An edtech founder provides advice applicable to anyone working in education and technology. 

GUEST COLUMN | by Nick Gaehde

The pandemic exacerbated a problem that has long existed: many middle and high school students are struggling readers. With learning interruptions and instructional inconsistencies (among other COVID-related disruptions), students who were already struggling to read fell even further behind in their literacy skills—even as they advanced to the next grade.

‘With the right professional learning and supporting materials, including age-appropriate reading content and tools for tracking and monitoring student performance, teachers in the middle grades can help close reading gaps…’

The latest Nation’s Report Card continues to demonstrate just how much work still needs to be done in this area. The good news is that we know from the science of reading, which components are most effective for teaching reading and which of those components need to be emphasized, and the intensity of instruction needed for students in middle and high school. And although there is often a focus on teaching elementary school teachers about the science of reading, it is equally important that we provide teachers in middle school and high school the same opportunity to learn. It is estimated that about 85% of curriculum is taught through reading so although many subject area teachers don’t think of themselves as reading teachers, students’ reading abilities impact their ability to access the content. Therefore, all schools should explore, high-impact professional learning around literacy for all of their teachers.  

A large body of gold-standard research collected by cognitive scientists and other reading experts, the science of reading, tells us how we learn to read and the most effective way to teach reading. Understanding the science of reading is critical for educators to provide the best possible literacy support to their students, and this includes students in the middle grades who still struggle with their reading skills. 

Improving Understanding and Comprehension

Students who still struggle to read in the middle grades are less likely to understand increasingly complex texts as their education advances. As a result, they’re more likely to hit academic failures that, in turn, lead to fewer opportunities once they become adults. The problems don’t end there: according to the Lucy Project, more than 40% of adults with the lowest literacy levels live in poverty. Low literacy is also linked to a greater likelihood of health problems and prison time. On the positive side, being a proficient reader can also directly impact informed decision making, active civic participation, personal empowerment and improved self-esteem.  

‘…being a proficient reader can also directly impact informed decision making, active civic participation, personal empowerment and improved self-esteem.’

Teachers can have a substantial positive impact on their students’ reading ability, but not all teachers receive the same literacy education training. And teachers of older students rarely get such training. With the proper professional learning and support, teachers of adolescent students can weave literacy skills and strategies into their instruction to help students learn how to read, comprehend, and articulate their ideas across various grade levels and subject areas.

For example, school-wide professional learning that incorporates the science of reading into literacy instruction can help all teachers accelerate student literacy, regardless if they are a reading teacher or a content area teacher. This doesn’t mean all secondary teachers need to become literacy experts. Instead, subject-area teachers can learn some simple ways to weave a few strategies rooted in the science of reading into their instruction to support students throughout their day, not just in their ELA class.

3 Steps to Better Professional Learning 

Training late elementary and middle school teachers in the science of reading and helping them understand how to include explicit reading instruction into their classroom curriculum, even content area classes, helps improve the reading abilities of adolescent learners. 

Here are three ways to deliver effective professional learning to teachers of adolescent learners:

1. Create the right content. Ground teachers’ lessons in the science of reading by focusing on what the research says about how students learn best. Lessons should address what adolescent learners require to improve their literacy, which should be informed by assessment data as we know the needs of adolescent students can vary greatly.

If students are struggling to read proficiently, they will most likely need explicit instruction in foundational skills such as decoding and language skills, like the structure of a sentence and vocabulary skills or if their skills are more developed, they may benefit from instruction in higher-level skills such as inferencing and synthesizing information across text.

The instruction should also emphasize that adolescent learners who are struggling to learn to read need age-appropriate texts and materials with proper support/scaffolding —not just resources for early readers that are repurposed for older students—to help them learn how to read.

Because every student has unique learning needs, the professional learning teachers receive should help them apply proven, evidence-based strategies to a classroom of students who have varying levels of literacy competency. For best results, professional learning should help teachers understand the tools and strategies that are best for specific students.

2. Deliver the professional learning in a flexible, engaging way. Teachers don’t have much time for professional learning in reading instruction, especially upper-grade teachers who are focused on their own specific content areas. Professional learning delivered online in flexible, bite-sized chunks lets teachers learn at their convenience and acquire the skills and strategies they need to support literacy for all students in a manner that fits into their busy schedules. Short, online modules can also be revisited as many times as necessary to support teachers’ ongoing development.

