forced out of the classroom and onto the web because of the coronavirus pandemic. Instead of individual instructional interventions, school-wide interventions may be needed with many students not getting the hands-on learning they need to master objectives taught in the final quarter of the school year. “We’re missing two and a half months of critical instruction time. End-of-the-year instruction is critical for kids. That’s when a lot of those more difficult standards are taught,” said DeAn Jeffrey, a Strategic PD Specialist with IStation. “Without intervention support systems, students who were struggling when we left school are only going to be further behind.” One of the most difficult challenges is figuring out how to start the new school year, namely whether it’s safe to bring students back to the physical

As a company that serves 4.5 million educators and 45 million students in 140 countries and territories around the world, Discovery Education has been playing a pivotal role in the education industry’s response to the pandemic. In this conversation with Scott Kinney, Discovery’s President of K-12 Education, Remote Possibilities host Kevin Hogan discusses the immediate moves the curriculum company made to support their vast customer base, the longer term implications of the crisis, and the best practices other countries have been implementing.Hear more about :Discovery Education created a special channel within Discovery Education Experience—the Viruses and Outbreak Channel—featuring digital content that helps educators discuss the Coronavirus outbreak with students. This content includes timely updates on what the Coronavirus is, information on how infectious diseases spread, and essential guidelines for staying healthy. Discovery worked with content partners to make the Viruses and Outbreak Channel availabl

When Din Heiman, SVP of Strategy at Renaissance Learning, first posted his thoughts on the edtech industry’s responsibility to respond to the current education crisis, he expected to spark a conversation. 20,000 LinkedIn views later, his provocative thoughts, plus the contributions from others, have created a blueprint for future remote learning success.Marketscale contributor and Remote Possibilities podcast host Kevin Hogan discusses Heiman’s extraordinary message with him and breaks down some of the specific suggestions he offers directly to edtech leaders. These include:Survive. You probably don’t want to be surprised in the midst of a crisis to discover your solution doesn’t effectively scale after all. Or that your cash situation can’t bear the expenses created by spiking usage. At the extreme, the last thing you can afford is to see your company collapse — precisely when your customers (not to speak of your employees) rely on you the most. Think about that in the context of both your existing business

On this episode of MarketScale’s Online Learning Minute, host Brian Runo explores how even free courses, particularly in the area of graphic design, can deliver tremendous value. “[Graphic design] is one of the fields where there’s always something new to learn, and it’s also one of the fields where the majority of work can be done fully remotely,” Runo said. In particular, Behance, an social media resource owned and operated by Adobe to connect graphic designers, offers a unique online learning experience and connection opportunity.

Staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic has brought many some extra time. Now is a great opportunity for anyone to participate in online learning. By taking online courses, individuals have the chance to upskill themselves, adding new skillsets to their repertoire. These new skills could be useful in a current or future position. When seeking out online learning, Brian recommends three platforms. First is Coursera, which offers free online courses from top universities like Yale and Stanford, as well as from brands like Google and IBM. Classes are free, but students can pay for them to earn college credits. Second is edX, a platform that boasts over 2,000 free online courses taught by instructors from Harvard, MIT, and more. This provider offers classes that can help students learn a new skill or gain a certification. Third is Khan Academy, which features short video tutorials, intended for K-12 and higher education students. Users can take courses at their own pace, completely free. Brian sa

In the premiere episode of Remote Possibilities, host Kevin Hogan talks with Scrum master and remote learning veteran David Prior about, what else, the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on the business of professional training. Prior discusses the inherent disadvantages and some surprising advantages this incredible disruption has caused and what it might mean for the future corporate training sessions. Added bonus: wistful remembrances of airport terminals.Conversation takeaways include:What does the lockdown mean for the future of in-person professional training in the near term and long term?How can companies adjust to the new professional learning needs of their employees?What are some of the new techniques that are emerging from this most unpleasant of beta tests?

On this episode of MarketScale’s Online Learning Minute, host Brian Runo was once again joined by Lenovo Director, Global Education Solutions Rich Henderson. This go-around, the duo dove into the big picture of providing education technology, how Lenovo, the No. 1 global technology provider for education devices, is setting itself apart in the space, and how new innovations and focuses on software and service might help shape the future of education. In particular, Henderson said that access to technology and devices is the first step, but that EdTech initiatives can’t succeed if they aren’t backed up by attention to security and the provision of software and services. To that end, Lenovo offers LanSchool, a comprehensive for technology management in K-12 and higher education. With LanSchool, school’s are empowered to meet IT challenges head on by minimizing distractions and improving control, increasing collaboration, and more. By providing an assessment mode to lock devices during tests, real-time thumbnail

On this episode of the MarketScale Online Learning Minute, host Brian Runo was joined by the Remote Possibilities podcast’s Kevin Hogan, who will also begin a role as an education contributor at MarketScale. Hogan and Runo dove into Hogan’s two-decade career of exploring the intersection between business and technology, from the first days of email to the exciting and cutting-edge possibilities of today. For the past 15 years, Hogan has focused on education technology and remote learning, making him uniquely qualified to assess how the current unprecedented period of remote work has affected the world’s education and to look ahead at what our collective new normal could be. The duo also took a trip through many aspects of the online and remote learning space, including how universities were unprepared for the current period of forced remote learning, issues with Zoom regarding productivity and security, a lack of digital equity holding students back, and more.

