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. 

The post Strong Literacy Foundations are Built on Actionable, High-Impact Professional Learning and Effective Instructional Materials appeared first on EdTech Digest.

An edtech founder shares some of his purposes and motivation for helping others. 

GUEST COLUMN | by Adrián Ridner

Among the approximately 41 million Americans with some college credit but no degree, about 40% are estimated to be first-generation students. As a first-generation college student myself and an immigrant from Latin America, I understand the unique struggles first-generation students face. Like many, I experienced economic hardship while earning my degree. Plus, the challenges associated with acclimating to a new culture, overcoming language barriers and simply navigating the higher education system made my college experience dramatically different than it was for my peers.

‘…the challenges associated with acclimating to a new culture, overcoming language barriers and simply navigating the higher education system made my college experience dramatically different…’

Unique Challenges

According to the Center for First-Generation Student Success, a first-generation student is one whose parents did not complete a four-year college or university degree — even if other family members have. As first-generation students, we face unique challenges, including financial constraints, lack of academic support, and other barriers that impede our ability to complete a degree. With such an enormous population dropping out of college, whether struggling from self-doubt, poor grades or being the first in the family to pursue higher education, the need for targeted educational pathways and support systems for all students to obtain a degree is critical to ensure economic mobility for our country.

Many who started down the path of higher education without completing their degrees are left with the burden of debt without the benefit of a credential. I recognize the challenges first-generation students face, having experienced the struggles of navigating an educational system that wasn’t built with students like us in mind.

Creating Opportunities 

This personal experience has fueled my commitment to democratize education and create opportunities for learners who, like I once did, find themselves outside the traditional system. Today, my company is a platform dedicated to providing accessible, affordable and flexible education for all—especially those who need it most. Our goal is to help learners open the door to the life-changing impact of education.

Not only can traditional educational pathways often leave students of color and those from historically underserved populations behind, but they also can reinforce systemic inequities and limit opportunities for upward mobility. First-generation students often live in rural areas, where there may be fewer community and school resources than in urban areas which tend to receive more funding. It also may come as a surprise that more than 40% of full-time students and more than 74% of part-time college students need to work while pursuing their education. 

In addition to work, they also may be juggling childcare responsibilities; one in four undergraduate students have children. Even with financial aid to help offset the cost of tuition, those who most need the support often fall short, especially among students with more family responsibilities or those from historically underserved populations. The need for non-traditional educational options has never been more urgent, and within this context, we must create innovative solutions to provide alternative pathways to success.

Making Education Accessible 

One example is the Keys to College initiative, which offers flexible on-ramps and pathways for students to earn an affordable degree at a fraction of the cost of traditional tuition. This initiative is built on the College Saver program, which offers low-cost college credits that transfer to more than 1,200 universities. By offering multiple pathways to degree completion – including full and partial – this approach has made education accessible to diverse learners, breaking down barriers that have long prevented them from achieving academic success.

The College Saver program includes the most extensive American Council on Education (ACE) online library, featuring more than 220 college or graduate level courses. Backed by decades of learning science research, the curriculum is designed to be engaging, supportive and personalized, helping learners build the confidence they need to succeed.

‘Backed by decades of learning science research, the curriculum is designed to be engaging, supportive and personalized, helping learners build the confidence they need to succeed.’

The impact of the College Saver program has been profound. To date, the program has saved students more than $270 million in tuition costs and empowered thousands of learners to earn over 400,000 college credits. These are not just numbers—they represent breakthrough moments for individuals who may have struggled academically or financially to further their education.

Take, for instance, Tiaka Hyatt-Geter, a San Francisco Bay Area single mom of three kids and an HR analyst, who completed her college degree while balancing work and family responsibilities. Her success is a testament to the life-changing potential of affordable and flexible education. Or, the son of migrant workers who spent his youth in Stockton, California balancing school with working in the fields. Like me, he is the first in his family to complete a college degree and has plans to continue his education by earning a master’s degree. Because of his determination and with the support of my company’s flexible online College Saver course library, he could continue his education while working and caring for his four-year-old son.

Transformative for Many

This program has been transformative for many, particularly women and people of color. Among a subset of College Saver students surveyed that received additional coaching support from Study.com tutors, 68% of graduates are women, and 77% identify as non-white. The findings underscore that technology can serve as a bridge to further education, but it can’t replace the importance of personal connection with a coach to provide motivation, accountability and support. Moreover, 67% of graduates report income growth, and 87% report increased confidence and skills in the job market. One such graduate, a working mother from the San Francisco Bay area, said the program helped her achieve her dreams without sacrificing her family’s well-being.

My company has always been guided by a mission to ensure that all learners, especially first-generation and non-traditional students, have access to the life-changing impact of education. As we look to the future, our vision is to continue innovating and scaling our efforts to provide alternative educational pathways that build a more diverse and inclusive workforce.

Together with community-based organizations and higher education institutions, we can fuel initiatives like Keys to College that offer on-ramps to success for all learners, regardless of where they start, to ensure everyone has the opportunity to achieve their full potential.

—

Adrián Ridner is CEO and Co-Founder of Study.com, a leading online learning platform helping over 30 million learners and educators monthly, on a mission to open the door to the life-changing impact of education for all. Connect with Adrián on LinkedIn. 

The post How to Level the Playing Field for Non-Traditional Learners appeared first on EdTech Digest.

Wesley L. Harris’s life is a testament to the power of mentorship and determination. Harris, born in 1941 in Richmond, Virginia, grew up during the tumultuous years of the Civil Rights Movement and faced an environment fraught with challenges. His parents, both of whom only had a third-grade education, walked to Richmond from rural Virginia counties when the Great Depression left the region’s farming communities destitute. They found work as laborers in the city’s tobacco factories but pushed their son to pursue higher education so he could live a better life.

Today, Harris is a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT and heads the school’s Hypersonic Research Laboratory. More importantly, he is committed to fostering the next generation of engineers, particularly students of color.