Every teacher’s learning journey is different, similar to how each student’s needs are different, and the professional learning they receive should reflect these differences by offering choices in what they learn through highly targeted, personalized, and scaffolded instruction. This will help instructors develop the skills needed to support students’ literacy in a relevant and engaging manner (i.e.., highlighting how some explicit strategies can be easily woven into content area classes to help more students access the content).

3. Give teachers the right tools and resources. Teachers don’t have time to hunt for specific resources to put their professional learning into practice. They need easy-to-access resources to ensure practical and transferable learning (i.e., ready-to-use materials they can implement immediately in their classrooms). They also need low-lift data tracking tools to measure their students’ growth in reading skills and adjust the instruction accordingly.

‘They also need low-lift data tracking tools to measure their students’ growth in reading skills and adjust the instruction accordingly.’

The professional learning teachers receive should be accompanied by powerful data that school and district leaders can use to monitor their teachers’ progress, provide guidance and direction, and celebrate teachers’ accomplishments. This information should help K–12 leaders visualize and understand the impact that professional learning is having on their district, schools, individual educators and ultimately the students.

Closing the Reading Gaps

Adolescent learners have unique requirements when it comes to literacy learning with needs ranging from reading at a level more consistent with first or second grade all the way through advanced reading abilities similar to a college level student.

With the right professional learning and supporting materials, including age-appropriate reading content and tools for tracking and monitoring student performance, teachers in the middle grades can help close reading gaps and ensure that their students have the foundational reading skills required for life-long success.

—

Nick Gaehde is President of Lexia and a lifelong literacy advocate. His compassionate and respectful approach to customers, employees, and partners makes him an effective leader and mentor. Known for his ability to apply those leadership skills with a focus on growth, Nick has guided companies through successful transactions and launched numerous product lines and distribution channels. Nick holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a focus on early childhood development from Pitzer College and a master’s from Boston University’s School of Management. Connect with Nick on LinkedIn. 

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ClassWallet is a purchasing and reimbursement platform for public funds. Founded in 2014, the company’s technology is used by state education departments, districts and public and private schools to get public funds to the right people and ensure they are used for the right purpose – from teacher stipends for classroom supplies to scholarships and other federal and state education grants.

The company’s solution replaces outdated reimbursement processes including teacher/ administrator expense reports and receipts, debit cards and other manual systems which are inefficient and difficult to audit. Managing the compliance around getting public funds to the right people while ensuring those funds are used for the right purpose is very complicated. ClassWallet does it at a fraction of the time and cost compared to legacy processes, in a fully transparent manner, without any sacrifice to compliance.

ClassWallet has emerged as the national de facto technology standard in education with 10% of teachers in America having a ClassWallet account. It is used across 32 states serving 6,200 K-12 schools and more than six million students. The company has helped its clients realize the full potential of over $2.7 billion in public funds.

One ClassWallet school district reported a reduction in purchase orders from 3,772 to 37 and a 42% increase in funds being utilized for their intended purpose, aided by the digital wallet technology. That same district expanded their usage from one to eight funding sources including Pre-K Funds, Special Education Funds and State Classroom Instructional Supplies. For these reasons and more, ClassWallet was named “Best Reimbursement Platform Helping Education Funds Distribution in a Compliant Manner” as part of The EdTech Awards 2024 from EdTech Digest. Learn more. 

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During the recent ISTELive 2024 in Denver, Discovery Education unveiled Mystery Writing by Discovery Education by offering elementary educators nationwide the unique opportunity to participate in the development of its latest product through a free, year-long trial. 

Mystery Writing is a dynamic and engaging writing program designed specifically for students in grades K-5. This innovative curriculum captivates young learners with “wow!” content that not only sparks their interest but also builds their confidence in writing.

One of the standout features of Mystery Writing is its no-prep, open-and-go lesson plans, which make it exceptionally easy for multi-subject elementary educators to implement. Teachers can effortlessly provide differentiated lessons tailored to the varying needs of their students, ensuring that each child receives instruction appropriate to their skill level.