On this episode of MarketScale’s Online Learning Minute with host Brian Runo, Runo highlights best practices for adapting and leveraging current content in a push toward online learning. Though building out robust and thorough courses with plenty of online-friendly and tailored content is ideal, these courses can integrate training materials, handouts, and more that have already been developed. Essentially, it boils down to this – having content in a course, of any kind, is better than nothing at all. To effectively utilize previously created content, Runo said breaking down that content into small, bite-sized pieces is critical.

The majority of students in the United States are learning from home through online education due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This change is an adjustment for kids and parents from both a technological and emotional standpoint. How can educators achieve success during such a transition? Dr. Jane Moore, Regional PD Lead and Coordinator for the Department of Social and Emotional Learning for Istation, and Crystal Smith, a third-grade teacher at Chapel Hill Preparatory Academy in the Dallas Independent School District, offered their insights on this extraordinary moment. With the need to quickly shut educational institutions down and move students to an online environment, Dr. Moore said most schools and students were unprepared to shift to online learning, and adjustments are ongoing. In many cases, students left school without essential online tools they’d need to begin their learn-at-home journeys. And the learn-at-home platforms are not standardized throughout systems, either. Smith’s own two children each lea

On this special episode of the MarketScale Online Learning Minute with Brian Runo, Lenovo Director, Global Education Solutions Rich Henderson outlined the high points of gamification and game-based learning in today’s educational landscape – and how those concepts have driven tremendous results. To begin, though, the duo took a look at the state of education in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and how this unprecedented situation might drive lasting change in the educational space in terms of remote and distance learning, teacher mobility and more. “Some of the things that I’m hearing from industry experts are that we were already moving in a lot of these directions,” Henderson said. “If you think about where the education space was headed, already, we were trying to untether the teacher from the front of the classroom. … This is probably moving forward that timeline by at least five years.” Moving forward, the role of virtual and augmented reality, true gamification and more could allow for learning opport

Jenielyn Padernal says educating students in a crisis situation can be as easy as PIE. Based in the Philippines, an area prone to typhoons, other storms and the occasional volcanic eruption, Padernal has been coping with interruptions to face-to-face learning since long before the COVID-19 crisis. That’s why PIE - plan, implement and evaluate - is so critical for Padernal, the Director of eLearning Integration at Cypher Learning, as she looks to help fellow teachers lay the groundwork for success in educating students who can’t be in the classroom. “Planning is the key for a successful development of a disaster-proof education,” she said. “It’s very important for us to consider the objectives. What are the goals we are trying to achieve? What are the questions that need to be addressed?” When it became clear shelter-in-place restrictions would be needed to slow the spread of the coronavirus, many districts were sent scrambling to get the right setup in place to allow classes to continue. They had to overcome

Retention is perhaps the most important part of learning – something Sabrina Tellez said she wishes she would have known when she started out in the world of learning and education. “We, as learning professionals, get so caught up in the initial point of training, and we feel like we’ve been successful after meeting that initial need, and then we move on,” she told JW Marshall on a recent episode of the Future of E-Learning Podcast. In their conversation, Tellez and Marshall discuss past challenges, current ideas and what artificial intelligence could be bringing to the field. Throughout her career of more than 15 years, Tellez has worked in various industries, including insurance, retail and, most recently, non-profit. While working at Academy Sports + Outdoors, a sporting goods retail chain in the southern U.S., she got excited about the idea of micro learning around 2014 or 2015. “Our sales force needed to be out on the floor as much as possible,” she said. “We built our learning in bite-sized chunks … whi

Often, technology dictates curriculum rather than curriculum dictating the use of technology. On this episode of the MarketScale EdTech Podcast, host Shelby Skrhak sat down with Julie Garcia, Program Manager for Instructional Technology at the San Diego Unified School District, to discuss how her large school district has implemented Boxlight technology for students and teachers. Before Garcia joined the district's instructional technology department, helping teachers more effectively use technology, she was part of the educational technology department that faced the monumental task of disseminating technology equipment to the classrooms. "Our district spent a good amount of time just trying to get the equipment out to schools," Garcia said. "A lot of our work was just trying to get teachers to understand how to use them and how the students would use them." Today, San Diego classrooms are advanced, 21st-century teaching environments. "We have interactive displays in the classroom, the document camera

