Many K-12 educators find that collaboration is not a single skill but rather a combination of skills and abilities they need to drive student voice and choice to transform learning. It exposes students to a diversity of ideas and styles by fostering leadership skills and higher level thinking.

In this guide, you’ll see how creating a collaborative classroom also changes teachers’ roles. Learn how classroom collaboration helps students become comfortable in stepping outside their customary social roles and expanding their horizons.

Click here to download the full white paper.

New research from NewBay’s AV Technology and Tech & Learning magazines—from a poll of more than 200 users of educational technology in K–12 and higher education—shows how technology leads to increased engagement and more use of online resources, thereby improving educational outcomes. Although the survey showed that many higher education and K–12 schools remain at a crossroads in terms of making a full transition to technology, the vast majority of those who responded are excited about what they’re accomplishing today and are equally excited about moving quickly to implement better ways of teaching with online curriculum and to take advantage of online avenues for research, better displays, video conferencing, and more. While there’s still a technology gap in many schools, it’s a gap that up-to-date projectors, large displays, better networking/connectivity solutions, and better teaching software can fill. The survey results offer a roadmap showing what technology and tech-based pedagogical methods are working for schools today, as well as what’s to come.

Click here to download the full white paper.

K–12 educators and administrators are tasked with building safe and effectivedigital learning environments, and this responsibility includes shielding studentsfrom inappropriate content online.

Traditionally, this has involved monitoring and filtering web access by keeping listsof appropriate and inappropriate websites. But the Internet is constantly changing.The dynamic nature of the web makes traditional URL-based filtering—the processof categorizing entire web pages by their domains—a largely ineffective method ofcontrolling the kinds of content that students access.

Fortunately, a new method has emerged that uses artificial intelligence to analyzethe actual content on web pages in real time, allowing students to see only materialthat educators deem safe and productive. Content-based filtering marks a differentapproach to keeping students safe online—one that’s proving to be both moreaccurate and easier for educators to manage.

Click here to download the full white paper.

The key to learning is reading. Because reading teaches students to decode,comprehend, analyze, and remember, honing these skills leads to success inschool and life.

Today, schools are moving from paper to digital reading solutions. Various factorsexplain the shift, including technology’s ability to promote individualized learningand the need districts have to leverage technology investments. Solutions thatprovide ebooks and other digital resources are customizable, convenient, andengaging—and these features encourage students to read more and also helpthem to better understand what they read.

The process of selecting the right solution requires districts to identify theirgoals, needs, and resources and to ask hard questions of themselves and of potential vendors.

Click here to download the full white paper.

Pre-K–12 schools and districts are shifting toward personalized learning throughblended learning, project-based learning, design thinking, STEM/STEAM, and otherinquiry-based learning models, whether or not they are 1:1. In fact, instructionalstrategies are shifting away from those that are teacher directed to more collaborativelearning environments where students take responsibility for their own learning. Thisshift—from “one-size-fits-all” to differentiated instruction based on student strengthsand to personalized learning where students take responsibility for directing their ownlearning—is driving many leading districts to a new “mobile-first” technology strategy.

Click here to download the full white paper.

While principals and administrators underestimate the amount of time teachers spend creating and grading assessments, they also overestimate the abilities of their current grading systems to automatically score, record, analyze, and share student performance data.

This research provides a new, fresh look at the perception and reality surrounding classroom assessments. This report reveals:

• The actual amounts of time teachers spend creating and grading assessments.
• How principals overestimate the use of scanners and other technology solutions used in scoring assessments in their own schools.
• Why twice as many teachers as principals and administrators consider the grading process burdensome.

This FREE buyer's guide, "Building an Optimal CTE Program for K-12 Districts," can help. Inside this guide, you'll learn:

• Why an online or blended learning CTE solution makes financial sense for schools.
• Nine features to look for in a high-quality online solution.
• Key questions to ask when evaluating options.
• Four critical lessons in choosing the right solution for your school or district.

Click here to download.