The program’s structure explicitly teaches the writing process through a series of step-by-step written, visual, and auditory directions. This comprehensive approach ensures that no young writer is left struggling with the daunting “fear of the blank page.” By featuring stories and visuals that are of high interest to students, Mystery Writing maintains student engagement and enthusiasm throughout the learning process. The inclusion of visual and auditory directions caters to different learning styles, making the lessons accessible to all students, including those who might need additional support. 

Moreover, Mystery Writing’s content is thoughtfully designed to seamlessly integrate various subjects, making learning multidimensional and holistic. Students are not only improving their writing skills but also enhancing their overall academic knowledge. 

In summary, Mystery Writing is an invaluable resource for elementary educators, providing an effective and enjoyable way to teach the writing process. Its innovative design ensures that students remain engaged, confident, and fear-free when it comes to writing. With Mystery Writing, teachers can foster a love for writing in their students that will last a lifetime.

Elementary school educators interested in claiming their free trial can visit the Mystery Writing website here. 

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Glynn Willett and Wade Willett founded MobyMax based on the belief that students can learn twice as fast. Bloom and other researchers have noted this potential for over 60 years, but today, with MobyMax’s differentiated learning system, the dream is a reality.

MobyMax has never been about simply improving the status quo. Rather, the company aims to catalyze “a new reality, in which every child in every school in every country learns twice as fast as if they had the best teacher in the world sitting beside them.”

That vision has fueled a quest to develop a “global, research-powered curriculum that enables every child everywhere to learn twice as fast.”

It’s why the company developed a uniquely comprehensive K-8 curriculum for 27 subjects, complete with a full suite of integrated and automated classroom tools and assessments package that save teachers precious hours. MobyMax’s ingenious approach not only finds and fixes learning gaps in all K-8 subjects; it does so while offering an affordable price, making it accessible for any school.

The most impressive upshot of MobyMax: students are learning twice as fast, gaining more than one full grade level after just 20 hours of work. In August 2018, a large-scale independent research study of 4,000 students concluded that students using MobyMax Math showed 53% more improvement than students in the control group who did not use MobyMax.

For these reasons and more, Glynn Willett was named an edtech “Visionary” as part of The EdTech Leadership Awards 2024 from EdTech Digest. Learn more. 

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Synergy Education Platform provides the data and insights you need, when and where you need them, to support every student on their individual pathway to success. Synergy lets you manage all your student data in one place to give you unparalleled access and insights across data domains. With this cool tool, there are no data silos; no need to enter data more than once. And no need to sync or integrate data between modules. Your Synergy data is always up to date, everywhere you need it.

Users can understand and respond to the real-time needs of students, classes, school, and district, and communicate with everyone who has a stake in each student’s success. The platform saves teachers time. It gives teachers one place to manage everything – attendance, assignments, course content, learning resources, grading, quizzes and tests, interventions, and more – plus a 360 ° profile for every student.

Parents can see how their child is doing in school, access learning resources to help their child succeed, stay current on what’s happening in the classroom, and communicate with teachers regardless of language spoken at home. With Synergy, student data is easy to access and share when you need to and the way you want to, saving time and frustration while enabling your team to serve students better.

The company behind this product, Edupoint, is 100% focused on K-12 student data management and maintains a 99.5% renewal rate. For these reasons and more, Synergy Education Platform from Edupoint Educational Systems earned a Cool Tool Award for “Best Real-Time Student Success Ecosystem” as part of The EdTech Awards 2024 from EdTech Digest. Learn more.

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The Teacher’s Toolkit is a platform meticulously crafted to empower teachers in their lesson planning endeavors. This comprehensive tool offers educators an all-in-one solution, designed to address the significant time and effort they invest in crafting effective lesson plans.

The Toolkit simplifies the entire lesson planning process by centralizing essential elements in one place. It boasts a vast repository of multimedia resources, accessible links, assessment tools, an integrated class schedule, and supplementary teaching materials. Teachers can seamlessly migrate their planning processes to the app and tailor pre-existing lesson plan suggestions to suit their unique classroom requirements.

