Watch this week's conversation above or listen/download the audio-only below.

The statistics are sobering: About 130 million U.S. adults read below a sixth-grade level; approximately 45 million U.S. adults are functionally illiterate, reading below a fifth-grade level; and 21% of U.S. adults are classified as functionally illiterate, unable to complete basic reading tasks, according to the OECD.

Matt Bardin, a former New York City public school teacher who transitioned into ed-tech with Zinc Learning Labs, has developed a platform aimed at addressing America's reading crisis. He argues that teachers shouldn't try to compete with TikTok's dopamine hits, but instead offer the deeper satisfaction of meaningful reading experiences.

His platform is currently offering free student licenses to teachers who complete training modules, as part of a mission to transform reading culture in American schools.

In the snippet below, Bardin talks about the state of reading in the United States:

In this next snippet, Bardin talks about how teachers shouldn't try to compete with TikTok but to engage them in different ways.

And in this final clip, Bardin discusses reaching peak dopamine levels and what comes next for education:

• Tech & Learning Conversations with Kevin Hogan

Educators talk a lot about teaching students to think critically online. But the uncomfortable truth is that some of the biggest offenders spreading misinformation right now are not kids. It is adults. And our students are watching.

Scroll any feed and you will see grownups confidently sharing posts that collapse under the slightest scrutiny. A fake Donald Trump post. A fabricated Jason Kelce quote about Bad Bunny. Misinformation about vaccines, shared without any supporting evidence or credible medical source.

Posts that seem plausible spread quickly, even when the speaker lacks expertise or the information lacks context. Different examples, same problem. People are sharing information without asking the most basic question: Where did this come from?

If you bother to share, you should bother to cite and check the source. That is the baseline skill we should all expect.

The SIFT Method: A Simple Framework Adults Need Just as Much as Students

Common Sense Media breaks media verification into four steps using the SIFT method, a routine that asks readers to Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, and Trace claims to their original context. Schools that teach SIFT give students a reliable routine for evaluating information.

Stop

Pause before reacting or sharing. Do not rely solely on whether something feels surprising, emotional, or too perfect. Misinformation now spreads because it feels plausible and aligns with existing beliefs. The Jason Kelce and Donald Trump examples seemed realistic enough to pass a quick glance. That is why it is essential to stop and reflect.

Investigate the source

Check who created the content. Are they credible? Do they have expertise in the topic? A simple guide to analyzing media can help surface foundational questions such as who is the author and what is their purpose.

Find better coverage

Look for the source behind the screenshot. Screenshots are easy to fabricate and often circulate detached from context. Check if reputable outlets or official sources have covered the claim. If the only place reporting a sensational story is a meme page or an unverified screenshot, that is a red flag.

Trace claims to the original context

Go back to the primary source. Screenshots are not sources. It is easy to generate fake or altered images that circulate widely without context. Posts without links are invitations to misinformation. If a link is provided, follow it and read beyond the headline.

The power of SIFT is that it is practical. Not academic. Not overwhelming. Just a quick, efficient way to keep bad information from spreading.

Adults Are Modeling the Wrong Habits

In districts where media literacy is part of the curriculum, students are more likely to have sharper instincts for spotting manipulated content than adults. They understand how easy it is to generate fabricated content and stage authenticity. They also recognize how repost culture strips away context.

The skills students are learning today should not stay in the classroom. Adults would benefit from the same instruction and should be open to learning from a generation raised with media literacy as a necessary skill.

Teach What Responsible Sharing Looks Like

Here is a simple rule worth adding to every classroom, staff meeting, and parent workshop:

If you share something, you should also share the source.

• No source, no credibility.
• No link, no trust.
• No verification, no repost.

As educators and leaders, we can model this. When someone shares a claim, ask them where they got it. When students catch something questionable, encourage them to walk through SIFT aloud. When adults fall for viral misinformation, treat it as a teachable moment, not a shame exercise.

The message is simple: Responsible citizens verify before they amplify.

A Path Forward

Misinformation today moves faster than ever. The answer is not fear. It is skill building.

SIFT is not just a classroom routine. It is a life skill. A civic skill. A family skill.

If adults want young people to navigate information responsibly, they must model those habits themselves. And if adults never learned these skills, they can start now.

Schools can teach SIFT in advisory, ELA, technology social studies, or really any classroom, and share the same guides with families through newsletters, school apps, or parent workshops so adults can build the skill on their own.

That is media literacy in action.

Watch the video above or listen by clicking the link below:

A group of 40 young developers came together in New York City last month to invent technological tools that combat hate and extremism in online gaming. The three-day program, held in partnership with NYU's Center for the Study of Antisemitism, challenged participants to create prototypes addressing the crisis in gaming, specifically the use of chat rooms.

I talked to Morielle Lotan, CEO of The ADIR Challenge Foundation, who discussed the inaugural GameChangers 2025. The fellowship identified immediate technological solutions, including AI-powered moderation systems, crowdsourced reporting tools, and dynamic hate symbol dictionaries—all designed for rapid deployment by industry partners such as Playtika and Decart.

Our conversation highlights the educational gap facing parents and educators who struggle to understand gaming's hidden dangers. We're not talking about a niche hobby here: There are 3.3 billion gamers worldwide. The average age? Thirty-four. Seventy percent of U.S. households have at least one gamer. This is an industry larger than television and movies combined.

And yet, within this massive ecosystem, there's an underworld—anonymous chat rooms where 83 million American players have faced harassment, where extremist recruitment happens, and where hate speech thrives unchecked. It’s a dark but essential subject. Have a listen!

California is poised to become the first state to require warning labels on social media platforms, following the passage of Assembly Bill 56 through both houses of the state legislature. The groundbreaking legislation, now awaiting Governor Newsom's signature, represents a significant step in addressing the youth mental health crisis linked to excessive social media use.

In this conversation with Mikey Hothi, Director, California Kids & Tech Policy from Common Sense Media, he emphasizes that this legislation mirrors successful warning label campaigns for tobacco and alcohol. With Governor Newsom facing an October 13 deadline to sign or veto the bill, advocates are mobilizing grassroots support from parents and educators to secure this landmark children's digital safety protection.

The law would require platforms with “addictive feeds”—including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat—to display prominent warning messages to minor users. Upon opening these applications, users under 18 would see a 10-second warning covering 25% of the screen, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms and has not been proven safe for young users.

The legislation includes escalating warnings: after three hours of use, a secondary 30-second warning would cover 75% of the screen, with additional warnings appearing every subsequent hour.

Research shows that minors often spend more than five hours daily on social media platforms, and with adolescents who spend more than three hours per day facing double the risk of mental health issues, the need for intervention has never been clearer. This legislation represents a state-level response to what many see as federal inaction on digital safety for children.

These top free sites for creating digital art range from simple web apps for preschoolers to sophisticated software for advanced students, educators, and professionals.

While some of these sites and apps for creating digital art can serve as essential tools for in-classroom or online art curricula, all are fun to explore and experiment with. The beauty for students of working digitally is that it allows them to easily create, mix media, and share their work with classmates and family.

Top Free Sites for Creating Digital Art

Autodraw
A delightfully simple site with unexpected AI capability, Autodraw invites the artistically challenged to turn their scribbles into legitimate line drawings created by real artists. Just start a doodle and select from among the predicted drawings. But it’s also great for the more talented among us, who are invited to submit their own artwork for inclusion on the site. The easy-to-navigate website allows users to download creations as png files, as well as share their work via links. No account required–just start creating.

Meta Animated Drawings
An AI demo project that transforms your fixed drawings into animated characters who walk, dance, jump, wave, and generally act a bit crazy, in a fun way. A great way for your students to add a storyline to their original artwork. Save and share as mp4 files.

Inkscape
This complete vector drawing program is fully free and available as a download for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but Inkscape provides an extensive video tutorial, complete with timestamps so users can easily view their desired topic. The online Inkscape community is another source of expertise for both new and experienced users. Ideal for advanced art and design students.

Exploring the Creative Process With ‘Live Art’
This art lesson from The New York Times features videos of artists at work, lesson ideas for educators, experimental techniques, and a guide to developing stories and characters. In addition to being free with no account required, all of the linked videos and other resources are also free with no account required (even Facebook video links do not require a login--just close the requested login window to view the video).

Photographing Interesting People in Your Community: A Guide to Taking Portraits
Just about everyone has the ability to take digital images with the ubiquitous cell phone. In this lesson from The New York Times, students will learn the five steps to creating compelling portraits with a camera or cell phone. After reading the article, students can try a digital scavenger hunt through the free NYT articles provided, identifying the techniques as implemented by professional photographers. Free article, no account required; all linked resources are also free.

SculptGL
Remarkable 3D digital sculpting web app that functions through your browser or as a free downloadable program. This full-fledged, powerful software supports 10 languages, file import and export, and allows users to immediately start sculpting, with no account required. Creator Stéphane Ginier provides useful shortcuts, as well as links to YouTube tutorials.

Random Art Prompt Generator for Kids
Sometimes even the most creative among us need inspiration. This easy-to-use website generates prompts to help inspire budding artists. Ideas range from a single word (e.g., gold, electric) to elaborate scenarios (e.g., Create a piece in a Caravaggistic style. Using pale yellow colors, evoke a sense of appreciation and place the subject in Capri). Plenty of prompts for an entire classroom!

ManadalaGaba
You don’t have to be familiar with Eastern religions or the popular drawing game Spirograph to appreciate this quirky design tool, which somehow manages to combine elements of both. The digital geometric drawing board automatically generates reflections of your drawn line, creating magical and perfect symmetry. Designs are exportable as .png images.

Bomomo
Simple and incredibly fun drawing site. By experimenting with their computer mouse, kids learn how the 20 unnamed tools and array of spinning circles can help them create artwork. Caution: slightly addictive.

JacksonPollack.org
A super easy and fascinating digital canvas that lets users immediately start painting à la Jackson Pollack. Created by Greek artist Miltos Manetas, the site includes no instructions, so kids can experiment to discover the rules of painting with a mouse or trackpad. How do users change colors, lines and shapes? Try it and find out.

KRITA
A labor of love, KRITA is a free, open-source digital painting software download for Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux, with a focus on illustration, concept art, matte painting, textures, comics, and animations. This full-fledged, complex digital program provides complete documentation, while a vibrant user community supports sharing and collaboration. Great for advanced art students, educators, and professionals.

Make Beliefs Comix
A comic creation site with a gentle, joyful vibe. Creator Bill Zimmerman packs a lot of resources into the site, including teacher tools and lesson plans, a Coronavirus Comic diary, ESOL/literacy help, special needs sections, and much more. Kids of any artistic talent level will enjoy creating their own comics.

Sketchpad
An impressive free site offering extensive digital tools to create, export, and share digital paintings and drawings. Site visitors can choose from many styles, effects, and gradients, while the User Guide provides clear instructions for creating and managing artwork. All Sketchpad features are fully free when used in the browser window. If you prefer the ability to work offline, a download for Mac and PC is just $4.95.