“I’ve been keeping my head down, working with students of color—especially at the Ph.D. level—to produce more scholars,” Harris says. “I do feel good about that.”

From physics to aerospace engineering

Harris’s journey into the world of science began under the guidance of his physics teacher at the all-Black Armstrong High School, in Richmond. The instructor taught Harris how to build a cloud chamber to investigate the collision of alpha particles with water droplets. The chamber made it possible to visualize the passage of ionizing radiation emitted by radium 226, which Harris sourced from a wristwatch that used the substance to make the watch hands glow in the dark.

The project won first prize at Virginia’s statewide Black high school science fair, and he took the bold step of signing up for a separate science fair held for the state’s White students. Harris’s project received the third-place prize in physics at that event.

Those awards and his teacher’s unwavering belief in Harris’s potential pushed him to aim higher. He says that he wanted nothing more than to become a physicist like her. Ironically, it was also her influence that led him to shift his career path from physics to aeronautical engineering.

When discussing which college he should attend, she spoke to him as though he were a soldier getting his marching orders. “Wesley, you will go to the University of Virginia [in Charlottesville],” she proclaimed.

Harris applied, knowing full well that the school did not allow Black students in the 1960s to pursue degrees in mathematics, physics, chemistry, English, economics, or political science.

The only available point of entry for him was the university’s School of Engineering. He chose aerospace as his focus—the only engineering discipline that interested him. Harris became one of only seven Black students on a campus with 4,000 undergrads and the first Black student to join the prestigious Jefferson Society literary and debate club. He graduated in 1964 with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering. He went on to earn his master’s and doctoral degrees in aerospace engineering from Princeton in 1966 and 1968, respectively.

Harris’s Ph.D. thesis advisor at Princeton reinforced the values of mentorship and leadership instilled by his high school teacher, urging Harris to focus not only on his research but on how he could uplift others.

Harris began his teaching career by breaking down barriers at the University of Virginia in 1968. He was the first Black person in the school’s history to be offered a tenured faculty position. He was also the university’s first Black engineering professor. In 1972, he joined MIT as a professor of aeronautics and astronautics.

Harris’s dedication to supporting underrepresented minority groups at MIT began early in his tenure. In 1975, he founded the Office of Minority Education, where he pioneered innovative teaching methods such as videotaping and replaying lectures, which helped countless students succeed. “Some of those old videotapes may still be around,” he says, laughing.

“I’ve been keeping my head down, working with students of color—especially at the Ph.D. level—to produce more scholars. I do feel good about that.”

Over the years, he has periodically stepped away from MIT to take on other roles, including Program Manager in the Fluid and Thermal Physics Office and as manager of Computational Methods at NASA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., from 1979 to 1980. He returned to NASA in 1993 and served as Associate Administrator for Aeronautics, overseeing personnel, programs, and facilities until 1995.

He also served as Chief Administrative Officer and Vice President at the University of Tennessee Space Institute in Knoxville from 1990 to 1993 and as Dean of Engineering at the University of Connecticut, in Storrs, from 1985 to 1990.

He was selected for membership in an oversight group convened by the U.S. House of Representatives Science Subcommittee on Research and Technology to monitor the funding activities of the National Science Foundation. He has also been a member and chair of the U.S. Army Science Board.

Solving problems with aircraft

Harris is a respected aeronautical innovator. Near the end of the Vietnam War, the U.S. Army approached MIT to help it solve a problem. Helicopters were being shot down by the enemy, who had learned to distinguish attack helicopters from those used for performing reconnaissance or transporting personnel and cargo by the noise they made. The Army needed a solution that would reduce the helicopters’ acoustic signatures without compromising performance. Harris and his aeronautics team at MIT delivered that technology. In January 1978, they presented a lab report detailing their findings to the U.S. Department of Defense. “Experimental and Theoretical Studies on Model Helicopter Rotor Noise” was subsequently published in The Journal of Sound and Vibration. A year later, Harris and his colleagues at the Fluid Dynamic Research Laboratory wrote another lab report on the topic, “Parametric Studies of Model Helicopter Blade Slap and Rotational Noise.”

Harris has also heightened scientists’ understanding of the climate-altering effects of shock waves propagating upward from aircraft flying at supersonic speeds. He discovered that these high-speed airflows trigger chemical reactions among the carbon, oxides, nitrides, and sulfides in the atmosphere.

For these and other contributions to aerospace engineering, Harris, a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, was elected in 1995 to the National Academy of Engineering. In 2022, he was named the academy’s vice president.

A model of educational leadership

Despite his technical achievements, Harris says his greatest fulfillment comes from mentoring students. He takes immense pride in the four students who recently earned doctorates in hypersonics under his guidance, especially a Black woman who graduated this year.

Harris’s commitment to nurturing young talent extends beyond his graduate students. For more than two decades, he has served as a housemaster at MIT’s New House residence hall, where he helps first-year undergraduate students successfully transition to campus life.

“You must provide an environment that fosters the total development of the student, not just mastery of physics, chemistry, math, and economics,” Harris says.

He takes great satisfaction in watching his students grow and succeed, knowing that he helped prepare them to make a positive impact on the world.

Reflecting on his career, Harris acknowledges the profound impact of the mentors who guided him. Their lessons continue to influence his work and his unwavering commitment to mentoring the next generation.

“I’ve always wanted to be like my high school teacher—a physicist who not only had deep knowledge of the scientific fundamentals but also compassion and love for Black folks,” he says.

Through his work, Harris has not only advanced the field of aerospace engineering but has also paved the way for future generations to soar.

A technology trendsetter in search of the next way he can help students succeed. 

INTERVIEW | by Victor Rivero

Kyle Berger is an accomplished Chief Technology Officer with over 23 years of K-12 technology leadership experience in Texas’ public education system. He has served various districts of diverse sizes and demographics, successfully leading one-to-one deployment, district revitalization, and bond programs.