The platform was born out of a deep-seated concern for the hours teachers dedicate to planning lessons, often uncompensated. Our mission is to alleviate this burden and empower educators with time-saving resources.
The Teacher’s Toolkit is categorized as an ’exploratory’ innovation, consistently exploring new resources, technologies, and methods to enhance the educational planning process.

Setting itself apart from competitors, this platform offers a holistic approach, from class scheduling to content delivery, streamlining teachers’ workflows and improving resource accessibility. The result is increased planning efficiency without compromising instructional quality, positioning itself as the go-to platform to address all educational planning facets.

More than 300 teachers actively use the Toolkit monthly, showcasing strong engagement and positive feedback. Users report improved resource accessibility and reduced preparation time without sacrificing instruction quality.

This transformative platform simplifies lesson planning, empowers educators with innovative tools, and contributes to enhanced learning outcomes globally. For these reasons and more, Teacher’s Toolkit from Edify Education is a Cool Tool Award (Winner) for “Best Lesson Planning Solution” as part of The EdTech Awards 2024 from EdTech Digest. Learn more.

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Meet eGlass Station, a wireless lightboard podium that allows teachers to face their students while the write, from anywhere in the room. eGlass is an illuminated transparent writing board with an attached specially-designed camera, which captures a teacher’s face and writing in the same window. The camera image is then flipped and projected onto a classroom display, allowing every student to see the lesson content along with their teacher’s glowing ink writing, facial expressions, gaze, and gestures. eGlass simulates eye-to-eye contact with each and every student, drawing them into the lesson and significantly boosting engagement. This one-to-one connection creates a social-emotional partnership between instructors and their students. With eGlass, teachers never have to turn their backs to write on the board again, and can see their students reactions and gauge their understanding—making classroom management a breeze.

The included eGlass software incorporates advanced A.I. that allows teachers to drag and drop any digital teaching content (including 3D objects, images, documents, webpages, etc) directly into the eGlass camera window, automatically removing the background so the teacher can annotate on the digital content with glowing ink. The entire lesson can be captured with eGlass’s built-in recording, and it works with most video conferencing software for hybrid learning scenarios.

The new eGlass Station supports the lightboard with a battery-powered, height-adjustable sit/stand podium, along with other convenient features like 360º locking swivel wheels, a laptop stand, keyboard tray, and optional WiFi-free gigabit wireless HDMI casting.

Teachers can use eGlassStation to boost student engagement through embodied teaching. For these reasons and more, eGlassStation Portable Lightboard Teaching Station is a Cool Tool Award Winner for “Best Hardware for Education Solution” as part of The EdTech Awards 2024 from EdTech Digest. Learn more. 

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A call to action for edtech.

GUEST COLUMN | by Jason Katcher

ANDRES RAMOS

The weight on teachers’ shoulders is heavier than ever. According to Canva, educators are clocking over 50 hours per week on average, yet they spend less than half of this time directly interacting with students. This relentless pressure has led to a disturbing trend: over half (53%) of teachers feel overwhelmed, impacting their well-being and their ability to teach effectively.

These statistics are alarming:

• Missed workdays: 55% of teachers are taking more unscheduled absences.
• Decreased patience: Nearly half (45%) report having less patience with students.
• Burnout: Over a third (34%) are losing interest, leading to a decline in instructional quality.

For those of us in educational technology, while we may not be able to directly alter union structures, salaries, or schedules, we have a powerful opportunity to make a significant impact.

‘For those of us in educational technology, while we may not be able to directly alter union structures, salaries, or schedules, we have a powerful opportunity to make a significant impact.’

By developing products and platforms that address these initial challenges, we can empower teachers and create a more positive classroom environment.

This is where AI Comes In

This is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) comes into play. AI-powered tools can handle administrative tasks, personalize learning experiences, and provide teachers with valuable data to tailor their instruction. Remember when creating a custom lesson plan would take hours, days, even weeks? Now we are talking about seconds. These tools act as supplements, not replacements—much like vitamins to exercise. Our founders at Merlyn Mind, an AI voice assistant for teachers, recognized AI’s potential during their decades of research at IBM Watson for Education. They realized that AI would never replace teachers as the essential human elements of curiosity and empathy are irreplaceable in optimizing a student’s learning experience. This should assuage any concerns about the demise of the teaching profession. In fact, it heralds a revitalization of a profession that needs its core values now more than ever.