As traditional sources of funding decrease, securing grants is a reasonable supplement to established funding although competition can be stiff. You can improve the odds of winning grants with these successful strategies and best practices.

Click here to download.

Project-based learning offers a dynamic way for students to engage in deeper learning. Explore how PBL can improve problem-solving skills, how the ‘Maker’ movement is bringing hands-on learning into the classroom, and see how schools are integrating project-based and social-emotional learning.

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Dublin Unified School District Case Study

Dublin Unified School District grew to 10,000 students while deploying 1:1 Chromebooks to support online assessments and digital learning. To do this, they upgraded their infrastructure to Ruckus for the performance and reliability needed to elevate the classroom experience.

Read this case study to learn more about their Chromebook deployment and wireless network selection.

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Unified Technology to Revolutionize Classrooms

Today’s K-12 educators are leveraging technology to inspire and engage students every day. As technology rapidly evolves, it continues to change the way teachers teach, students learn, and parents parent. The education policy focus has shifted from a state, district, and school compliance mindset, and with the help of technology innovation, to a focus on the classroom and the growth of individual learners. The recent adoption of ESSA will likely change the face of how we are currently using data in this country. This article explores ideas about how integrated technology solutions have the potential to revolutionize the way we are going about education in the U.S.

Download here

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Revolutionizing Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning is a top priority at PS 15 Patrick F. Daly School of the Arts. Located in Red Hook, Brooklyn, this public school relies on creative and academic projects to lead students through concepts that are aligned with the national Common Core Learning Standards, in addition to local and state standards.

Through a federally-funded Magnet Grant, STEM Educator Jenna Utter found a unique way to add a fresh sense of innovation, creativity, and fun to her classroom.

Brought to you by MakerBot

DIGITAL CURRICULUM

Tech & Curriculum Leaders in Partnership

While digital resources offer unparalleled opportunities for instruction and learning, the transition to a digital ecosystem can also present challenges. It’s more important than ever that technology and curriculum leaders work together with shared end goals, and in the stories in this supplement, leaders who have worked through some of these cutting-edge issues share solutions that are helping them create successful digital school cultures.

Microsoft Imagine Academy

Your Pathway to STEM Education

STEM focused curriculum is in high demand as states begin to launch initiatives that put students ahead in areas of focus like Computer Science, IT Infrastructure and Productivity. Imagine Academy is a full curriculum solution complete with pathways to certifications, customized lesson plans and professional development.

Download Here

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Sponsored by Lenovo and Intel

Lenovo builds technology products for the specific needs of education.

· Rugged devices that reliably perform, whenever and wherever they are needed
· Purpose designed, purpose built IT systems for diverse environments
· Infrastructure developed with education in mind

Lenovo is the number one provider of educational technology worldwide, we understand how to create and partner around the tools and support you need for the strongest digital district possible. Download the flyer to learn more about how Lenovo can serve your unique technology needs in education.

Download here

Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is a $46 billion global Fortune 500 company and a leader in providing innovative consumer, commercial and enterprise technology. Our portfolio of high-quality, secure products and services covers PCs (including the legendary Think and multimode Yoga brands), workstations, servers, storage, smart TVs and a family of mobile products like smartphones (including the Motorola brand), tablets and apps. Join us on LinkedIn, follow us on Facebook or Twitter or visit us at Solutions.Lenovo.com.

Case Study: St. Thomas More Catholic High School

St. Thomas More Catholic High School’s objective was to refresh its existing estate of tablets with a more modern hybrid device that would allow for more robust pen-input functionality.

Download here

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Sponsored by Lenovo and Microsoft

Solutions BUILT to serve education.

The Lenovo purpose-built portfolio of education products meets the needs of every digital learning environment. From administrative offices, to teacher’s desks, students’ hands to high-tech learning labs, Lenovo has designed and built technology that delivers on the unique needs of the educational environment.

See our entire eco-system of Education-BUILT devices in this brochure.

Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is a $46 billion global Fortune 500 company and a leader in providing innovative consumer, commercial and enterprise technology. Our portfolio of high-quality, secure products and services covers PCs (including the legendary Think and multimode Yoga brands), workstations, servers, storage, smart TVs and a family of mobile products like smartphones (including the Motorola brand), tablets and apps. Join us on LinkedIn, follow us on Facebook or Twitter or visit us at Solutions.Lenovo.com

MakerBot in the Classroom

An Introduction to 3D Printing and Design

A Free Educational Resource from MakerBot

Learn how to empower and inspire your students to design, collaborate, and create innovative projects in your classroom. This free resource from MakerBot offers ideas, activities and projects to get you started on the road to integrating 3D Printing into your curriculum.

Download now.

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Wireless Digital Learning

The jump to wireless technology can fundamentally transform schools and their digital
learning programs. It offers the opportunity to modernize classroom environments, improve
student achievement, empower teachers and maximize course curriculum.

The question is how to go from the dream of digital learning to the realization of this
transformation at your school? How do schools plan, design, implement and then provide
the ongoing support and structure so that the technology investment is maximized and the
school achieves this new level of student enrichment? Download here.

How to Start a Steam Program in Your School

IN TODAY’S EVER-CHANGING WORLD, educators have quite a role to play: making sure students complete their K–12 schooling well-prepared for college and careers, even though their career choices are as yet undefined. They are constantly reminded that the jobs of today’s grade-schoolers haven’t been invented, and that the days of keeping the same job for decades are long over. The target moves as technology advances.

Discover how to start a Steam program in your school here.

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Productive Struggle for Deeper Learning

This white paper will explain the concept of productive struggle, identify learning strategies that promote productive struggle, and discuss ways in which Waggle engages students in productive struggle to build critical thinking.

Waggle is smart, responsive practice that helps students in grades 2-8 thrive with the right challenge at the right time.

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Overwhelmed with too many devices to manage on your school’s network? Interested in learning more about managed services for your Wi-Fi network? Since the E-rate program now approves the funding of managed network services, this is the time to be aware of your options.

Download this buyers guide for the nine principles to consider when purchasing an E-rate eligible cloud-managed wireless network.

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Realizing the Potential of Your Google Classrooms

Schools committed to next-generation learning are embracing Google Apps for Education (GAFE) and other cloud-based online resources in record numbers. But learning in the cloud is not without its challenges. This whitepaper details how educators are utilizing add-on management tools and services for GAFE that facilitate differentiated and individualized learning, and will help you realize results faster.

Download here

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Wi-Fi Woes: How Mediocre Wi-Fi Interferes with Instruction

The results explored in this market research paper send a strong message to school district technology leaders—you need world-class Wi-Fi to push the needle on classroom achievement.

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Powered for Learning

How to Solve K-12’s New Mobility Power Requirements

There’s no doubt that technology offers today’s students opportunities to learn new things in new ways and that learning is optimized when students have their own personal devices. One-to-one and BYOD programs have grown in popularity over the last few years; Tech & Learning reports that by the 2013-14 school year 44 percent of K–12 U.S. schools had such programs, and that number is growing. This whitepaper outlines tips to assist in the careful planning around infrastructure scalability and how districts should consider power use when they design their future technology plans.

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Beyond the Device in K-12

Key Success Factors for 1:1 Device Initiatives That Nobody Talks About

Districts face numerous challenges when implementing 1:1 mobile device initiatives. They often choose different devices for different grade levels that have various capabilities and system requirements.

While it is important to choose devices that support the curriculum, there are other critical factors that can determine the overall success of the initiative.

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Whether you realize it or not, classroom gear such as Gigabit Wi-Fi, VoIP phones, IP-enabled systems or new Power-over Ethernet technologies are all substantially impacting your wiring infrastructure. Failing to consider the effects of modern digital systems can lead to big problems. Learn what actions experts recommend and what leading districts on both coasts are doing to handle these new demands.