Kyle is a recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Technology Director of the Year for Texas, 2020 National Edtech Leadership Winner, Institutional Leadership Award for Interoperability, and Top 100 Influencers in Edtech by EdTech Digest. In 2023, Kyle was named one of 16 nationwide by the COSN Impact 30 Award as a leader impacting educational technology and leading change into the future. Kyle also has been invited to the White House to discuss K-12 cyber security at the national level.

Kyle’s transformative work has been recognized in educational technology magazines, industry case studies, and published books on Educational Technology. He is a highly respected and sought-after speaker, frequently presenting on educational technology transformation to corporations and school systems around the country. Kyle currently serves as a member of several corporate advisory boards and as Chief Technology Officer for Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, a school district of 14,000 students located in North Texas. Under his leadership, the district has overseen the top virtual school in Texas and ranked fifth in the country for the past decade, while also developing State Championship Esports programs for high school competitions.

For these reasons and more, Kyle Berger is The EdTech Trendsetter Awards Winner for School Leader Setting a Trend as part of The EdTech Awards 2024 from EdTech Digest. 

As part of his quest to expand his horizons and continually learn and challenge himself to bring back innovative applications into his schools, Kyle is headed to Japan this fall to visit schools there to collaborate on how they are integrating technology and finding the balance that continues their educational success. He’ll meet with, among others, executives from Japan-based Epson to review growing trends in education in Japan and the US. Before he heads out, he sat down with EdTech Digest to talk about purpose in education, AI in education, thoughtful integration of technology—and what’s just ahead. 

What does it mean to be honored as part of The EdTech Awards 2024 in the context of now even further acceleration of technology with AI in education? 

As an educational technology leader with over two decades of experience, I am both humbled and energized to be recognized among the visionaries in The EdTech Awards 2024. This honor comes at a pivotal moment in education, as we navigate the transformative integration of AI into our learning ecosystems. The rapid advancements in AI are not just changing how we teach and learn; they’re revolutionizing our ability to understand and support student growth on an unprecedented scale.

‘The rapid advancements in AI are not just changing how we teach and learn; they’re revolutionizing our ability to understand and support student growth on an unprecedented scale.’

From your unique vantage point as someone with a long record of bringing innovation with technology for learning into your school district, what really is the transformative potential of AI in education?

The post Kyle Berger: Driving Innovation in Our Field appeared first on EdTech Digest.

In close with a dedicated force in our field who believes in the power of education to shape lives. 

INTERVIEW | by Victor Rivero

As CEO of Savvas Learning Company, Bethlam Forsa leads up a global next-generation K-12 learning solutions provider that recently acquired Outlier, an edtech startup that has created a portfolio of high-quality online college-level courses enabling high school students to earn dual credit while never having to leave their school building. A leader whose career in education and publishing spans over two decades, Bethlam has guided Savvas to deliver award-winning product lines. The Savvas Realize digital platform won the 2024 EdTech Digest Cool Tool Award for Learning Management System Solution. The company’s enVision Mathematics and SuccessMaker: Foundations of High School Math were named EdTech Cool Tool Award finalists in the Math Solution and the Personalized Learning Solution categories, respectively. Bethlam was also recently named the Most Influential Thought Leader in EdTech by the 2024 CODiE Awards. In this EdTech Digest exclusive, hear why she first became drawn to the work of education, how she defines an oft-used phrase, and her thoughts on technology’s role in—and what the future of—learning might look like.  

What prompted you to first become involved with technology and learning?

I was drawn to this work because I fundamentally believe in the power of education to shape lives. The best way to make a difference in the world is through a quality education. To do this, all of us at Savvas have dedicated ourselves to supporting educators by developing innovative, high-quality learning solutions that enable all students to succeed. Early in my career, I realized that education technology, when leveraged effectively, could revolutionize the way students learn, just as it has empowered us in our everyday lives. We’ve long been a leader in the digital transformation of K-12 education, including our pioneering use of adaptive technology to provide personalized learning solutions that help educators meet the needs of all learners. Our learning management system, Savvas Realize, — it’s earned more than a dozen edtech innovation awards, including one from EdTech Digest — has been widely recognized as a game-changing platform known for driving innovation and exemplifying the best in edtech solutions. It’s an exciting time to be in the edtech industry. Technology will continue to significantly impact education, especially with the advent of generative AI and the possibility of it taking personalized learning to new heights.

‘It’s an exciting time to be in the edtech industry. Technology will continue to significantly impact education, especially with the advent of generative AI and the possibility of it taking personalized learning to new heights.’

How do you define “next-generation learning,” and why?

There is a simple truth in education that student engagement leads to student achievement. For us, next-generation learning is about combining the power of advanced technology with research-based pedagogy and compelling content to deliver interactive, real-world learning experiences that spark student engagement and drive student achievement. Another important aspect of next-generation learning is enabling differentiated instruction to meet the needs, skills, and interests of individual learners, making education personalized, relevant and engaging to each student. We know that the traditional, one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work for all learners. That is why at Savvas we make it our mission to design flexible learning solutions that enable teachers to tailor instruction to each student’s distinct learning style and pace, ensuring that they receive personalized support and challenges that align with their abilities and goals. The educators and students who use our learning solutions deserve nothing less.

What does “proven pedagogy” mean to you and the team behind Savvas?

We take great pride in developing the highest-quality instructional materials available in today’s educational marketplace. Proven pedagogy is the very foundation of this. What it means to me, and all of us at Savvas, is that we develop research-based, standards-aligned learning solutions that incorporate the most current educational best practices coupled with compelling, relevant, and accurate content — all developed by dedicated teams of authors who are experts in their fields, working in conjunction with top editors, academic consultants, and teacher reviewers. In order to create our high-quality, evidence-based curriculum, we adhere to strict editorial standards and a rigorous product development process.