Toy Theater
Great for kids preK-6, this site’s art section includes a variety of simple art creation tools, including Spiral Art, Animation Station, Cube 3D block play, and many others. Bonus: Toy Theatre’s extensive collection of educational games.

• Best Free AI Image Generators
• What Is Canva And How Does It Work?
• AI Art Generators in The Classroom: What You Need To Know

The screen inferiority effect is the name scientists have given to the phenomenon in which students, and others, seem to comprehend more when reading print vs. digital texts. The effect was noted as early as 2008, and has been seen in recent studies as well.

“It's inconsequential for some types of content and consequential for other types of content,” says Daniel T. Willingham, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia

For leisure reading, the screen inferiority effect is minimal. “People love Kindles, they like reading on their phone, they appreciate the convenience, and so what that indicates is they're not noticing any inferiority,” Willingham says. “It's not ruining the experience for them.” 

When you start reading textbooks, however, the difference becomes more pronounced. “When you get to more difficult content, the effect size is larger and people do notice it,” Willingham says. “They keep rereading, they perceive that they don't understand very well.” 

Because of the extra time screen readers take with texts, readers may end up with comparable test scores to print readers but have to spend more time to achieve the same learning, Willingham says.  

Evidence For The Screen Inferiority Effect  

Studies since the 2000s have observed the screen inferiority effect. One recent study looked at whether this effect still occurs when you compare students reading on a phone or tablet to print, as most research into the screen inferiority effect had compared text reading to reading on a computer. This study still found a small benefit for reading printed text over tablets. 

Ladislao Salmerón, this study’s lead author and a professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Valencia, says though small, this impact could add up over time. “In interpreting this, we must consider that children in schools read every day, so this effect could be accumulated over time,” he says.

Despite this research, many question marks about the screen inferiority effect persist, including what exactly causes it. 

One possibility is called the shallowing hypothesis, which assumes that when reading on digital devices people are generally doing so for short periods of time and for short pieces of text. Another theory holds that the tactile nature of reading, feeling each page, and remembering whether it was at the beginning of the book or the end, helps provide more information cues to connect with your memory. Yet another theory has to do with personal preference. 

“One thought is it might be due to most readers having a preference for paper and dislike of reading from screens, making it difficult to engage with ebooks,” says Virginia Clinton-Lisell, a professor in educational psychology at the University of North Dakota. “I wonder if this will diminish with time as children are using screens to read from a young age and may feel more comfortable with the devices.” 

Clinton-Lisell is the lead author of a 2019 meta-analysis, a look at multiple studies, that found evidence for the screen inferiority effect. However, since that study was released she has conducted several of her own experimental studies that have not observed the screen inferiority effect. “I am honestly skeptical of my own meta-analysis's generalizability,” she says. 

Natalia Kucirkova, professor of Early Childhood and Development at the University of Stavanger, Norway, says there are a number of factors that contribute to reading comprehension in young children. For instance, whether they reading to learn or reading for enjoyment has an impact, as does the type of digital text being read. 

“Interactive features in digital books can either enhance or hinder the experience,” she says. “For instance, strategically placed feedback can aid comprehension, while distracting elements can detract from it. In other words, it is not the screen that is inferior, but the design” 

Implications of The Screen Inferiority Effect for Educators 

Salmerón believes the implications of the screen inferiority effect for classroom educators and school readers is fairly simple: “Printed texts should not be abandoned,” Salmerón says. “Tablets may be well-suited for internet-inquiry tasks, but paper should be preferred when promoting comprehension of long texts.”

For Clinton-Lisell, the takeaway is that educators should think about how to use digital texts more effectively. “I think the emphasis going forward should be on how to use interactive tools that are afforded by screens,” she says. “Like was shown in my meta-analysis, interactivity, such as questions with feedback and embedded glossary definitions, have great potential for helping learning.” 

In her classes, she assigns digital readings with social annotations. “This way students are more likely to interact with the material and take advantage of the affordances of screens,” she says. 

Willingham says that textbook companies are working to improve the digital experience of textbooks and understand what might cause the screen inferiority effect. “My hunch is that it's not any one thing,” he says. “For example, one of the things that people figured out fairly early on, is that there's a comprehension advantage if you have people reading on virtual pages and flipping those pages rather than scrolling on one long text as you usually do on a PDF. That accounts for a very small boost in comprehension, but doesn't solve the problem.” 

In the meantime, Willingham says the screen inferiority effect should be a factor in the decision-making process for schools and individual educators, although other factors, of course, need to come into play, such as print text cost, access, and age, as digital texts can be much easier to update. Personal preference for educators and students might also come into play. 

“There are people who like paper just because they like paper and there's a certain nostalgia or romance and it feels different,” he says. “Then there are tech enthusiasts who enjoy adopting new technologies.” 

• Study: Students Who Read Print Learn More Than Those Who Read Tablets
• Ebook vs. Print Book Study: 5 Takeaways

Cyberbullying is a form of bullying that occurs online and/or is perpetrated via technology.

Cyberbullying increased during the pandemic era and has continued to rise, thanks to students spending more time online and the prevalence of AI deepfakes. According to the CDC, 37% of middle schools and 25% of high schools reported at least one cyberbullying incident per week in the U.S. Globally, the WHO released research in 2024 showing that across 44 countries, about 1 in 6 school-aged children experience cyberbullying and 1 in 8 report cyberbullying others.

Cyberbullying can be particularly challenging for educators to prevent as it can’t be seen in school hallways and can occur off school grounds and after school hours. Despite this, cyberbullying still impacts students and can be an in-school problem. Preventing it often involves education, both of potential cyberbullying victims and perpetrators as well as outreach between education staff, parents, and other stakeholders.

Cyberbullying can take place on social media, through videos and texts, or as part of online games. Instances can involve name-calling, the sharing of embarrassing photos, and various forms of public shaming and humiliation.

This brief overview of cyberbullying includes strategies educators can take to prevent it.

What is Cyberbullying?  

Traditional bullying is generally defined as involving an imbalance of physical or emotional power, intent to cause physical or emotional harm, and behavior that is repeated or likely to be repeated. Cyberbullying also fits this definition, but occurs online frequently through social media or other forms of digital communication.

Chad A. Rose, director of Mizzou Ed Bully Prevention Lab at the University of Missouri, has said that unlike traditional bullying, cyberbullying can occur anytime and anyplace.

“We live in a world now where bullying doesn’t begin and end with school bells,” Rose said. “It encompasses a kid’s entire life.”

How Common is Cyberbullying? 

Cyberbullying can be hard for both educators and parents to recognize because they don’t overhear or see it occurring, and it might take place in private text chains or on message boards that adults don’t typically frequent. Students may also be reluctant to admit it is happening.

Even so, there is good evidence cyberbullying is on the rise. In 2019, The CDC found that 16 percent of students experienced cyberbullying. More recently, Security.org’s research found that 20 percent of kids and adolescents between the age of 10 and 18 experienced cyberbullying, and children from households that earned less than $75,000 annually were more than twice as likely to experience cyberbullying.

The WHO also found that globally, cyberbullying has been increasing in recent years. Between 2018 and 2022, the period from which the most recent WHO research is based, the number of children who experienced cyberbullying rose from 12% to 15% for boys and 13% to 16% for girls.

What Role Do AI and Deepfakes Play?

Deepfake AI technology can be used to mock or bully students in the school setting. UNESCO has reported on the deepfake trend in cyberbullying, noting that “students are using deepfake technology to create harassing and sexually explicit content of classmates and teachers, leaving lawmakers struggling to adapt existing cyberbullying laws to the new threat.”

This is a new area of cyberbullying that schools are monitoring and learning how to respond. Educators Stephanie Jones and Kerry Gallagher have written here at Tech & Learning that strategies aiming to prevent AI deepfakes in the school setting should adopt a “victim-centered approach.”

They add, “This means the goal of programming is to ensure students’ voices are heard, they are engaged . . . and they know how to seek support.”

What Are Some Ways To Prevent Cyberbullying?  

To prevent cyberbullying students should be taught digital citizenship and literacy, Rose said. These lessons and activities should emphasize online safety, remind students to think before posting, that posts are permanent, and that there are important implications to that permanence.

Other key steps are for school leaders to prioritize SEL and empathy education and to forge strong relationships with caregivers. That way if cyberbullying does occur, the caregivers of both the victim and the perpetrator can be enlisted to help put an end to it.

While some educators, parents, and caregivers might be inclined to ban technology use as a way to protect students from cyberbullying, Rose said that’s not the answer because technology is part of kids’ lives.

“We used to tell kids if someone is mistreating you, delete the app,” Rose said. “I’ve long said that we can’t just tell them to socially remove themselves.” For example, Rose said you wouldn’t tell a child to stop playing basketball if they were getting bullied on the court.

Instead of banning technology use, educators and caregivers need to teach children how to use technology responsibly and guard themselves against the negative effects of cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying Prevention Resources 

• StopBullying.gov - Practical advice, including warning signs of when a child may be being cyberbullied – or may be cyberbullying others.
• Teachers’ Essential Guide to Cyberbullying Prevention - Common Sense Education’s guide includes cyberbullying FAQs as well as grade-specific lessons and activities.
• Preventing Cyberbullying: Top 10 Tips for Teens - Student-focused advice from the Cyberbullying Research Center.
• Who To Call - The Cybersmile Foundation provides helplines for cyberbullying, mental health, eating disorders, revenge porn, and more.
• Security.org - A well-rounded collection of cyberbullying prevention resources, including podcasts, books, apps, and more.
• Do Something About Bullying - Featuring cyberbullying prevention support campaigns, news, resources, and more.
• Internet Matters - Conversation guides, legal resources, and links to cyberbullying prevention in social media and gaming.
• Stomp Out Bullying - Resources, videos, supports, and more for support in regard to all manner of bullying.
• National Crime Prevention Council - An array of resources including rapid response outreach tools and cyberbullying tip sheets.
• American Federation of Teachers - A plethora of online safety and cyberbullying resources.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic started, the Bronx was known to be home to some of New York City’s largest digital deserts, neighborhoods where many people do not have internet access at home. 

As the Bronx Community Foundation reports: 

• The Bronx has the lowest broadband adoption rates of any borough and the disparities are even more pronounced at the neighborhood level, with 38% of The Bronx not having access to broadband.
• Nearly 1 in 5 teens cannot finish their homework because of the digital divide.
• Roughly one-third of households with children ages 6-17 and whose annual income falls below $30,000 a year do not have a high-speed Internet connection at home.

These already-significant problems were amplified during the early days of the pandemic. 

“Students couldn't learn from home, people couldn't do remote work,” says Desmon Lewis, co-founder of The Bronx Community Foundation. 

Desmon Lewis and his brother, Derrick Lewis, launched The Bronx Community Foundation in 2017. The siblings grew up in affordable housing in the South Bronx and formed the organization as a way to help support the many nonprofits already doing important work in that community by fostering more collaboration and organization between them. The foundation was designed to be flexible to the community's needs. In the aftermath of the devastating Bronx fire that killed 17 people, the organization set up a page for donations. 