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K-12 Going Places

A Clear Direction for the Digital Classroom

For school districts that began weaving Wi-Fi technology into their teaching and learning fabric, many are finding it’s time to move beyond the goals of 1:1 and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). In this whitepaper, learn how to solve for common challenges that can impact your network:

•Device management: How do you manage both IT-issued and BYOD devices?
•Access management: Do you have the right network permissions for students, teachers, and guests?
•Visibility: How much visibility do you have to the activity on your network?

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K-12 districts no longer have to spend time, money, and bandwidth maintaining their own technology hardware. By offloading this labor-intensive job to the cloud, districts are saving as much as 20 to 30 percent or more as well as improving teaching and learning.

Click here to download this new white paper.

Best Practices for Choosing the Right District OS

What are the best ways for district technology leaders to balance their investments in legacy systems with new demands for expanded access and improved user experiences?

Baltimore County Public Schools shares their decision making process for scaling their technology to meet the growing needs of their 120,000 students. Learn about how their strategic vision informed their decisions as they built out a blend of server- and cloud-based systems to maximize their connectivity while protecting student privacy – all on a single operating system.

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This white paper explores how to plan for your school’s Wi-Fi future. Learn how IT leaders solved their wireless networking challenges to enhance classroom learning. Download here.

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Educators need state-of-the-art PC technology to keep up with demanding computer-based assessments and advanced educational programs, but if you simply discard those older machines you may be throwing money out the door.

PCs are more durable than ever, and performance may be good enough for many baseline needs in areas ranging from early grades and special classrooms to community-based learning or the town library resource center.

Before recycling those assets, consider extracting more value by repurposing them. Education-built devices from Lenovo®, powered by Intel® processors, are designed for extreme longevity and durability, making them ideal candidates for repurposing down the road.

Download Tough Durability Decisions: A Good Problem to Have, a white paper sponsored by Lenovo® and Intel®, to discover the many options for repurposing and recycling aging computers, and analyze the trade-offs in terms of increased maintenance and support costs.

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Investing in PC infrastructure without a long-term technology plan is the kind of costly gamble that can come back to haunt IT decision makers

for years to come.

MSD of Wayne Township avoided that trap by developing a long-term technology vision that anticipates the demands of digital classrooms and assessments while stressing durability, performance, and value. By investing in future-ready Lenovo® PCs, powered by Intel®, the district is following a game plan that will maximize its return on investment.

Download Digital Assessment Customer Snapshot: MSD of Wayne Township, a case study sponsored by Lenovo® and Intel®, to find out how one school district developed a long-term technology strategy and built a future-ready computer infrastructure to meet the needs of its rapidly evolving digital learning environments.

The Science Leadership Academy (SLA) in Philadelphia has gained a national reputation for being a model of inquiry-driven, project-based learning. This whitepaper series presents the nuts and bolts of SLA’s vision, and describes why their commitment to their core values is so important to the success of their school. The goal of this whitepaper series is to provide the details needed to help other schools scale SLA’s success.

Student-Centered Learning with a Learning Platform

In a student-centered learning environment student voice and choice should be a central focus. Teachers must find ways to apply learning to the things that students value and find interesting. This whitepaper outlines strategies relevant to creating a more student-centered learning environment.

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K-12 schools and districts need to understand how their classroom projector choice can accommodate the explosion of mobile devices in the classroom, the new multimedia curriculums, and the cost-effective availability of new, safer, and longer-lasting projection technology.

Click here to download this new white paper.

Over half of all teachers say that they still use at least a ream of paper every month in their classrooms, with many consuming multiple reams*. That’s why many K-12 schools are embracing document output management technologies. To help significantly reduce your district’s printing, copying, faxing and scanning costs, here are five strategies for getting the best solution for you.

Click here to register and download.

*Source: Edmodo, April 2013

44% of K-12 schools have a BYOD program. Some programs are fully integrated and others are just getting started. It usually falls to the technology director to make sure that all the devices play nicely together on the network. This white paper shares five best practices from early adopters to ensure your BYOD gets off to a good start including 1) how to keep everything running smoothly 2) teacher management inside the classroom and 3) dealing with the bright, shiny object syndrome.