‘In order to create our high-quality, evidence-based curriculum, we adhere to strict editorial standards and a rigorous product development process.’

In the end, the gold standard for us is ensuring that the educational solutions we provide our customers prove to be efficacious and improve the educational outcomes and opportunities for all learners. As such, we believe that rigorous research should include multiple studies, creating a large body of research supporting an educational solution. For us, this involves continuously conducting research to measure the effectiveness of a product, as well as gain insights into educators’ experiences in the classroom. We partner with educators and school districts nationwide to constantly evaluate and test our instructional materials and drive development of evidence-based learning solutions. Our extensive research, combined with the feedback we receive from educators and teachers who use our programs, helps inform every step of our product development process, from pedagogy and instructional design to usability and efficacy in the classroom. Our goal is to ensure we deliver the most effective learning solutions that make a positive impact so that every student — no matter where they come from or which school they are in — has an opportunity to achieve their full potential.

What are some important guiding elements involved in helping students become productive contributing adults?

I believe it is important that we impart in young students the skills to help them thrive not just in the classroom but in life. Critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, teamwork, and other soft skills are essential for preparing students to navigate the complexities of adulthood. Likewise, encouraging curiosity and a love for lifelong learning can equip students with the mindset they’ll need to continuously adapt and grow.

As a next-generation K-12 education leader, Savvas develops instructional materials that make learning relevant to students’ lives and prepare them for college and career. Our programs challenge students to think more deeply and analytically about what they’ve read, giving them the tools to become critical thinkers and effective communicators, which is especially important in today’s fast-paced digital world. I think it’s important to also provide educators solutions that build upon the strong foundation of knowledge and life skills that they’ve taught their students by delivering personalized pathways to support college and career readiness for their high schoolers. Giving students the ability to “try on” college and earn valuable credit through dual-enrollment courses or take career technical education (CTE) classes to launch their careers is a critical next step to helping high school students become productive adults.

‘Giving students the ability to “try on” college and earn valuable credit through dual-enrollment courses or take career technical education (CTE) classes to launch their careers is a critical next step to helping high school students become productive adults.’

What trends are you looking at (AI, others) with the ‘future of learning’ in mind? And what does that look like to you—what do you see in the next couple of years for Savvas, for learning generally?

We are actively developing ways to use generative AI to create time-saving tools for teachers to reduce their burdensome administrative tasks, such as grading assignments and lesson planning. This will help make their jobs easier and alleviate some of the causes that have led to teacher burnout, allowing them to do what they love most: instructing students.

We are also leveraging AI to generate even more robust data-driven insights to differentiate instruction and enhance the adaptivity of our learning solutions. Another major focus of ours is using AI-powered tools to develop highly sophisticated and, most importantly, reliable “tutorbots” or “coaches” that can provide real-time feedback to students to improve their writing and math skills. The idea is that we want students to get better at literacy and math, and with machine-learning capabilities we can now give them in-the-moment, constructive critiques of their work that can guide them to become stronger at writing and math.

These are just some of the ways we are incorporating AI into our learning solutions. The use of generative AI in K-12 education is going to grow rapidly as more use cases are identified. Looking ahead, I think generative AI offers the potential to provide a deeply personalized learning experience like we’ve never seen before. It will bring to market new solutions to solve real world problems for teachers and learners in ways that were not previously possible. However, like with any new technology, the use of AI’s capabilities as a classroom tool must be pedagogically sound and implemented responsibly, with clear guardrails for its use that prioritize safety, integrity, and efficacy, above all else. Lastly, we must ensure that we keep teachers and students at the center of whatever learning solutions we create. AI may help revolutionize learning but it will never replace the teacher.

Anything you care to add or emphasize concerning edtech, the future of learning, or anything else regarding tech’s role in learning?

Edtech will continue to have a significant role in the future of learning. There’s no doubt about that. However, what I think is really important to point out is that edtech is also now reimagining learning for the future.

‘Edtech will continue to have a significant role in the future of learning. There’s no doubt about that. However, what I think is really important to point out is that edtech is also now reimagining learning for the future.’

We all know it’s vitally important that we prepare today’s students with the skills they will need to be successful in college and the workforce. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 70 percent of jobs will soon require education or training beyond high school. Yet only two in 10 high school students believe they are career-ready, according to a 2021 survey by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Dual-enrollment courses can help fill the gap in college and career readiness by allowing students to simultaneously earn course credit for both high school and college while also exploring career pathways and learning skills needed in the job market. However, logistical challenges in the way these courses have been traditionally offered have often posed barriers to students. For example, in many cases students have long needed to travel to a nearby college — if one even exists in their community — to take a college-level dual-enrollment course. 

By utilizing technology, we can eliminate those barriers. Through our acquisition of Outlier, we are now able to offer the millions of students we serve the opportunity to experience the rigor of college courses through high-quality, online dual enrollment courses. Credit for these courses come from the University of Pittsburgh, a top 50 school, and are highly transferable. Since Outlier’s cinematically produced courses are offered asynchronously, students can take them virtually — in the comfort of their own school, at a time that fits conveniently into their high school schedule. What’s really exciting about these state-of-the-art Outlier offerings is that students, no matter where they live, can experience college-level courses taught by professors from Harvard, MIT, NYU and other first-rate institutions without the hassle of leaving their building or missing other classes. There’s nothing else like it on the market that makes earning college credit while in high school so accessible for students, jump-starting learning for their future. Outlier technology is the future of learning, happening now.