Back in the Spring of 2020, the organization shifted its focus to COVID relief, as the borough was particularly hard hit by the virus with New York City’s highest rates of hospitalizations and deaths. 

“We launched something called the Bronx Community Relief Effort,” Desmon Lewis says. 

Irrigating Digital Deserts  

The Bronx Community Relief Effort’s response to COVID included efforts to help facilitate internet access for more students. “We galvanized a group of about 20 organizations from all areas of the community, education institutions, nonprofits, digital equity organizations, health institutions, libraries,” Lewis says. “The Foundation brought all them together under the umbrella of the Bronx Community Relief Effort. And we started hosting these meetings every Wednesday morning, and we would all get on a call and we would share the challenges that we were facing, and most importantly, try to come up with solutions.” 

These meetings helped community members realize just how significant the challenges posed by digital deserts were and also helped various stakeholders work together to find solutions and provide technology to students who needed it. 

“We've distributed and acquired over 3,000-plus, laptops, Chromebooks and MiFi devices. And then we also paid for internet to keep students learning,” Desmon Lewis says. “We worked with public schools, and local private schools in the Bronx, to really get technology into hands.”

Attendance at the weekly meeting grew from representatives of 20 organizations to representatives from more than 60 organizations and the work the group did and continues to do was formalized into the Bronx Digital Equity Coalition. 

Overcoming the Digital Desert: Next Steps  

Desmon Lewis says that digital deserts in the Bronx are primarily formed by three factors, lack of availability, lack of affordability, and lack of training to use digital devices. 

Many efforts were made by schools throughout the pandemic to address the first two problems and get students without access to internet-ready devices. While those problems persist, going forward a major concern of Lewis is making sure the training element is in place. “Getting students comfortable and having learning about these technologies be a part the standard curriculum, and to teach students the benefits of learning these skills and where that can take them – I think that's still a major gap,” he says.

He adds part of overcoming this digital learning gap will be fostering better connections between institutions of higher education and K-12 schools in the Bronx so that younger students know about the college majors and jobs that are available and the skills they need to develop to pursue those careers. The Bronx Community Foundation has a new president and CEO, Dr. Meisha Ross Porter, former New York City Schools Chancellor. 

“Having led the largest school system in the country,  she brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table to help us hone in on the needs of our students,” Lewis says. “So we're extremely excited about what that could bring for the community in 2022.” 

• How Next Gen TV Can Help Close The Digital Divide
• How Public TV Stations Are Partnering with Schools to Increase Educational Content for Students Without Internet
• How Schools Use Drones to Deliver Internet to Students

A new application developed by The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) could help close the digital divide by utilizing cutting-edge broadcast TV technology to allow students to receive and respond to work assigned by their teachers. 

The first-of-its-kind application utilizes Next Gen TV technology. A prototype was developed by NAB in collaboration with Howard University Middle School of Mathematics and Science and Fincons Group, an international IT consultancy. 

“If you think about the characteristics of broadcasting, it's a really great way to reach people because you have a signal that covers a large area. Cell towers don't have the same sort of coverage area that a broadcast TV station has,” says Sam Matheny, NAB’s chief technology officer and executive vice president . “Not everybody has a smartphone, or a tablet, or a laptop, and even if we give those things out, they tend to break, or get used for other purposes. But virtually everyone has a television set.” 

What Is Next Gen TV and This Application?  

Next Gen TV, also known as ATSC 3.0, is a new standard for broadcasting that is currently being launched at broadcast stations throughout the U.S. 

"The deployment of ATSC 3.0 continues and has good momentum.  It is now live in 66 markets with transmissions in markets that reach over 60% of US households," Matheny says.  

Next Gen TV is based on internet protocols and allows for targeted broadcasts to be sent as well as more robust datacasting (sending data via broadcasting). Schools can use datacasting to send tests, reading materials, or other assignments that take the form of word documents, excel sheets, and much more. Students can also complete tests and save the work on their own devices. 

A prototype developed by NAB and Howard University takes the interactivity of Next Gen TV even further. 

“They can follow their lessons, they can fulfill the coursework, and they can complete their homework assignment, thanks to their datacasting,” says Oliver Botti, strategic marketing and innovation executive director at Fincons Group. “When they complete their assignment, they can submit the assignment via smartphone using a QR code.” 

He adds that this is a simple technology that is widely available and helps establish the two-directional link between students and their teachers, which is vital for remote learning and helpful for homework for schools operating in-person. 

For this prototype, classes were presented in a TV guide-style menu, and there was a color-coded system signaling to students which work was completed, ongoing, or outstanding. When a student completed work, the QR code was generated. 

How Can Schools Use It?  

Staff at Howard University Middle School of Mathematics and Science helped develop the prototype by suggesting tools and capabilities, but the technology has not yet been deployed to students. Even so, there’s a lot of enthusiasm about its potential. 

“We've been blown away by what knowledge has come out of this demo and what the opportunities are,” says Sean Plater, general manager of public television station WHUT-TV at Howard University. “The middle school was really excited about it from the very beginning. They've offered up some of their systems and content to help build this out, and it's something that they see as a truly viable option in this space.” 

Matheny, from NAB, says that school leaders looking to learn more about this application and how to potentially use it at their schools can contact him. They can also view a presentation on it on the NAB Amplify Website, and the technology will be presented during the NAB Show in October in Las Vegas. Matheny is hoping the technology will attract interest from schools and businesses. 

“What I would love to see happen is for it to be commercialized and for someone to take this prototype and to say, ‘Hey, let's really implement this,’” he says. 

• How Public TV Stations Are Partnering with Schools to Increase Educational Content for Students Without Internet
• How Schools Use Drones to Deliver Internet to Students

E-rate needs to be expanded to provide cybersecurity funding and at-home internet access for students, say early respondents to Funds for Learning’s annual E-rate survey. 

The FCC’s E-rate program provides discounts of between 20 and 90 percent for broadband access for schools and libraries. It’s importance has been highlighted over the past year as the pandemic has reshaped where and how students learn. 

So far, twice as many people have responded to the survey as last year, says John Harrington, CEO of Funds for Learning, an E-rate compliance firm. Last year about 10 percent of the approximately 21,000 E-rate applicants in the country responded. 

“It shows the significance of the weight of the discussion, it’s front and center on everyone’s mind,” he says. “The early results are consistent with what we saw last year and that is the homework gap is a significant issue in essentially every community. Having students connected wherever they’re at is absolutely critical.” 

The survey closes on May 15 and will be submitted to the FCC in June. Harrington says that it gives FCC officials an idea of what those on the ground are experiencing, and has helped facilitate past updates to the program. 

E-rate Needs to Cover Cybersecurity 

Last year, the FBI reported that more than 1,600 schools were the victims of cyberattacks, a significant increase from previous years. Right now, the E-rate program does not help education institutions pay for cybersecurity, which is something school administrators across the country want to see changed as soon as possible. 

“Security is by far the number one issue because if you don’t have that, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got more devices for students,” Harrington says. “You cannot operate a school network without cybersecurity, and the E-rate program today does not provide support for that. It’s like funding a housing program, but we won’t pay to put locks and windows on the housing.”  

Extending Connectivity Off Campus  

Beyond helping pay to secure their systems, educators want to be able to use the E-rate discount to help provide internet access beyond the school or library grounds as they attempt to close the homework gap. 

“One of the strengths of the E-rate program was that when it was created, it was created with the idea of connecting students,” Harrington says. “One of the biggest weaknesses is they drew a line around it, called property lines, which made sense 25 years ago to a certain degree but certainly doesn’t make sense today. That’s what schools and libraries are clamoring for, ‘Hey, give us the support that we need and let us have the freedom to deploy those resources where they’re needed most.’ A lot of that’s on campus, but also some of that’s off campus.” 

Future of E-Rate  

The U.S. school system will see historic funding in the coming year but Harrington says as the E-rate discount is reformed the focus should be on sustainable funding rather than funding for one-time programs. 

“The pandemic did not create the digital divide but it has shone a light on it,” Harrington says. “I’m grateful that there’s higher awareness, that there’s more discussions around this topic. Now it’s up to us as communities -- at the federal, state, and local levels -- to lock arms and address this issue.” 

While there are societal problems without existing solutions, internet connectivity shouldn’t be one of those. “We need to deal with this,” Harrington says. “It’s not rocket science or cancer that we’re trying to solve here. It’s getting connected devices into the hands of students and teachers. Let’s just put our heads together and figure out a way to do it.” 

• 5 Things to Know About E-Rate Applications for 2021
• 5 Ways to Boost School Cybersecurity
• How Schools Use Drones to Deliver Internet to Students

Officials at Northland Pines School District in northern Wisconsin are working with a tech company and local entrepreneur on a pilot program to deliver internet to students via drone. 

The program, which received a $100,000 grant from the state of Wisconsin, will utilize drones that are tethered to a power source on the ground and can stay airborne for weeks, and even months. The drones will serve as flying cell towers, able to beam internet down to rural students who live in areas without high-speed internet access. 

“We’ll be testing it over the next few months,” says Harlan Leusink, director of technology for the district. 

About 10 percent of Northland Pines students don’t have any internet connectivity at home, while as many as 40 percent have inadequate connection speeds to meet the demands of remote learning. District leaders have tried for more than a decade to close that gap, but there are no easy solutions. “We’re a district of about 500 square miles and getting wired internet connection to those households that are at the end of that 500 square miles is a challenge,” Leusink says. In many cases, it isn’t feasible at all. 

Since the pandemic began, school districts have gone to extensive lengths to close the digital divide, in some cases even becoming internet service providers, but Northland Pines School District is one of the first to take to the skies to try to solve this problem 

The Tech  

The district is working with the drone companies Spooky Action and Wisconsin Telelift, which was founded by local entrepreneurs Scott and Greta Williams. 

Several years ago, Scott Williams developed the tethered drone technology while working with a nonprofit in Africa. It was conceived as a way of monitoring huge game preserves and preventing poaching. Rahul Tiwari, Spooky Action’s founder and CEO, worked with Williams in Africa and used the drone technology developed there to launch his company. 

Spooky Action drones are attached to a wire that transfers data to the drone as well as electricity. The tether is 400 feet, but usually the drone is not flying nearly that high. “What we find is for most radios, the sweet spot is about 100 feet,” Williams says. “Once you go above 100 feet, it starts to dissipate. Anything above 200 feet creates a little bit more complicated issues with the FAA for airspace, so we definitely want to stay under that.” 

The drones also offer flexibility that isn’t available with permanent structures. “One of the neat things about this technology is you can put it at 100 feet and go, ‘Well, we're not getting great coverage there, let's go to 120 or go down to 80,’” says Williams. “So you can kind of vary it based on terrain.” 