Online learning is here to stay, and the $325 billion industry is not limited to just students. “eLearning” can be used to engage and teach employees, as well. Jennifer Stringer, founder of Square 32, joins host JW Marshall to talk about the future of eLearning and how her company combines marketing and education to empower organizations. Stringer said that, if “companies want to have engaged employees, in order to do that successfully, you have to provide eLearning opportunities.” She also said that Square 32 is actively helping non-profit organizations reach their target audiences through eLearning marketing. Holding the attention of learners is an age-old issue, no matter the setting. Whether it be a PowerPoint or an online class, Stringer said that one thing teachers can do to capture and hold attention is to insert humor or a story. Something as simple as a video or a meme at the start of a presentation can engage the audience. She also said to “add sound and visual to make people pay attention to what’s

As technology develops at an exponential rate, experts are racing to harness the power of tech in the classroom. With so many advanced tools at our fingertips, which one will be the key to enhancing student learning? The answer is more simple and surprising than expected. David Solomon, CEO of Lightspeed, talks about technology in education on this episode of MarketScale's EdTech Podcast, revealing the fundamental component to student engagement everyone is overlooking. For years, classrooms have followed a simple format: teachers talk and educate students from the front of the class. Today, little has changed and for good reason, Solomon said. “75% of what children learn comes through auditory processing,” he said. But issues arise when students can’t hear, be it because of noisy classrooms, a soft-spoken teacher, or developmental hearing complications. As a result, student performance plummets during a crucial period of learning development, causing educational gains to suffer down the road. Listening

Personalized learning platforms are like a pair of the highest quality running shoes. They can help you run faster, jump higher, and leap farther, all with the best technology you can get with a rubber sole. But if the shoes are three sizes too big -- if they don't personally fit your foot -- they're just a pair of shoes that won't do you any good. On this episode of the EdTech podcast, host Shelby Skrhak sat down with founder and CEO of Cypher Learning, Graham Glass to discuss the three core aspects that a learning management system should have. The native of England began his career teaching computer science at UT-Dallas, where he discovered the best way to help students learn was with individualized instruction. "Every student would have their own strengths and weaknesses and their own set of questions," Glass said. "Over time, I found myself offering specific advice based on the profile of the student." He made specific recommendations for books or videos that'd help a student, individually based on his o

On this episode of MarketScale's Education & Technology Podcast, the multigenerational workforce of today and the workplace skills of tomorrow were the topics of conversation. Joining the podcast, all the way from the Philippines, were the founders of Hungry Workhorse, Kay Calpo Lugtu, COO, and Rey Lugtu, President and CEO. Their consulting firm helps business with strategy and technology and maintaining relevancy in today’s age of digital. They had a lot to say about the multigenerational workforce and the skills they need to have now and in the future. Calpo Lugtu felt today’s multigeneration workforce posed as many opportunities as it did challenges. Boomers, Calpo Lugtu noted, need more time to adopt specific technological capabilities, where Gen Z workers may adopt the same capabilities more quickly. Gen Z workers also tend to work independently, which creates an opportunity to develop collaboration skills which they may lack. R. Lugtu added that each generation in the workplace learns differently, a

Reading is one of the hardest skills to learn in early development. Any parent or teacher can attest to the struggle students go through on their journey to reading fluency and comprehension. So, what is the secret to successfully teaching English in schools? Guests Dr. Victoria Locke, director of research at Istation, and Dr. Bill Fahle, SVP of development research at Istation, attest that the science-backed method of the “Big Five” is the solution to student and teacher struggles. MarketScale’s EdTech Podcast dives deep into this education strategy, unpacking how the “Big Five” foundations for reading can help every student become a proficient reader. In 1997, the National Reading Panel distilled years of research and studies into the groundwork for the “Big Five,” a series of steps that evolve to fluency: Phonemic Awareness Phonics Fluency with text Comprehension Vocabulary Like scaffolding, Dr. Locke said, the steps build upon each other, starting first with the early skill of phonemic awaren

On this episode of the EdTech Podcast, Alexia Sanchez, EdTech Director at CYPHER LEARNING USA and Canada, spoke with host James Kent about machine learning in learning management systems (LMS) and how AI plays a significant role in today’s LMS. Sanchez saw a need for flexibility in education through her years of experience in engineering, instructional design, and as an educational instructor. When she received her M.B.A. through an online program, Sanchez realized the benefits of the flexibility and adaptability of such a program and began to pursue a career where she could apply her skills towards that endeavor. Machine Learning is a subset of AI that focuses on one specific task. Sanchez used the example of how a machine can learn the difference between a car and a van through data gathering. The machine begins to graph the data by size of the vehicles, the number of windows, doors and finds the patterns of what makes up a car versus what makes up a van. Machine Learning builds an algorithm to develop a mo