—

Victor Rivero is the Editor-in-Chief of EdTech Digest. Write to: victor@edtechdigest.com

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State Education Technology Directors Association (SETDA) just released The 2024 State EdTech Trends. The survey and report tracks insights on the top edtech priorities as identified in SETDA’s survey of state policy-makers including state edtech directors, state superintendents and commissioners of education and CIOs. “With every new report, it’s more evident that state education agencies are evolving to meet the demands of a digital, modern world while navigating the uncertainty created by emerging technologies like artificial intelligence,” says Julia Fallon, Executive Director of SETDA. Like its predecessors, the report catalogs ways state education agencies are adjusting to a world where technology is ubiquitous and where new and emerging innovations create never-before-seen opportunities and risks. Conducted in collaboration with Whiteboard Advisors, the report includes responses from 46 states and the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA). The report complements the survey data with state spotlights that showcase the work states are leading to support cybersecurity efforts, the effective and equitable use of edtech tools, and the development of policy to guide the use of AI in K-12 classrooms. Learn more.

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How to scale to new markets using pilots with international school operators.

GUEST COLUMN | by Michael Spencer

It’s hard to ignore the ongoing macro market challenges in edtech right now: venture investing is at just 10% of peak 2021 levels, while K-12 budgets in the U.S. are facing a $65B revenue decline due to the ESSR funding cliff, declining enrollment and increasing labor costs.

At the same time, sales to schools has become ‘noisier’ as there are more and more K-12 startups selling products, while US school districts have cracked down after being inundated with sales offers and phishing scams that lead to ransomware attacks.

Global from the Get-Go

In this climate, the only viable route to success for edtech companies is adopting a global sales strategy from the get-go. 

‘In this climate, the only viable route to success for edtech companies is adopting a global sales strategy from the get-go.’

Over the years, I’ve spoken with many edtech founders about go-to-market and many of them have expressed a reluctance to expand and sell into international markets. They cite long sales cycles, high costs and low success rates among the reasons they don’t want to do it. After all, selling to U.S. schools and districts is challenging in the best of circumstances, so why extend that effort to geographical markets you know even less about? 

To Take Your Startup to the Next Level

However, the reality for many K-12 B2B founders, especially if they sell to U.S. school districts and/or organic growth has reached a saturation point, is that to take your startup to the next level, you need proactive early growth into international markets. As a long-time edtech executive turned early- to mid-stage investor, I believe that using channel partners to facilitate growth into thousands of untapped international school operators can be a highly successful way to scale your sales. Expanding into international markets while you’re trying to establish your company may sound daunting, but it’s often the simplest and fastest way to generate scalable, sustainable recurring revenue growth.

The Key is Pilots

So how do you put this into practice? The key is pilots. 

What are pilots?

Pilot programs aren’t the same as product demonstrations, or even beta tests. Conducted effectively, pilot programs can help schools and companies together weigh the potential value and impact of new education tools in ways that tests alone typically can’t.

This makes pilots a critical part of the K-12 sales process. They are also a common fail-point for vendors, something I call ‘pilot purgatory’ – prolonged pilots with no clearly defined expectations, measure of success or decision points that don’t then convert to paid customers. The majority of schools lack the resources, know-how, tools and processes to conduct effective edtech pilots, so to make this the cornerstone of a successful global growth strategy, you need to be prepared to take the lead.

What does a successful edtech pilot program look like? What pitfalls should you avoid?

Advantages of pilots

‘Fail fast’ is a famous philosophy among startup entrepreneurs. For product developers, this means rapid testing and re-development to find what solves your users’ pain points most effectively. When testing and evaluating edtech solutions, it is most valuable to do it in the classroom with real teachers and students. This enables:

• Feedback loops → the developer gets the most relevant feedback to support feature development by improving their understanding of how schools actually use technology and what the real needs of teachers, students and parents/carers are, as well as identifying potential challenges ahead of technology implementation. (For this reason, the famous accelerator Y-Combinator lists pilots as criteria in their guidelines for edtech products.)
• Educator buy-in → pilot programs increase communication between schools and companies, as teachers can see the tool in action and founders develop a deep understanding of the way schools really work, their challenges and roles. Enhanced communication and collaboration among stakeholders creates a more connected learning community.
• Evidence of efficacy → pilots are best practice to find product-market fit and pave the way to get VC funding. The biggest edtech-focused VCs, such as Reach Capital, guide companies to build their own efficacy portfolio.

 

Overcoming challenges for a successful pilot

1. Identify need – Clearly articulate the specific challenge your solution is trying to address so you can clearly communicate the value you will add to a school’s day-to-day operations. Exploring international markets doesn’t require a shift in mission, values, or approach. Students globally all face the same challenges – all that’s required to succeed in the international market is a strategic channel partner or school operator who knows what works and what they need to maximize your impact, to do your due diligence, and to ensure solutions are presented in a manner that the local market needs.

2. Plan – Agree with the school upon specific pilot objectives to ensure a shared vision and identify data that will be used to determine success. Set agreements with the school that outline roles and responsibilities, timelines and how results will be used.

3. Train and implement – Ensure teachers have training and tech support to enable strong implementation of your solution. Take a high-touch approach to onboarding students.

4. Collect data – Collect quantitative and qualitative data so you can determine whether the pilot objectives are being met. Create formal opportunities (such as surveys, focus groups and post-pilot debriefs) for teachers and students to give feedback. Send usage updates to the school regularly throughout the pilot.

5. Analyze and decide – Analyze collected data to evaluate whether the edtech tool met the pilot objectives.You can pilot something, but without a benchmark and post-pilot review, it is useless. Work with the school to understand and negotiate the total cost of implementing the edtech tool. (Consider ongoing costs for licensing, installation, training and tech support.)

—

Michael E. Spencer is founder and CEO of Global Expansion Strategies supporting founders and schools with all aspects of the pilot process. To date, 100% of GES pilots have gone on to full implementation, with significant impacts on student outcomes. Connect with Michael on LinkedIn. 

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The choices we make today will have lasting impacts. 

GUEST COLUMN | by Jeff Faust and Melissa Loble

AI is dominating conversations in public education and is all but certain to be a key theme at education conferences for the foreseeable future. The choices we make today will have lasting impacts on our profession, our institutions, our leaders, our teachers, and most importantly, our students. While it’s important to avoid hype and futurism, doing nothing is risky. The rapid development of AI requires action, as we are already experiencing economic and professional impacts across industries with a rate of change almost certain to further accelerate.