Spooky Action’s drones were originally designed to provide access during events and as part of disaster relief efforts. “A hurricane comes in and blows down all your cell towers, it's pretty easy to put up a flying cell tower,” Tiwari says. “It's not necessarily to replace a cell tower, we're not going to be able to do that. The idea is to dynamically address the internet needs of a community without having to build a million cell towers everywhere.” 

While Spooky Action drones are capable of staying in the air for more than a month, that’s not usually necessary when providing internet to students. Tiwari envisions a scenario where the drones will be active during peak class and homework times, and maybe won’t be flying overnight. 

Leusink says his district is looking at the drone service as a proof-of-concept for where and how they need to deploy more permanent equipment. If a drone in a certain area gives students good coverage in that area, he says the next step will be for the district to look for more permanent land-based solutions. 

The Cost  

Emmett J. McBride, director of technology for The D.C. Everest Area School District in Wisconsin, started looking into providing internet via drone independently of the Northland Pines project. Though a mostly suburban district, McBride’s district serves many students who live in remote wooded areas where cable is unavailable and cell service is frequently nonexistent. 

Getting reliable internet to these students remains a challenge despite the district’s best efforts, says McBride. Wireless hotspots didn’t work well and satellite internet connections were plagued by latency (lag time). They explored building their own cell towers, but the cost was astronomical.

“We realized the couple towers we  wanted to put up were going to cost close to a quarter of a million dollars and they were going to cover like 10 houses,” McBride says. “Can you imagine telling your taxpayers, ‘We spent a quarter of a million dollars and 10 people got internet, and it's okay internet, it's not even great.’” 

McBride read about Google’s efforts with Project Loon, which was an initiative aimed at beaming high-speed internet to parts of the globe where it is unavailable with a fleet of high-altitude balloons. Google’s parent company announced in January Loon was ending, but last year McBride was inspired enough by the idea to begin exploring the possibility of his district doing something similar, albeit on a much smaller scale. He ultimately connected with the Northland Pines School District. 

Though drones are only one of several possible solutions McBride’s district is looking at, he likes the idea of delivering internet access via drone. “It's like a cheap tower,” he says. “We have a tree cover canopy of about 100 feet, so you have to build a big tower, and it's expensive.” But with a drone it's easy to fly above and around any obstacles. 

What Your District Should Know  

McBride advises connecting with others in the education community through organizations such as Digital Promise and to connect with local, county and state organizations about potential resources. 

Tiwari recommends reaching out to companies such as his so developers can better tailor their products to addressing the real-world problems occurring within districts. He notes that the challenge of providing universal internet is so complex, there is no one-size fits all solution. “The magnitude of the problem is so big that they're going to need technology like ours and technology like other folks have, all working in tandem to try to close this gap.” 

• Overcoming the Digital Divide: School Districts Create Their Own Wireless Networks
• How Public TV Stations Are Partnering with Schools to Increase Educational Content for Students Without Internet

To close the digital divide school districts across the country have paid for internet for students and provided hotspot-enabled devices to students in need. But a number of school districts -- from Rhode Island to California to Texas and in between -- have gone a step further and used pandemic-related funding to invest in infrastructure to bypass internet carriers, in some cases becoming their own internet service providers. Some have laid down broadband cables while others are beaming connectivity into student’s homes with cutting-edge technology. 

In some areas these practices were in place prior to the arrival of Covid-19, but efforts intensified and accelerated due to the increased need for connectivity during the pandemic and a growing realization of their potential for cost savings. 

Why Can it Be Better Than a Hotspot? 

“A hotspot solution is quick--get this to the students or the family. And they can turn it on, press the button: Boom! They have internet,” says Angela Siefer, executive director at the National Digital Inclusion Alliance. “Is it a little bit unstable sometimes, yes. Kind of expensive, yes. But it works right now.” 

If you build your own network, after the initial investment, the cost will be lower, the connection should be more stable, and you are in control, Siefer says. “When you're working with someone else who's providing this really essential service to your students, you rely upon the decisions that they make, the priorities that they have, which may not be your priorities,” she says. 

What Technology is Used? 

Schools are providing direct internet access to students in a variety of ways. In some cases,  they are running their own fiber optics cables to specific areas; in others, they are using antennas to beam internet signals over short distances on airwave spectrums licensed by the FCC. 

In the Murray City School District of Utah, efforts that began before the pandemic to connect more than 4,500 students have recently intensified. The district’s technology coordinator, Jason Eyre, explains this is done using LTE radios that transmit internet signals to students. “It's a technology that the FCC has called Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS),” Eyre says. “It's a specific type of LTE that's made available to businesses and community people.” 

In San Antonio, Texas, the city has begun to provide internet access to 20,000-plus students utilizing small cell antennas. In many areas they had to place antennas where the signal would not be blocked by trees. “The technical challenge is how do you either penetrate through the canopy or how do you go over that canopy to provide that signal,” says John Rodriguez, assistant IT director for the city. They were able to solve this issue by mounting the antennas on school buildings, city-owned radio towers, and other city buildings and properties with high elevation spots. 

How Much Less Expensive is It? 

Rodriguez estimates that providing internet access by using small cell antennas can cost as little as $4 per student per month as opposed to $20 per month with a discounted rate from a commercial carrier. Connectivity is also better overall. “It's a very robust service, it can be much better than you would get from a carrier, simply because you're focusing bandwidth within that neighborhood,” Rodriguez says. 

But administrators should be aware that currently bandwidth purchased with the E-rate discount can not be used for these type of programs. “The E-rate does not allow you to provide services off of your campus,” Erye says. “So we've had to buy additional bandwidth and make sure that we route our LTE network through that bandwidth so that we're not taking subsidized circuits and providing off campus services there.” 

Educators are hopeful this restriction may be lifted in the future.

Is It Just for Students?  

Oftentimes, internet provided by school districts is limited to students with a school-issued device, but student-centered internet is serving as a model for municipalities that want to take more ownership of their own community bandwidth capabilities. 

Candelaria Mendoza, Smart City Coordinator for San Antonio, says that at the same time students stopped going into classes many of their parents lost their jobs. “People were being laid off and needed to apply for Workforce Development, and if you don't have a computer, if you don't have internet access, how are you doing that?” Mendoza says. 

Siefer says if more of these programs could eventually provide access to households, it would help everyone. “Students need supportive adults in their lives,” she says. “And those adults need internet access. So this really gets at that bigger household problem.” 

If I Want To Implement This in My District, What Should I Do?  

The Murray City School District of Utah was able to launch its program thanks to help from the state and is now serving as a model for similar efforts in Utah. 

Erye recommends that school officials look for resources beyond their districts. “Don't go out at all by yourself if you don't have to,” he says. “Look to service centers, look to statewide organizations, and start a little bit bigger than yourself if you can. If you can't, there are solutions, such as cloud computing and other things you can buy ‘off the shelf,’ so to speak.” 

Amina Fazlullah, policy counsel at Common Sense Media, says the pandemic has really highlighted the digital divide and homework gap, and there is much more enthusiasm for fixing these problems then previously. “My advice is to take advantage of this moment,” Fazlullah says. 

Every school should develop a detailed and high-quality assessment of student, school, and teacher needs, and share that data with policy makers. “I think there are going to be folks within the local, state, and federal governments who are able to actually push changes in policy,” she says. 

Why Are More Schools Considering It?

Jennifer Covington, superintendent of the Murray City School District, says that beyond the technical challenges and price points, these types of programs can be vital for increasing educational equity. “Technology will never replace good teaching, but technology enhances good teaching, and our students, every single one of them no matter what their background is, deserve to have the ability to have that equal playing field,” Covinton says. “I really think that school systems need to look at this because that educational equity divide with regard to technology is huge.” 

• 5 Things to Know About E-Rate Applications for 2021
• How Public TV Stations Are Partnering with Schools to Increase Educational Content for Students Without Internet

Applications for E-rate funding for fiscal year 2021 must be submitted by March 25. The FCC program, which provides discounts of between 20 and 90 percent for broadband access for schools and libraries, is considered particularly vital during the pandemic. 

Micah Rigdon, director of client services at Funds For Learning, a company that helps schools navigate the E-rate process, discussed what educators need to know regarding E-Rate applications this year. 

1. How is The Pandemic Impacting the Process? 

The pandemic has made calculating the funding your school qualifies for more difficult. “The E-rate program provides discounts based on the number of students who are eligible for The National School Lunch Program,” Rigdon says. “It's been more difficult for a lot of schools to determine their discount rates this year because they're not getting the same responses as they do in a typical year because every student right now is being offered free or reduced lunches through the USDA.” 

The increased free-launch offerings are due to the pandemic but have had the unintended consequences of complicating funding calculations. As a result, schools that are having difficulty tracking this year’s numbers are permitted to use data gathered during the last school year on their applications. 

2. What Are Other Changes This Year?  

In the past, E-rate funding that went to equipment purchases was capped per school by the amount of students within that school and per library by its square footage. “Now the FCC is allowing applicants to determine that cap based on the total student population for an entire district instead of at each school site,” Rigdon says. This should be a welcome change for educators as it allows for far greater flexibility. 

3. Could E-Rate Help Pay for Students’ Home Internet Access?  

Currently, E-Rate funding can only be used to provide internet access at schools or libraries. With so much need for remote learning, many districts are helping to provide access to students at home so there is a strong push to change this stipulation. “We are seeing some headway that there could be a policy change at the FCC level,” Rigdon says. “President Biden has directed the FCC to consider how they can expand the program in that way. We now have a new acting chairwoman, Jessica Rosenworcel, overseeing the FCC commission and E-rate is one of the projects that she's paid special attention to. So, there is an opportunity for them to take a look at that and see how it can be expanded.” 

4. When Should You Submit Your E-rate Application? 

The submission window for E-rate applications opened January 15, but much as with filing taxes, people tend to file closer to the deadline (March 25), which isn’t ideal. 

“I would encourage everyone who can to get their information together and file their application early,” Rigdon says. “The E-rate program administrator has already started reviewing applications that have been submitted early in the window. So there's a greater opportunity to receive funding decisions, more quickly, if you file early. There's one website that every applicant has to use. So it tends to get bogged down with traffic toward the end of the filing in windows, so you can avoid some of that.” 

5. Why Documentation is Crucial 

“There are many program rules in E-rate that determine whether what you're purchasing is eligible for discounts,” Rigdon says. “It's one thing to follow all of those rules, but it's a whole other thing to be able to prove that you follow those rules.”

For example, there's a 10-year documentation requirement for E-rate, and applicants can be audited at any point in that timeframe, so it's important to be able to show that you completed the requirements and followed the rules. “Being able to prove that you did something the right way seven years later without documentation is very difficult,” says Rigdon. 

Further Reading

• How to Find an Education Grant
• New COVID Stimulus Package Offers Schools More Funding to Innovate

A majority of the largest U.S K-12 school districts are going fully online for the fall semester, while hundreds more plan to incorporate at least some online learning into their back-to-school plans.  The lack of in-person classes has many direct and ripple effects, but one of the greatest concerns is insufficient access to high speed internet, especially for low-income students. Without access to basic high speed internet, kids can't fully participate in online classes, putting their academic progress  at risk.  