Have the assistants on your phone, at home, and in your car made your days better or worse? If it’s the former, then why not extend this affordance to our classrooms? According to data from McKinsey, teachers can save an average of 13 hours per week using smart AI solutions—equivalent to adding six days of instruction per month! Furthermore, a study from UC-Irvine, supported by Digital Promise, found that after seven weeks of using a digital classroom assistant, teachers were 61% less stressed with their technology, enabling more active learning and less time on administrative tasks. Imagine the increased impact teachers could have with that much additional time and the ability to be more present with their students.

We Have Been Profoundly Moved

We have been profoundly moved by stories of teachers in wheelchairs and students with learning disabilities who have harnessed our products to level the playing field of learning and instruction. Imagine the transformative power of enabling teachers to create fulfilling, impactful, and collaborative experiences, free from the constraints of their computers. AI and voice technology have emerged as great equalizers in the classroom, empowering every educator and student to thrive.

Ultimately though, this is all about the students. No amount of classroom technology can compensate for an overly stressed teacher. John Hattie’s work, Visible Learning, reveals that the number one factor impacting student outcomes is collective teacher efficacy. Not only is it the top factor, but its effect is more than twice as significant as other important factors like scaffolding, summarization, and effort. If digital assistants in classrooms lead to more effective teachers, and teacher efficacy is the leading factor in improved student outcomes, then it stands to reason that digital assistants will lead to better student results.

The Ripple Effect This Could Have

Moreover, let’s not underestimate the ripple effect this could have on the broader educational landscape. By alleviating administrative burdens and reducing stress, we enable teachers to focus more on innovative teaching methods and student engagement. This, in turn, fosters a more dynamic and effective learning environment. The future of education hinges on our ability to integrate technology seamlessly into our classrooms. Now is the time to embrace AI as a vital ally in our mission to enhance education. Let’s champion this change and make a lasting difference.

As the school year comes to a close, let’s take this time to reflect. How can we leverage technology to improve the classroom atmosphere? How many low-value tasks can be replaced with high-value ones through AI and voice assistance? How can we increase the connections between our teachers and students? 

AI is not a panacea, but it’s a heck of a vitamin. Teachers need our support now more than ever. It’s time to step up and show them we care.

—

Jason Katcher is VP Strategic Channel AI Partnerships at Merlyn Mind. He previously worked at Google and Dropbox Education. Connect with Jason on LinkedIn.

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The HoverCam Orbit is the world’s first plug-and-play, gigabit wireless USB & HDMI document camera. Unlike other wireless document cameras, Orbit doesn’t use or interfere with WiFi – a common challenge in today’s increasingly wireless classrooms. Orbit is the first document camera with Wireless USB, meaning it can cast it’s 4K image to any PC, Mac, Chromebook or Interactive Flat Panel. It also has Wireless HDMI for casting to TV’s or projectors. Orbit’s one-of-a-kind gigabit wireless technology beams brilliant 4K resolution at speeds up to 60 frames per second with nearly lossless clarity and virtually lag-free casting up to 100 feet.

For teachers, this means more wireless freedom to teach from anywhere in the classroom. It’s plug-and-play ready, right out the box, so teachers can spend less time setting up, and more time teaching. There’s no special software required, drivers to install, or passwords to enter. It also works with ANY Camera App (like Zoom, Teams, Screencastify, etc) on ANY computer (PC, Mac, Chromebook). It can even cast straight to an interactive flat panel for use with popular digital whiteboard software.

And because it utilizes gigabit technology instead of WiFi, I.T. and district-level technologists enjoy Orbit’s seamless deployment. Its plug-and-play wireless dongle is preconfigured one-to-one from the factory, meaning deployment is as simple as dropping off a box in each classroom without any network modification. And it works wirelessly with any camera-using software on any OS, saving staff from time-consuming software installation projects.

Orbit is truly a game-changer for wireless classroom. For these reasons and more, HoverCam Orbit Gigabit Wireless USB Document Camera is a Cool Tool Award Winner for “Best Emerging Technology Solution” as part of The EdTech Awards 2024 from EdTech Digest. Learn more. 

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