‘The rapid development of AI requires action, as we are already experiencing economic and professional impacts across industries with a rate of change almost certain to further accelerate.’

‘We’ve Opened Up the Gate’

In a recent Instructure-hosted webinar focused on the role of AI schools, high school teacher Paul Satchwill explained the changing technological landscape succinctly: “We’ve opened up this gate…and there’s not a lot of direction.” While the potential of AI is immense, the lack of clear guidance and understanding poses significant challenges. As with any edtech, districts are worried about data privacy protections for both their teachers and students. The information provided by AI can’t always be trusted. Algorithms can perpetuate the biases of the humans who created them. Faulty models can also lead to data hallucinations –  incorrect or misleading results generated by the AI. But as the saying goes, “knowledge is power”, and with the increase in knowledge, comes the ability to overcome these issues.

Vendors need to be open with administrators regarding many data privacy concerns. Instructure, for example, is providing its clients with “nutrition fact sheets” that highlight the imperative information about its products. Districts can also use products, such as LearnPlatform by Instructure, to assess whether these AI products meet evidence-backed standards. With increased AI literacy, users will also know the best use cases for AI and how it applies to their classroom experience. 

Crucial Role of Schools 

Schools play a crucial role in addressing this by providing comprehensive education and training around AI for both teachers and students. This includes developing AI literacy programs, establishing clear expectations for AI use, and fostering open communication about its implications. Schools are uniquely equipped to foster open communication and collaboration with their communities through community conversations focused on AI. 

Schools can highlight the steps they are taking to responsibly incorporate AI, including the development of AI literacy programs, the establishment of clear guidelines for AI use, and ongoing professional development for staff. 

By proactively engaging parents, educators, and community members in these conversations, schools can build trust, address concerns, and ensure that AI integration aligns with the values and goals of the community. This collaborative approach not only promotes transparency but also empowers stakeholders to actively participate in shaping the future of AI in education.

Immense Promise 

The integration of AI in education holds immense promise for transforming teaching and learning experiences. AI has the potential to revolutionize education by offering personalized learning journeys, optimizing efficiency, and sparking creativity. By leveraging AI’s capabilities, schools can create a dynamic environment where each student receives tailored support, teachers can dedicate more time to inspiring students, and learning becomes an engaging and immersive adventure. AI-powered feedback enables educators to provide real-time insights, nurturing students’ abilities to think critically and become self-directed learners. 

AI has the potential to be a valuable tool for overcoming writer’s block and creativity challenges, enabling users to quickly generate ideas and content, save time, and “visually bring things to life” even without prior graphical expertise. However, it should be used as an aid rather than a replacement for human creativity. Through this practice, we can prioritize critical thinking, creativity, and adaptability in education and empower learners to excel in a world alongside AI.

Embracing the Potential 

AI will have lasting impacts on education, and its potential to enhance teaching and learning is vast. We should accept that leveraging AI to increase efficacy or to be the best educator possible is not cheating; rather, it’s a strategic move toward preparing ourselves and our students for the future. Schools must embrace this reality and begin exploring, training, and integrating AI tools purposefully and strategically. 

By leveraging industry partners, experts, and thought leaders in the field, schools can navigate this complex landscape with confidence, ensuring that AI is both effective and responsible. As we embark on this journey, let us embrace the potential of AI to create an education system that empowers every learner to reach their full potential in a future world that is all but guaranteed  to look vastly different from the world we know today.

—

Jeff Faust is Chief Technology Officer for Chesapeake Public Schools. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn. Melissa Loble is Chief Academic Officer at Instructure. Connect with Melissa on LinkedIn.

The post The Biggest Risk in Education: Doing Nothing About AI appeared first on EdTech Digest.

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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The market has spoken—now what do the teachers say? 

GUEST COLUMN | by Al Kingsley

The headline of our recent survey was easy to understand – a nearly unanimous view that technology makes teaching and learning better. A striking 93% of teachers and other education leaders who use technology in their jobs agreed with the sentiment.

‘…technology makes teaching and learning better. A striking 93% of teachers and other education leaders who use technology in their jobs agreed with the sentiment.’

That’s not surprising. But, as is often the case, context is paramount.

The Line is Gone

That educators see the benefits of technology so overwhelmingly may catch the attention of some people. However, the reality is that the line between technology and learning environments is gone. Not smudged, evaporated. The question is no longer whether we should have technology in teaching and learning but how much, when, and what we want it to do.

Even if, for whatever reason, you don’t put much faith in survey results, on the education technology question, the market has spoken. The ubiquitous adoption and use of classroom support and instruction technology cannot all be due to good salesmanship. Obviously, at least some education technology is providing some clear benefit in at least some places. The 92% tells us it’s considerably more than some.   

That’s the given. But, based on our survey released in March, the context and specificity of where we find education and technology are important and potentially insightful.

What a Majority of Educators Want

One of those insights is that even though educators recognize the benefits of technology, a majority (54%) told us that what they wanted most was more time for, and investment in, training to use education technologies. In contrast, 28% of the respondents in our survey said their top want was more funding for more technology. That’s a nearly 2:1 ratio.

As someone who’s been on both sides of the education technology market – as a school leader and company leader – the results tell me that sometimes we all try to introduce technology where there’s no actual impact or benefit from it. And that, even though we know it works, more is not always better, at least not right away.

Technology Alone Isn’t a Lever

When this happens, or when it looks as though it may happen, we shouldn’t be afraid to say that technology alone isn’t a lever that’s going to add value – by “we”, I mean all of us, no matter what side of the table we’re on. Educators, company representatives, administrators, families, and students should not be shy about asking impact-related questions and, where the answers are unclear or absent, pause. What educators are telling us they want, time, is not the enemy of good.