In light of this concern, Comcast today announced a new program for cities, schools, and nonprofits to connect large numbers of low-income K-12 students to the Internet at home. The “Internet Essentials Partnership Program” is designed to help accelerate Internet adoption, offering households low-cost, broadband Internet service for $9.95/month, the option to purchase a heavily subsidized computer, and multiple options for digital literacy training. Comcast also announced today it is giving all Internet Essentials customers its xFi platform, which enables parents to control and manage their children’s WiFi connected devices. 

The program relies on public-private partnerships and enables entire communities to work together to coordinate funding to help connect K-12 students. The program also includes two months of free Internet service for new Internet Essentials customers. Recent partnerships with schools in Chicago, Atlanta, Sacramento, Pittsburgh, Portland, and Arlington, VA mean more than 200,000 qualified students now have a greater opportunity to get connected. Visit: www.comcastcorporation.com/IEPP for more information. 

The initiative builds on Comcast’s recent announcement that it will continue to offer, through the end of 2020, all new Internet Essentials customers two months of free Internet service and it will forgive back debt due so more families can apply. 

Putting Home WiFi Controls into Parents’ Hands

Comcast is providing all Internet Essentials customers free access to xFi, which is a simple, digital dashboard that enables customers to set up and manage their home WiFi. With it, they can see what devices are connected, set safe-browsing modes so children can only access age-appropriate content, get notifications about activity on their home WiFi, and have the ability to pause devices for dinner or bedtime. 

Comcast also announced plans today that it will convene a series of virtual national and regional summits this fall. Each one will focus on several issues including: education, broadband adoption, digital and media literacy and training, and Internet safety. In addition, this fall Comcast will publish its annual Internet Essentials progress report and relaunch its Internet Essentials Partner Portal, located at www.internetessentials.com/partner, to include case studies, research, and links to creative broadband adoption solutions. Resources there will be made free for anyone to access, including other Internet Service Providers and nonprofits.

Across the country, colleges have been coming up with unique ways to get technology, internet access, and other resources to students. Here are four great examples of how higher education is working with local and national partners to close the digital divide.

1. Donate technology to fill the STEM pipeline 

This past April, leaders at Maryville University in St. Louis, Missouri, delivered 22 refurbished computers to the Mathews-Dickey Boys’ & Girls’ Club) as part of its Tech Bar initiative. The devices will allow the organization to expose its boys and girls to coding, cyber technology, and data science.

“We are committed to serving as a community resource,” says Stacy Hollins, Ph.D., associate professor of information systems at Maryville. “Through the Tech Bar, our students provide services to nonprofit organizations and individuals who have limited or no access to technology hardware, software, and training.”

The Tech Bar, which is part of Maryville’s Cyber Fusion Center [see “How It’s Done: Hands-On Cybersecurity Training”], allows students to develop technology skills and work on projects with the local community. 

2. Start a targeted fundraising program 

“As UMass Boston prepared to go into shutdown mode earlier this year, we learned that a lot of our students had no computers or access,” says Raymond V. Lefebvre, vice chancellor and chief information officer. “We had to do something quick!”

Lefebvre arranged to purchase Chromebooks at $188 each (“A great price!” he says). During a cabinet meeting, one of his colleagues in university advancement suggested asking alumni to donate. “It was ingenious. Within two weeks we’d raised enough money to buy 200 Chromebooks,” says Lefebvre.  

The student affairs office polled students to see who needed devices and posted an online form in which students could request a loaner device. Lefebvre’s staff got the Chromebooks prepped and ready, and the public safety department handed out the devices in March. 

“Students returned the laptops at the end of the semester, and I plan to start a Chromebook loaner program on campus in the fall,” says Lefebvre. “Luckily, we already have 200 in the pool to kick it off.”

3. Support at-risk students with an online marketplace 

Before the pandemic, California State University Northridge (CSUN) students were already using a secure app called Matador Exchange (from Modo Marketplace) to buy and sell everything from bicycles and mattresses to lamps and textbooks to math tutoring services.

Once quarantine hit, college leaders learned that one in four students in the California State system face food insecurity, so a hub was added to the Matador Exchange that allows students to donate or swap school supplies and home goods.

“Matador Exchange supports vulnerable student communities by letting them exchange goods and services within the campus community,” says Clayton Scott, sustainability coordinator at CSUN. “There’s immediate trust because you have to use a student ID to log in.”

When charitable organizations such as the local food bank donate items to the college, the sustainability office makes the donations available for free. For example, in February 2020, students claimed more than two dozen donated items.

4. Delivering WiFi on demand 

In early March, to begin preparing for remote learning, California’s Cypress College surveyed students to determine their technology needs for continuing studies remotely. College administrators discovered that that 400 students (12 percent of the respondents) did not have reliable internet access, 266 students did not have access to a computer, and 999 students did not have a private space at home to conduct their classwork.

Leaders used the data collected to loan three dozen laptops and Chromebooks to students, to connect students to free and low-cost internet opportunities, and to provide $12,000 in emergency grants to help students who lost jobs or experienced income loss.

Next up? A “Drive-Up WiFi” program.

In one of its parking lots, registered Cypress students with valid login credentials could get free internet access on a first-come, first-served basis. The WiFi was available on weekdays from 7:30 am until 10 pm (Monday through Thursday) or 5pm (Friday).

Students were asked to park in every-other parking stall, remain in their cars, and adhere to all public health rules. 

• Overcoming the Digital Divide: School Districts Create Their Own Wireless Networks
• How to Stay Connected to Students During Covid

In light of the widespread disruptions to education, work and in-person social connections due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Comcast announces two initiatives to help students, teachers and members of the public to maintain their connectivity to important resources, friends and family.

Comcast's Internet Essentials service, the internet adoption program for low-income households, will be offered to eligible new customers for 60 days without charge.  Details include:

• New Internet Essentials customers will receive two free months of Internet service if they apply and are approved by December 31, 2020. After promotion, regular rates apply.
• For all new and existing Internet Essentials customers, the speed of the program’s Internet service has increased to 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream.
• Households with outstanding debt owed to Comcast may be eligible for Internet Essentials. 

Additionally, the company announced it will extend free access to its 1.5 million public Xfinity WiFi hotspots to anyone who needs them, including non-customers, through the end of 2020.

"We saw a huge jump in usage after we opened up our public hotspots, and we’re excited to keep them open through the end of the year as the nation begins taking steps to reopen," said Dana Strong, President of Xfinity Consumer Services. “We’re pleased to see so many families and individuals take advantage of our 60 days of free home Internet through Internet Essentials, and the free access to public Xfinity WiFi hotspots to get online during this time when connectivity is so important.”

Click here to learn how to find Xfinity WiFi hoptspots. 

For more information and updates from Comcast related to Coronavirus, visit http://www.comcastcorporation.com/covid-19.

According to the US Dept. of Commerce, fourteen percent of households with school-age children do not have Internet access. In today's climate of Covid-19 related remote learning, this means a substantial minority of students may not be able to participate fully in remote school lessons. It may also affect the remote learning opportunities for all students in a district where some do not have internet access. 

To help K-12 school districts, libraries and higher education institutions provide distance learning opportunities for more students, Kajeet® has released a new generation of managed and filtered mobile hotspot devices with unlimited data plan options. The Kajeet SmartSpot™ v400 provides students and educators with greater flexibility for data usage, including support for video-rich instruction from remote locations. 

“The lack of Internet access among economically disadvantaged students has reached a new urgency because of the pandemic, and schools are facing a critical need for solutions that address associated learning gaps,” said Daniel Neal, founder, and CEO of Kajeet. “Digital equity cannot be delayed, and our unlimited data plans and SmartSpot devices provide additional, affordable options for educators to build that bridge.” 

The recent global health crisis has had a dramatic impact on education. In the coming academic year, K-12 schools could face reduced state funding, and higher education institutions could see dramatically smaller operating budgets due to enrollment losses. With financial resources strained and even greater uncertainty over the future of classroom instruction, the Kajeet SmartSpot provides a cost-effective way to deliver filtered Internet access to students from anywhere, without disruption to instruction and learning.  

The Kajeet SmartSpot v400 aims to create more options for educators to enhance digital teaching and enrich distance learning experiences using superior connectivity for video and immersive technologies. In addition, Kajeet Sentinel®, the company’s core multi-network, cloud-native connectivity platform, provides stronger control and compliance of SmartSpot devices with integrated filtering, device management, network security, analytics and reporting. 

Using Category 9 LTE Internet connectivity, the Kajeet SmartSpot v400 has download speeds of up to 450Mbps and upload speeds of 55Mbps. The hotspot device also handles more frequencies, multi-carrier aggregation and provides administrators more control of SSID settings to improve privacy and security for students. 

Kajeet SmartSpot devices support the six major North American carriers including AT&T, Verizon, T Mobile, US Cellular, Rogers, and Bell Mobility.  

The Kajeet SmartSpot v400 is available now through Kajeet. For more information, visit www.kajeet.com/smartspot

Most school districts have transitioned to online learning due to the covid-19 pandemic. But the quality of education varies widely from one district to another. Well-funded districts likely already had a substantial online learning presence, and at least some staff and educators who had experience in remote teaching. In contrast, districts with more limited funding may struggle to develop and implement an effective online platform. Further, many students in these less well-off districts may have their own difficulties, due to lack of access to broadband internet, a computer, or a quiet place at home to do their lessons. 

A recent study sheds light on this inequity. Real-time data for 1.6 million students across 1,364 districts engaged in remote instruction since schools were forced to close due to the coronavirus pandemic shows that students are on track to lose up to 49% (about 5 months) of their potential reading growth by the start of next school year. In addition, this study revealed that the achievement gap between students from lower- and higher-income schools is predicted to widen by up to 18%.

These and other findings and recommendations for change were released today in a new study by the Successful Practices Network and the Center for College & Career Readiness. Researchers have identified the following trends from the 1,364 districts it observed:

• 76% of schools showed decreased usage after schools closed
  Schools differed widely in how quickly and how well they made the transition to online learning. Overall, however, the number of students logging in has declined by 43% and the number of students completing at least one lesson has declined by 44%.
• Students are on track to lose up to 49% of gains over the summer
  Based on early data, it appears that school closures as a result of the coronavirus crisis will lead to a significant loss of potential learning gains, as 28%, for many students come June 2020.
• Worst case prediction for a widening of the achievement gap is 18%
  The achievement gap has already begun to grow in the six weeks since schools moved to online learning. The achievement gap between low- and high-income students is expected to increase by as much as 18% for students from low-income schools by the end of this school year.
• Struggling readers on track to fall behind their peers by an additional 6%
  It is already clear that struggling readers are not using online learning as frequently as advanced readers, placing them at risk of falling further behind. The study shows that the gap between struggling and advanced readers is predicted to grow by up to an additional 6% by the end of this school year.
• Some districts are succeeding with online learning
  Despite the challenges, there are success stories. The study revealed many examples of districts that transitioned almost seamlessly between school-based and online instruction. For these districts, levels of usage of Achieve3000 Literacy after the school closures are about on par with usage before the school closures.