Click here to register and download.

Are your students’ tech skills outpacing your teachers’ skills? If so, you’re not alone.

What’s more, although your students may be always connected to the online world, they

could lack the finesse to safely and effectively navigate and communicate in the digital realm.

Grovo explores a twin digital skills gap that exists at many K-12 schools across the country,

and explains six important trends that savvy educators must know about.

[BREAK]

• Teachers and educators falling behind the technology curve
• K-12 schools not keeping pace with digital teaching initiatives
• The rise in mobile device usage by students, both in and out of the classroom

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Click here to Register and Download

Teachers repeatedly cite the lack of hands-on professional development as their biggest obstacle to integrating technology into students’ learning. With 45 states and the District of Columbia having adopted the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English and mathematics, teachers nationally have a greater need of professional development that provides new methods of engaging learners. This paper showcases three schools taking innovative approaches to professional development, including novel uses of classroom technology, to help teachers succeed at meeting these more challenging learning standards.

Click here to download this whitepaper

To support an educational curriculum that is increasingly dependent on Web-based resources, public school districts need to provide anytime, anywhere Internet service through a Wi-Fi network. Discover how your district can build and operate an affordable Wi-Fi network that meets the expectations of faculty and students alike in this new white paper.

Click here to register and download.

As online learning and the use of digital devices and textbooks become ubiquitous in American classrooms, school districts are struggling to keep pace from a network wiring standpoint. Learn the six ways that school districts are extending the life of their existing technology infrastructure and preparing for future capacity needs in this new white paper.

Click here to register and download

Adaptive learning software automatically personalizes and customizes instruction based on ongoing assessment of student responses. This paper details the results of Tech & Learning's survey of more than 3,000 K-12 educators and technology pros about how they use this emerging technology to design and implement customized learning paths for their students.

Survey results reveal:

•Emerging trends

Click here to register and download

Today's students expect their schools to offer a technology-rich environment filled with blogging, social media, digital resources, and more, but too many schools are missing the boat and not providing these types of learning opportunities. Find out more about the digital expectations of today's youth and how your district can easily and affordably deliver on them in a new white paper.

Click here to register and download.

A BYOD program requires careful planning, infrastructure investment, and training to succeed. A well-defined framework within your school culture and matching your objectives will go a long way in helping your school develop a BYOD program. BYOD's core appeal is it enables schools to have personalized, one-to-one learning programs with greater student engagement and accountability, but without buying the student hardware, maintaining, or repairing it. However, administrators must first decide what they want -- or need -- to accomplish with these "free" devices. That will help drive what devices will work best in their programs.

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Technology is assumed to help students learn to read and write. However, with the array of differing devices and inconsistent, non-standardized digital materials across the school setting, technology can create utter confusion rather than deepen the understanding of reading and writing skills. We expect that when a student creates a document -- and a teacher, peer or parent reviews or edits the document -- content with all the feedback and marking will appear consistently from teacher to student, no matter what device each one uses. But nothing could be further from the truth. The integrity of documents -- or content fidelity -- is one of the most significant, yet seldom talked about, challenges for educators to manage. Here's how to manage it.

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School leaders today realize that digital learning is becoming more of a necessity. Low graduation rates and the need to improve academic outcomes, the requirements of Common Core standards and assessments, and student goals for college and career readiness are driving schools to use technology to help solve problems. We believe there are several key components where Common Core standards and the changes they will require can have a positive impact on how we prepare our students for success in higher education and in the future workforce.

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Strategy Guide to Branch Office Consolidation for K-12 School Districts
Many of today's schools have a hodgepodge of outdated, nonstandard PCs, servers and printers, and little — if any — on-site IT support. Yet data collection and reporting requirements are driving school districts to upgrade and centralize their IT systems. But schools need a plan to adapt their IT infrastructures, otherwise the outcome will be expensive and inefficient. Learn how HP’s solutions approach, which is based on its latest generation of ProLiant servers and designed for different-sized organizations, allows school districts to consolidate and centralize school IT systems.

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