Going a bit deeper, these answers around our education resources and tools also show what seems obvious but is so easy to overlook – you can have technology in the classroom, but if you don’t have the skills or the understanding of how to use it effectively, then it can become a lump of clay. To me, for example, clay is clay, while a sculptor may see a universe of possibility and power. Sculpture is transformative. 

But even worse than letting powerful and expensive education technology gather dust and dry out for lack of time and training, without competency or mastery of technology tools, they can become a distraction rather than a benefit.

We’ve all struggled to get software or hardware to work, spending more time and frustration than it would have taken to ace the intended task the old, traditional way. It’s annoying and a waste of time, to be sure. But in a school setting, it may not be just the teacher’s time that’s being ineffectively sunk into trying to make the tech work.

The Teachers Are Right

The teachers are right. More time and training would help.

If we believe the things we say – that we want teaching to be more efficient, that we want teachers to be rock stars, that we want learning to be more personal and engaging, that managing a school should be much easier than it is – we owe them, and ourselves, that time.

After all, technology isn’t a kind of magic potion in which all that’s required is to add water and stir. It takes more than that.

Many of our education technologies are awesome, as our teachers know. If we want them to work like we imagine, time and training ought to be part of every technology package. For many technology providers and platforms, they already are. That’s the right path. In case we forget from time to time, teachers are right to remind us. 

—

Al Kingsley is the CEO of NetSupport. He is an author, chair of Multi Academy Trust cluster of schools in the UK, Apprenticeship Ambassador, and chair of his regional Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Board. A 30-year veteran in the sector he has written books on edtech, school governance, and school growth. Connect with Al on LinkedIn. 

The post Poof! The Line Between Tech and Learning is Gone  appeared first on EdTech Digest.

In 2019, Philip Bowman and his wife Najwa co-founded an edtech company that was deeply rooted in Philip’s innovative pedagogical methodology centered around one-to-one learning conversations. Since then, hundreds of dedicated educators and assistants have enrolled in MARIO Education’s groundbreaking certification courses.

A comprehensive six-year retrospective study, prominently featured in NASEN’s esteemed “Support for Learning” journal and co-authored by UDL and MTSS guru Dr. Katie Novak, delved deep into the intricacies and outcomes of the MARIO pedagogy in September of 2022. The results were nothing short of exceptional; Bowman’s methodology has been ranked amongst the top 5% of educational interventions in terms of efficacy.

In a testament to the ongoing evolution and impact of Philip Bowman’s vision, January 2023 saw the launch of “MARIO for Me” software. Not just limited to its place of origin, this software swiftly traversed borders, making its mark in over 20 countries within a short span. Its rapid global adoption is a testament to the transformative power of the software to measure and improve wellbeing and performance, while ultimately developing self-directed learners.

As the MARIO pedagogy continues to reshape contemporary educational paradigms, one thing is clear: Philip Bowman’s one-to-one learning conversations and wellbeing software are setting new benchmarks in the realm of edtech and education.

For these reasons and more, Philip Bowman is The EdTech Leadership Awards 2024 Winner for “Best School Leader” as part of The EdTech Awards from EdTech Digest. Learn more. 

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“Are you a boy or a girl?” the 5-year-old asked, staring at me as she waited for my response. I froze. Having worked primarily with middle and high schoolers, I wasn’t yet used to the blunt inquisitiveness of our younger students. I was caught off guard.

It was 2022 and I had recently been hired as the principal of an all-girls elementary school in New York, and it was my first visit to the school to meet students, staff and families.

“I’m a girl,” I said, smiling through my discomfort, before slinking away to chat with another student. The moment was brief, but it stuck in the pit of my belly throughout the day.

When I arrived home, I debriefed the day with my wife. I told her about the exciting moments from my visit — learning about the school culture, seeing teachers in action, and meeting my incredible new students. When I mentioned my experience with the pre-K student, she sensed my unease and asked me how I was feeling about it.

As I reflected, I found myself wondering aloud what it would be like leading an all-girls elementary school as a masculine-presenting queer woman. I was worried that the community would not accept a woman who wears suits and ties to lead their daughters’ school, that I would be too different. My wife reassured me that my individuality was valuable and my students would love and respect me as they always had when I was a teacher.

Since becoming principal of an elementary school, I have been asked the same innocent, yet awkward, question by multiple students and have still not found out the perfect response. But each time I’m asked, it reminds me of the fact that young people are constantly exploring identity and part of my job is to foster a community where curiosity, individuality, and diversity are seen as assets.

To create this kind of inclusive community, I want to develop a thoughtful response that challenges students to cultivate their own worldview — one that gets them thinking about why this question is coming up for them and helps them understand how they can ask questions about identity with care.

Identity exploration is a key element of childhood and adolescence and working with young people requires us to support it. There’s a body of research showing the importance of identity development and a positive self-concept for social and emotional growth. Since our school is an all-girls institution, gender identity is something we think a lot about — and it starts early. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children typically develop a sense of their gender identity by 4 years old. As children explore, they often express curiosity about aspects of their own identity and the identity of others in their community.

Most of the staff and students at our school identify as girls or women. But none of us is the same. We each show up and represent our identity in unique ways. There’s no singular expression of girlhood or womanhood. How, then, in a space that is organized around a shared gender identity, can we create an environment that embraces diversity and difference?

As a leader, I believe in order to create this type of environment, I have to start with myself.

While considering how to respond when a student asks a question about my identity, I’ve been thinking about where my insecurity stems from and I’ve recently come to realize that it’s fueled by traumatic experiences I had when I was a student. Today, I am a school leader, but I was once a child who was looking for a safe space to become myself. Unfortunately, I didn’t find that at school. Instead, I experienced rejection and bigotry, living through years of racist and homophobic bullying. Clearing the emotional rubble created by those experiences, I now have an important perspective on what our young people are going through in school today.