The consortium provides a number of recommendations for educators based on the trends observed in the study:

• Plan now for next year
  Many schools were unprepared to make the transition to online instruction. In order to avoid similar rates of learning loss in future years, schools will want to begin trouble-shooting their existing implementation of online learning tools and resources and planning for improvements that can be implemented by the start of the next school year.
• Catch up over summer
  The summer slide has already commenced. Using the summer in a meaningful way will be critical to make sure students begin the next school year where they would have been had schools not closed early.
• Mind the gap
  Students who fall at or below the 25th percentile in reading are going to fall further behind their peers. Providing access to robust online learning resources that include scaffolds and other supports specifically designed to accelerate reading growth is imperative.
• Build a new skill
  Online learning is now a career skill that needs to be mastered by both educators and students. There must be a transition “teaching and learning onsite or remotely” to “a technology-enabled approach to all teaching and learning.”

To view the full research brief, Impact of School Closures on Student Learning, visit acheive3000.

Cesar Chavez was born March 30, 1927. Learn about Chavez, the Mexican American labor activist and leader of the United Farm Workers. During the 20th century, he was a leading voice for migrant farm workers.

Brought to you by Knovation, powered by ACT  

The Fund for the School District of Philadelphia announced today it has received a $5 million contribution from Aileen and Brian Roberts, and their family, to give laptops to Philadelphia students so they can begin learning from home by mid-April.  

According to a 2019 School District survey, only about half of third-through-12th-grade students have the equipment they need to begin participating in online lessons. This gift from the Roberts’ will support the purchase of 50,000 Chromebooks which will help level the playing field and ensure that all students who attend the 220 District-led public schools across Philadelphia have the tools they need to learn at home.   

The 50,000 new laptops will be distributed along with the estimated 40,000 laptops already in school buildings to students and families. Once the equipment is received at the School District headquarters, it will be dispensed between April 13 and 17. During the interim two weeks, the laptops will be prepared for the students and the Philadelphia School District teachers will be trained to support distance learning.   

Students and their families who don’t already have internet access can get it through any Internet Service Provider (ISP) in Philadelphia. Comcast is currently offering low-income families who don’t already have internet service two free months through Internet Essentials. 

Comcast today announced steps to help ensure people stay connected to the internet as more schools suspend classes and companies encourage employees to work from home due to the coronavirus. 

Comcast is taking steps to implement the following new policies for the next 60 days, and other initiatives: 

• Xfinity WiFi Free For Everyone: Xfinity WiFi hotspots across the country will be available to anyone who needs them for free – including non-Xfinity Internet subscribers. For a map of Xfinity WiFi hotspots, visit www.xfinity.com/wifi. 
• Pausing Data Plans:  Data plans will be paused for 60 days giving all customers Unlimited data for no additional charge.
• No Disconnects or Late Fees: Customers who contact comcast to make arrangements will not have their service disconnected or late fees charged. 
• Internet Essentials Free to New Customers: New customers will receive 60 days of complimentary Internet Essentials service, which is normally available to all qualified low-income households for $9.95/month. 
• News, Information and Educational Content on X1 and Flex: Comcast has created new educational collections for all grade levels in partnership with Common Sense Media.
• 24x7 Network Monitoring:  Comcast engineers and technicians staff network operations centers 24/7 to ensure network performance and reliability. 

For more information and updates from Comcast related to Coronavirus, visit: http://www.comcastcorporation.com/COVID-19/

On March 9, 1868, President Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial began in the US Senate. The trial was political in nature, calling out Johnson's violation of the Tenure of Office Act, lenient policies toward Reconstruction and vetoes of civil rights related acts.

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On February 27, 1936, Shirley Temple, aged 7, received a contract from 20th Century Fox paying $50,000 per film. This guide offers a history of child film star Shirley Temple's career with audio and video.

Brought to you by Knovation, powered by ACT  

February 27 is Digital Learning Day, an event in which education leaders will highlight great teaching practices and showcase innovative teachers, leaders, and instructional technology programs that are improving student outcomes. 

This year's theme is: Innovate! Every Classroom, Every Day with Digital Learning. Schools and districts are invited to share related events and happenings on the DLD website, here. 

Future Ready advisers Adam Phyall and Brianna Hodges will moderate the live DC Event from 12 to 1pm ET, in which participants will hear from Education Superhighway CEO Evan Marwell, see snapshots of success in Arkansas, Louisiana, and North Carolina, and hear from FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel on updates around digital equity and the homework gap. The kickoff event can be seen here. 

 In recognition of Safer Internet Day (February 11, 2020), the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) today released a new “Student Privacy 101” video series that is designed to help school leaders better understand federal and state privacy laws and protect sensitive student data. 

The “Student Privacy 101” video series includes: 

• An introductory video that previews the challenges and opportunities around collecting and safeguarding student data in the digital age. 
• A short video on legal compliance, providing concise information about the requirements and role of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA);
• An brief overview of the most common privacy risks and how to avoid them.
• A discussion on transparency, including advice on collecting community feedback, and engaging and informing parents about a school’s data collection practices.

FPF also published a new blog post marking Safer Internet Day today with additional information and resources about how schools can protect children’s data privacy. 
 
To learn more about Safer Internet Day, visit www.saferinternetday.org. For more information about FPF’s student privacy work, visit www.ferpasherpa.org. 

The Institute for Emerging Issues (IEI) at NC State University today announced formation of Building a New Digital Economy in NC (BAND-NC), a new support program designed to make the state “first in digital inclusion.” 

BAND-NC, which  launched with initial support from Roanoke Electric Cooperative and the North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives, in partnership with the NC Broadband Infrastructure Office (BIO), will provide grants to counties to develop plans to increase the percentage of their residents that adopt and are able to use broadband services. BAND-NC seeks to help North Carolina become the first state in the nation where every county has a digital inclusion plan by the end of 2022. 

Digital inclusion plans will include strategies to increase access to devices and make broadband affordable to more people. They also aim to equip a range of stakeholders with knowledge of how to utilize broadband: enabling young learners to do homework online and older learners to retrain online, expanding job possibilities through telework, improving access to telehealth services, expanding business markets, improving crop yields and adding efficiency to farm operations. 

Data from the NC Broadband Infrastructure Office show disparities in adoption of broadband services, with both a rural-urban and an income divide. Rural households subscribe at lower rates than urban households (as low as 49.7% in Graham County and as high as 89.7% in Wake County). Households making under $20,000 a year subscribe at a 51.2% rate compared to 93.8% of those making $75,000 or more a year. 

As part of BAND-NC, the state Broadband Office and IEI will host a series of meetings to assist community leaders in developing and implementing county-level digital inclusion plans. Roanoke Electric’s work will support development of plans in Bertie, Halifax, Hertford, Northampton, Gates, Perquimans and Chowan counties, while North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives will fund three selected county plans from among its 93-county service area. 

Over the next few months, the Institute for Emerging Issues is seeking other investors in BAND-NC, with the goal of making $5,000 grants available across the state to counties developing digital inclusion plans.  Interested counties would submit plans August 6 for review on a competitive basis, with selected plans receiving grants to begin implementing their initial strategies. 

To see a full listing of North Carolina broadband adoption rates, by county and income level, go to iei.ncsu.edu/band-nc-data/

Tech&Learning worked with New York City Schools this fall at an event to help their 1,700 websites become compliant with state accessibility standards. Use these best practices to make sure your online functionality is optimal for every student, parent, and teacher.

IS YOUR SCHOOL WEBSITE ACCESSIBLE TO YOUR ENTIRE SCHOOL COMMUNITY? HERE’S A QUICK WAY TO CHECK:
1. Go to https://wave.webaim.org
2. Put your school web address into the field.
3. Hit enter.

What happened? If your website is like many, you’ll see red and yellow errors and alerts pop up on your site, each with a short description of what was found by using this free accessibility website checker.

Not to worry – you’re not alone, and there are tools and resources to help.

WHY MAKE WEBSITES ACCESSIBLE?

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was added in 1998 to require federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities, including both employees and members of the public. In 2017, Section 508 was revised with the requirement that by January, 2018, all federal agencies and contractors must, among other revisions, comply with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag).

Since then, there has been an increase in the number of lawsuits filed against public institutions that are not compliant.

Schools can act, rather than react, by taking charge of the website’s accessibility so that everyone, including those with disabilities and those who speak languages other than English, can access their content. Following some simple rules can ensure your website is the best communication tool your school has to engage with your community.

HOW THE NATION’S LARGEST SCHOOL DISTRICT IS LEADING THE CHARGE

New York City is the nation’s largest school district, with more than 1.1 million students and 1800 schools. As part of an agreement with the US DOE’s Office of Civil Rights, every New York City school and district website must be accessible to people with disabilities by December 2020. This means ensuring more than 1200 websites are accessible in less than a year.

PARTNER WITH AND INFLUENCE WEBSITE PLATFORM PROVIDERS

To provide support for this huge undertaking, the NYCDOE’s Office of Digital Inclusion has partnered with major platform providers (listed below) to influence and guide their work. As a result, platforms are developing built-in accessibility checkers and building accessible district templates.

ONLINE COMMUNITIES

The Office of Digital Inclusion established an online community to provide webmasters with anytime/anywhere support. The community has a general channel as well as a channel for each website platform. Representatives from each company are members of the community. This way webmasters can get support from each other, the Office of Digital Inclusion, and directly from representatives of the platform they are using.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

To assist schools in making progress, the Office of Digital Inclusion hosts dozens of professional learning opportunities, known as #DigIn (Digital Inclusion) Camps. This past November, the district partnered with Tech & Learning to co-host the first “Website Accessibility Summit” at Wagner Middle School in New York.

ACCESSIBILITY REPORT CARDS

The Office of Digital Inclusion provides schools with a website accessibility report card when they attend a DigIn Camp. This enables them to see where they currently are and where they need to go. It also identifies what they need to do to make their website accessible by making updates to the heading structure, color contrast, alternative text, meaningful hyperlinks, etc.

The content shared during the conference would be valuable to any school or district of any size. Here are the highlights.

OPENING KEYNOTE: YOU’RE NOT BUILDING A WEBSITE, YOU’RE BUILDING INCLUSION

Keynote speaker Lynn Wehrman, President and Founder of WeCo Accessibility Services, opened the conference with an inspiring message: “Accessibility is a skill you can learn. It’s not rocket science. It’s a process you apply, not a switch you flip.”

As the leader of a company founded and run by digital technologists, all of whom live with disabilities, Lynn talked about the positive impacts of meaningful digital accessibility for students, parents, and beyond.

“Making websites accessible is not just for the blind,” she said. “There are many physical differences that are affected by inaccessible websites.” She cited these examples:

• If you have limited fine-motor skills, clicking and scrolling is tiring. It’s difficult to select small links and forms take longer to complete.
• If you are cognitively impaired, too much information can overwhelm and information can be impossible to find if not organized.
• When you can’t hear well or not at all, you can’t enjoy presentations, videos, or webinars that don’t have captions or have improper captions.
• If you have low-vision or blindness, improperly coded forms are almost impossible to complete. Inadequate color contrast makes text difficult to read. Images without Alt Text can prevent readers with low-vision from understanding context.

“By embracing a Universal Design approach, there are perks for your entire audience,” Wehrman said. “People who do not identify with a disability enjoy websites that feature intuitive designs and video captions. And — Search engines reward accessibility.”

THE WEBSITE PLATFORM SHOWCASE

In the “Website Platform Showcase,” some of the top website platform providers presented highlights of their platforms, how they believed their platform could help school make their websites accessible, and what made each platform unique.

You can watch the website platform showcase to hear each of the presenters explaining what makes their platforms unique and helpful (Courtesy of the NYCDOE #DigIn Office). The following platforms were represented:

• Blackboard / Schoolwires Accessibility
• eChalk
• Edlio
• Google
• School Messenger
• Wix
• WordPress.org

WEBSITE PLATFORM WORKSHOPS

Attendees spent the next part of the day in workshops hosted by these website platform providers, where they could get a deeper dive into how each solution worked, and how each could be used to make websites accessible.

RECOGNITION CEREMONY

The day ended with a ceremony where those who were doing exceptional work in website accessibility were recognized. The following categories were represented: educator, borough office, school, and vendor.

Attendees at the Website Accessibility learned that building accessible website is not just an obligation, it’s an opportunity to reach their entire school communities.

Website Accessibility Resources

• Accessibility 1-2-3 Flyer: Digital version with tips for making your website accessible (https://tinyurl.com/v22nnpc)
• Link to all presentations and workshops from the Website Accessibility Summit (https://tinyurl.com/rla5q2r)
• Participant reflections on website platforms (https://tinyurl.com/r5pbes8)

Website Platform Providers: Tools to Make your Sites Accessible

While accessibility for our public school’s websites is a legal requirement, it’s also an exciting opportunity. Uncovering the potential of this opportunity energizes and empowers us by giving meaning to our work. At the NYCDOE Website Accessibility Summit, co-hosted by Tech & Learning, attendees learned how to make their school website accessible and better engage their entire school community at this free, one-day conference.

Thanks to the following event sponsors, who are helping schools use their digital resources to connect students, teachers, and families to improve the whole learning experience.

As the world’s leading provider of integrated learning, communications and safety solutions, Blackboard serves more than 50% of U.S. students and 70 of the largest 100 school districts. Their award-winning Community Engagement Platform combines websites, mobile apps, mass notification, and social media management. The platform’s newest addition, Blackboard Ally, is a revolutionary service that integrates directly with a school’s CMS to provide immediate insight into the overall accessibility of website content, instructions for remediation and alternative accessible versions of files and documents.

eChalk makes it easy to create, customize and maintain a mobile-ready website that meets ADA and Section 508 accessibility requirements.

For 18+ years, Edlio has been connecting K-12 educators with their communities, offering a comprehensive and easy-to-use communication package. Edlio’s content management system powers over 10,000 websites for schools and districts across North America, each with a beautiful design reflecting the organization’s brand and teacher-focused features for easy editing.

New Google Sites makes building responsive websites easy and they are already optimized for tablets and smartphones. Just like a Google Doc, you can collaborate in real time, and see each other’s changes live.

Intrado SchoolMessenger combines school notification, mobile apps, and web content management all under one, easy-to-platform. Designed to work together from the start, our school communication systems save time and provide more immediate, thorough engagement with your community.

(microsoft.com/education)
Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. In education, it’s to empower every student. Microsoft believes limitless potential is within every student, every educator, every school. They strive to unlock this potential by providing technology that empowers educators and inspires students.

Founded in California in 1987, ViewSonic® is a leading global provider of visual display technologies. As an innovator and visionary, we inspire the world to see the difference between the ordinary and the extraordinary by providing award-winning visual solutions for work, play, and education. As leaders in interactive display technology, ViewSonic transforms classrooms into immersive learning environments. Our education solutions drive engagement, energize and motivate students, and make teaching more fun. From ViewBoard® interactive displays and myViewBoard™ collaborative software, to projector solutions for aging whiteboards, our award-winning solutions help you connect and collaborate like never before.

Create a school website. Start a classroom blog. Launch a faculty forum. You can do it all on WordPress.com. You don’t need a web developer, or even a manual — just an idea and an Internet connection. Wix.com is a leading cloud-based development platform with over 150 million users in 190 countries.

Wix makes it easy for everyone to create a beautiful, professional web presence. The Wix website builder has everything you need to create a fully personalized, high-quality free website. When you choose Wix, you don’t just get a drag and drop website builder. You get the whole package. Free reliable web hosting, top security, the best SEO and a dedicated support team to help you along the way.

The 5th of December is recognized as the day we celebrate the repeal of the 18th Amendment. The National Humanities Center presents collections of primary resources compatible with the Common Core State Standards - historical documents, literary texts, and works of art - thematically organized with notes and discussion questions. Topics discussed in this unit include the following: Becoming Modern: America in the 1920s: Wets & Drys. Includes news items on Prohibition, political cartoons, art work, and newsreels of the day.

Brought to you by Knovation, powered by ACT  

Students can make a difference in their communities by joining 6 million other young people trying to change the world for the better. As part of Do Something, they can home in on their interests, use the resources available, and share their expertise to create positive change. 

Brought to you by Knovation, powered by ACT  

Can you ever have too many maps?

The obvious answer is no. You can never have too many maps.

So when I ran across some very cool old maps last Saturday at the Wichita Flea Market, there really wasn’t any question about whether or not I would buy them. The question was how many will I buy.

I settled on two. Which means my wife helped me decide that I should settle on two. There are quite a few maps already in my house and I was gently made aware of that fact. Which means semi-gently.

Both of the maps I walked away with are almost 100 years old. One is a 1924 map of tourist Rome published in Italian, the other a map highlighting the 1924 British Empire Exhibition with suggested mass transit options from around the London metro area. So cool.

Perfect for displaying, reading, primary source analysis, (the Empire Exhibition and its various colonial pavilions is just asking for some in-depth conversation) or just wafting in the 100 year old smell.

But while we all can agree how cool old maps are, new maps are nothing to sneeze at. I love the ability of digitized maps to allow access to all sorts of data in all sorts of very visual ways. Take a look at these two new atlases from the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond.

The first collection of digital maps, the Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States, is based on an atlas that was original created in 1932 by Charles O. Paullin and John K. Wright. Many of those beautiful maps have been enhanced:

. . . in ways impossible in print, animated to show change over time or made clickable to view the underlying data – remarkable maps produced eight decades ago with the functionality of the twenty-first century.

Like the original, there are 14 different chapters and almost 700 maps. All based on older maps but digitized and edited to make them more accessible and richer in content. And like the original, the atlas addresses a broad range of issues.

Beginning with a chapter consisting of 33 maps on the natural environment and a second containing 47 maps documenting the evolution of European and later American cartographic knowledge about North America, the atlas mapped an exhaustive number of historical topics: exploration and settlement of the continent, the location of colleges and churches, disputes over international and state boundaries, voting in presidential elections and in Congress, reforms from women’s suffrage to workmen’s compensation, transportation, industries, agriculture, commerce, the distribution of wealth, and military history.

For twenty-first-century audiences, it’s probably no surprise that it’s missing a few things as an historical atlas. Besides the fact that it’s now more than eighty years out of date, it is primarily focused on Americans of European descent – though, to be fair, it certainly contains a significant number of maps showing the geographic distribution of people of different ethnic and racial backgrounds. Yet whatever the atlas’s shortcomings, browsing through its many thoughtful and often beautiful maps one can’t help but be impressed. Anyone interested in American history before 1930 is almost certain to find many maps in the atlas that are both interesting and useful.

So if you’re teaching any US history, the newly updated digital version is a no-brainer. Head to the About page to jump start your time in the Altas.

But wait. There’s more the people at Digital Scholarship Lab weren’t finished. They’ve also created American Panorama, an historical atlas of the United States for the twenty-first century. “It combines cutting-edge research with innovative interactive mapping techniques, designed to appeal to anyone with an interest in American history or a love of maps.”

So . . . I’m listening.

It’s a smaller collection of just eight maps so far but the maps move closer to the present, with one map focusing on electing the House of Representatives from 1840 – 2016 and another on America’s foreign-born population up to 2010, for example.

But all of the maps give you tools to help kids actually see history and begin to make sense of events in ways that simple text cannot. The Mapping Inequality map that highlights the redlining of home loans by the Home Owners Loan Corporation during the 1930s and 40s is a powerful way to jumpstart and deepen a conversation around civil rights and racism in the US.

Used together, these two updated versions of cool old maps like the ones I uncovered at the flea market give you powerful tools to hang on your teaching tool belt.

(And don’t forget to use the Library of Congress and National Archives map analysis worksheets to help kids unpack all the goodness.)

cross posted at glennwiebe.org

Glenn Wiebe is an education and technology consultant with 15 years' experience teaching history and social studies. He is a curriculum consultant for ESSDACK, an educational service center in Hutchinson, Kansas, blogs frequently at History Tech and maintains Social Studies Central, a repository of resources targeted at K-12 educators. Visit glennwiebe.org to learn more about his speaking and presentation on education technology, innovative instruction and social studies.

Roblox

Popular game development platform has classroom potential

Pros: Roblox gives students a platform to share their games with a real audience.

Cons: With millions of users worldwide, it’s impossible to control the people and content students will encounter on Roblox.

Bottom Line: Teens who love gaming can learn to be developers, too, with Roblox's tools and hosting service.

Read more.

Site of the Week picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed byCommon Sense Education, which helps educators find the best edtech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

FETC has announced a partnership with Future Ready Schools (FRS), whose framework for supporting the visioning, planning and implementation of digital learning is aligned to more than a quarter of the 600-plus sessions and workshops throughout the 2020 conference. FETC has also increased support of its partnership with Future Ready Librarians and Coaches, an expansion of the Future Ready initiative aimed at raising awareness among district and school leaders about the valuable role librarians and coaches can play in supporting the Future Ready goals of their schools and districts.

“Like FETC, Future Ready Schools has made a clear effort to design content relevant to all the important roles across school districts. This creates a natural synergy between our organizations and, looking at the program for our upcoming conference, it’s evident that there are numerous new learning opportunities that will inform and inspire FETC attendees,” said Dr. Robert M. Avossa, Senior Vice President & Publisher, LRP Media Group. 

CodeMonkey

Puzzler's use of real code fills niche in crowded learn-to-code genre

Pros: Charming art mixed with serious programming challenges and a gradual learning curve.

Cons: Advanced students may find challenges move too slowly, and struggling students may need more than the included hints.

Bottom Line: A great intro to coding, with solid teacher support, gets students using real programming languages and digging into some meatier concepts than other early coding tools.

Read more here.

By Common Sense Education

Site of the Week picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best edtech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

Are you ready for Carve a Pumpkin Day (otherwise known as Halloween) on 10/31? Check out some ways to upgrade your pumpkin carving game. Master carvers share tips on how to bring your pumpkin to the next level this Halloween.

Brought to you by Knovation, powered by ACT  

Comic Life

Creative tool for visual storytelling through comics

Pros: Offers a creative outlet to demonstrate concepts in all content areas.

Cons: Lacks some features for classroom use; kids may spend too much time playing with the program and not completing a project.

Bottom Line: Comic Life helps students apply their understanding with a creative approach, but guidelines are needed to ensure success.

Read more 

Site of the Week picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best edtech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

Today, EducationSuperHighway released its annual State of the States report, highlighting the completion of its mission to close the K-12 classroom connectivity gap. Ninety-nine percent of America’s schools now have high-speed broadband connections capable of providing enough bandwidth to enable their students and teachers to use technology in the classroom. 

Highlights from the 2019 State of the States report include: 

• The number of students who have access to broadband at the FCC’s original goal of 100kbps per student has increased from 4 million in 2013 to 46.3 million today.
• The cost of Internet access for schools has declined 90 percent since 2013.
• Since 2015, school districts have invested nearly $5 billion in K-12 Wi-Fi networks.
• Ninety-nine percent of America’s K-12 public schools have the fiber-optic connections needed to meet future connectivity needs.
• Over five years, eighty-one governors in all 50 states joined the effort to close the classroom connectivity gap.

The State of the States report also urges state leaders to ensure that districts don’t miss opportunities to continue to upgrade connectivity in schools in order to drive innovation in K-12 classrooms. 

To learn more, visit the full report here: stateofthestates.educationsuperhighway.org

 IXL

Immediate feedback and breadth a major plus, despite emphasis on drills

Pros: Tool helps students develop confidence and clearly track progress.
Cons: Drilling limits opportunities for kids to apply skills in real-world ways
Bottom Line: Students can improve targeted skills with tons of practice modules and visually appealing tasks.

Read more here.

By Common Sense Education

Site of the Week picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best edtech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

Highline Public Schools (HPS) opened its middle schools this fall using Discovery Education’s digital Social Studies Techbook to support standards based instruction. Through this new collaboration, Discovery Education is providing educators and students in seven Highline schools access to a digital social studies resource supportive of existing Common Core State Standards, the C3 Framework, and the new Washington State K-12 Social Studies Learning Standards. 

Highline serves approximately 18,000 K-12 students in the communities of Burien, Des Moines, Normandy Park, SeaTac and White Center in northwest Washington State. Highline sought a new social studies curriculum to support both existing and future social studies standards and fit into the school system’s existing inquiry-focused framework.   

Following a review, Highline selected Discovery Education’s Social Studies Techbook for integration into classroom instruction in the following schools:

•  Sylvester Middle School
• Pacific Middle School
• Highline Choice Academy
• Glacier Middle School
• Chinook Middle School
• Cascade Middle School
• Big Picture Middle School

The Social Studies Techbook pairs core content with essential questions, primary source analysis, and project-based tasks.  Developed for diverse student audiences, Social Studies Techbook’s multimodal content aims to support the improvement of academic vocabulary, break down barriers to learning, and engages students in higher-level thinking. A variety of differentiation tools integrated at point of use help educators meet the needs of each student. Other features include access to two Lexile levels of core content, Spanish translation, as well as strategies for teaching students with special needs and English learners.

To help HPS’s middle school educators integrate their digital textbooks into classroom instruction, Discovery Education is providing district teachers a number of professional learning opportunities. 

HPS educators are also receiving support from the Discovery Education Community. A global community of education professionals, the Discovery Education Community connects members across school systems and around the world through social media, virtual conferences, and in-person events, fostering valuable networking, idea sharing, and inspiration.  

The 12th of October is Old Farmers Day.  This Interactive decision-making game lets you be a farmer. What crops should you grow? Which animals should you raise? Can you make a profit?

Brought to you by Knovation, powered by ACT  

Celebrate World Egg Day on October 11th by visiting the Incredible Edible Egg Eggcyclopedia. Learn about  egg candling, one of the tasks of the egg grader. This Eggcyclopedia is a searchable dictionary for all things having to do with eggs.

Brought to you by Knovation, powered by ACT  

NBC Learn

Vast video site offers current, historical content

Pros: The archive is truly impressive. Teachers can create playlists or download videos. Integrates with Google Classroom.

Cons: Can't re-arrange videos in a playlist. Learning activities aren't integrated with viewing.

Bottom Line: This is a great source for video-based news, thanks to the huge archive, current events coverage, and teacher-friendly extra links to Newsela articles.

Read more 

Site of the Week picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed byCommon Sense Education, which helps educators find the best edtech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

Gale, a Cengage company, has partnered with Mackin, distributor of K-12, print and digital resources, to make its database content available on the MackinVIA digital content management platform. Now MackinVIA customers can search Gale databases using MackinVIA’s new Deep Discovery™ tool to find authoritative content.

MackinVIA’s Deep Discovery™ makes it easier to search through Gale’s educational databases on MackinVIA. Entering a search term on the MackinVIA databases page directs the system to simultaneously submit that query to all participating database products in a school’s MackinVIA account and displays the corresponding results count. 

Gale’s digital, curriculum-aligned solutions cover:  

• Business & Economics
• Humanities & Social Sciences
• Law & Government
• Literature & Drama
• Technology
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Environmental Science
• U.S. History & World History

For more information, visit Gale’s MackinVIA webpage.

Celebrate Mad Hatter Day (9/6) by visiting the classic Alice in Wonderland tale. This beautiful online edition of the Lewis Carroll classic is written in large text for easy legibility, and includes illustrations from eleven different versions of the story. 

Brought to you by Knovation, powered by ACT  

Formative

Superb real-time assessment tool a fit for BYOD, 1-to-1 

Pros: Flexible features make creating simple or detailed assessments a snap, and the ability to see student responses in real time helps teachers meet students where they are.

Cons: Assignments are tailored to individual use and lack opportunities for peer collaboration.

Bottom Line: Cleverly designed for teachers, Formative offers a flexible and attractive solution for gathering a variety of student response types and offering individualized feedback.

Read more here.

Site of the Week picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best edtech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

A diverse group of tech, education, and media organizations announced today that they have come together to launch the Digital Citizenship Commitment campaign (DigCitCommit) with the goal of redefining digital citizenship and reaching one million students by 2021. The campaign will engage educators, allow for the sharing of best practices, and provide them with the tools to teach a new definition of digital citizenship. 

Through the development and sharing of curated resources, the DigCitCommit campaign supports educators in teaching youth to be safe online as well as instill in them a sense of digital literacy, civility, community, and engagement. 

Coalition members include: ISTE, Google, KQED, HundrED, Team4Tech, Facebook Education, Common Sense Education, Digital Citizenship Institute, KidCitizen, Wiki Education, Los Angeles Unified School District, Caroline County Public Schools, Generation Citizen, Media Education Lab, National Writing Project, EVERFI, National Constitution Center, The National Institute for Civil Discourse, and Newsela. Learn more about the coalition at digcitcommit.org/partners. 

In addition, the Digital Citizenship Commitment campaign is launching a new #DigCitCommit challenge, calling on educators and students to share how they are using technology to lead communities with the five DigCitCommit competencies. Prizes will be awarded for the top submissions. More information can be found at digcitcommit.org/join-us. 

The five DigCitCommit competencies – inclusive, informed, engaged, balanced, alert – are designed to focus less on a list of DON’Ts and more on a proactive approach of DOs that challenge students to stay safe, solve problems and become a force of positivity. The DigCitCommit campaign and the competencies were previewed at ISTE19 to more than 20,000 attendees.     

The DigCitCommit coalition also announced the first Digital Citizenship Commitment Virtual Congress February 11-12, 2020. The free virtual event will showcase educators and students who are demonstrating effective digital citizenship based on the five competencies.  Programming and registration will launch in tandem with the coalition’s celebration of Digital Citizenship week in October.

Peter Rabbit, Peter Cottontail, Bugs Bunny, and Thumper are all famous—but fictional—rabbits. Since September 23rd is international rabbit day, let’s study “real rabbits” with this in-depth resource about rabbits, their behavior, appearance, reproduction, and classification.

Brought to you by Knovation, powered by ACT  

 School districts partnering with Gaggle helped save the lives of 722 students who were actively planning or attempting suicide during the 2018-19 school year. To   ensure students' safety and well-being in digital spaces, 13 districts in six different states across the country have chosen to team up with Gaggle, which helps K-12 districts manage student safety on school-provided technology.

The Gaggle safety solution uses a combination of both artificial intelligence and trained safety experts to provide real-time analysis and review of students’ use of online collaboration platforms, such as Google’s G Suite for Education, Microsoft Office 365, and Canvas.

Some of the newest districts partnering with Gaggle are: 

·       Anaheim Elementary School District, California

·       Pasadena Unified School District, California

·       Bunker Hill Community School District #8, Illinois

·       Community High School District #117, Illinois

·       Rochester Public School District, Minnesota

·       Rockwall Independent School District (ISD), Texas

·       Dickinson ISD, Texas

·       Irving ISD, Texas

·       Santa Fe ISD, Texas

·       Roanoke County Public Schools, Virginia

·       Shenandoah County Public Schools, Virginia

·       Bellevue School District, Washington

·       Federal Way School District, Washington

Gaggle adheres to the requirements of the National Center of Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) to protect school districts from the risks and liability involved in handling pornographic images that may be inadvertently uploaded to school servers when students sync their cell phone to their school accounts. 

For more information, visit www.gaggle.net.

Fear of the number 13, knocking on wood, stepping on a crack. Where did these superstitions come from? Why do we still believe in them? Find out by watching this TED Ed video and then taking a quiz, digging deeper with web links, and writing an answer to a discussion question. Better hurry, though. This Friday is the 13th!

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From our friends at Top Ten Reviews: Finding the best internet filter can be hard. Website blockers have a lot of functions that can be confusing or too obtrusive. This guide will examine all the features of the top internet filters to break down their features - and how they'll help to protect your children from adult content and online predators.  We thoroughly check all the internet filters we've reviews to ensure that our recommendations will keep children safe. 

The best website blocker we found was Qustodio. We love using it because it is easy to install and is super simple to navigate.

Why this matters: The internet offers a wealth of resources for teaching and learning but it also offers a potential minefield of material inappropriate for kids and the classroom.  Internet filters can make the internet classroom-safe, with features such as filter categories, anti-cyberbullying and social media tools, summary reports, and more.  Learn all about the best internet filters for districts, schools and classrooms by reading the full report at toptenreviews.com.

September 2nd is International Literacy Day. To commemorate the day, help students build positive associations with literacy by taking home a book bag filled with items to encourage literacy interactions with their families. 

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