My own feelings of being misunderstood in my youth, as well as the homophobia I’ve lived through for being open about my identity as a queer educator, inform my passion for creating spaces where our girls can just be, without the fear of having to fit into a specific mold. I feel a great sense of responsibility to lead a school community that expands the definition of what it means to be a girl, supporting whatever identities our students bring to the classroom each day, and empowering our students to become adults who are beacons of our community.

To be clear, I’m not suggesting that every student should question their gender. Instead, I’m proposing that all students deserve a safe space to explore their identities, ask questions, discuss identity openly and learn about individuals who are like them — and not like them.

When I model vulnerability and authenticity as a leader, I invite others to do the same. The challenge? Leaders like me are not really encouraged to be vulnerable. As a young Black queer woman in school leadership, embracing vulnerability has felt frightening at times.

Facilitating open conversations about identity is important and can lead to validation and support, but there can also be potential backlash. For example, I’ve worked in schools for nearly a decade and in every space I’ve taught in, we’ve gotten pushback from families about celebrating, or even acknowledging Pride Month in reaction to activities promoting inclusivity for LGBTQ+ people because they feel it is inappropriate. Each time, I assure families that we value an inclusive curriculum and anything we’re teaching is in service of supporting our students.

These sentiments are hurtful personally, but that’s not my main concern. It’s not just about me. It’s about my students and my staff and the kind of environment we cultivate for them. An environment where everyone can bring their full selves to school. Our students deserve to have a school where they’re being challenged to learn about their own identities and the identities of others.

Our school was founded to provide the empowering experience of an all-girls education in a public school environment. The International Coalition of Girls’ Schools, which researches the impact of girls’ schools across the globeargues that girls’ schools are uniquely positioned to develop girls into leaders precisely because we are honest with our students about the real world. Sheltering our girls from exploring conversations about identity, flattens their voices into a two-dimensional box. Girlhood — or womanhood — is not monolithic. The beauty of a space dedicated to women and led by mostly women is in the variety of who we are, how we show up, and how we support our girls.

I want to create a learning environment that nurtures curiosity and promotes diversity, not one that encourages everyone to be the same. To do that, I have to stand in who I am despite the potential backlash, knowing the space I am creating for my students to one day stand in who they are proudly.

Moving forward, if a student asks me if I’m a boy or a girl, or any other question about identity, I will pose a question to open up the conversation before I share my response. I will ask them why they are asking and why this is coming up for them. I will take their curiosity as an opportunity to encourage them to articulate their own ideas about identity because girls’ schools do not teach girls what to think, but how to be critical thinkers and agents of change.

© Softulka / Shutterstock

AM Mediaworks is a PR firm specializing in edtech and the future of learning for over a decade partnering with leading corporations, global nonprofits and notable disruptors. Over 10 years, AM Mediaworks’ has driven integrated and strategic PR campaigns for hundreds of companies at every stage and size.

Founder Alyssa Miller’s communications programs drive brand engagement, thought leadership and visibility, and support funding, M&A, partnerships, events and global expansion.

The firm has a proven track record of securing headline news and op-eds that set industry trends and are transforming education at every stage including LearnPlatform’s Evidence as a Service, Instructure’s dominance as the #1 life long learning platform and Podium Education collaborating with Intel and charity:water to reach 1 million undergrads in 2023-2024 through a for-credit real-work program. For these reasons and more, AM Mediaworks is The EdTech Leadership Awards 2024 Winner for “Best PR Firm Working in Edtech” as part of The EdTech Awards from EdTech Digest. Learn more. 

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Co-founded by Dylan Diamond and Max Baron, the app helps high school and college students organize and connect, backed by $62M in funding.

INTERVIEW | by Victor Rivero

Dylan Diamond and Max Baron co-founded Saturn after meeting at the University of Pennsylvania in 2018. Dylan (pictured above, lower right, next to Max) was pursuing a dual degree and working full-time at Tesla, while Max had a full-time marketing job. They left college in early 2019 to launch Saturn, an app that helps high school and college students coordinate their calendars, connect with classmates, and track events.

Saturn has raised $62 million from investors like General Catalyst and Ashton Kutcher and is used by millions of students monthly, and they’re live in 17,000 schools. The company aims to build community around the calendar and is collaborating with Snapchat to enhance its platform. At 22, Dylan has been recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. He credits Staples High School for fostering his interest in technology and has led several independent tech projects from a young age.

Today, Dylan leads a talented team at Saturn, focused on helping students manage their time and stay connected. Saturn’s success reflects the vision and hard work of Dylan, Max, their team, and their investors. In this EdTech Digest exclusive, Dylan sat down to answer some basic questions that every edtech founder wrestles with, provides some key advice to other aspiring entrepreneurs, along with his take on the future of learning. 

What is Saturn? Why do high schoolers need a calendar app? 

Saturn is the first calendar built specifically for high school students. It has been designed from the ground up to support all the irregularities of high school schedules, whether those are lunch waves, block schedules, or unusual rotation patterns. The app helps students become more productive and engaged members of their communities by better managing their class schedules, after-school activities, and community events – all while connecting with their friends.

‘The app helps students become more productive and engaged members of their communities by better managing their class schedules, after-school activities, and community events – all while connecting with their friends.’

Today’s high school experience is truly overwhelming for students. Many schools have complex rotation schedules, and students are expected to juggle their academic lives with an ever-expanding set of extracurriculars. None of the calendar apps out there actually support the unique attributes of a high school schedule. Every one of them “thinks” in terms of weekdays; ours is the first capable of “thinking” in rotation days.

The hardest part of high school shouldn’t be managing your schedule, and Saturn has set out to solve this.

Why did you start Saturn? What problem is it solving? 

Saturn evolved from a calendar app I originally built for my own high school to manage my own complicated schedule. When I met my co-founder and we decided to expand the concept to other schools, we found real traction among other students with similar problems to those we faced as high schoolers. We named the app Saturn after the Roman god of time.

Saturn is a utility, first and foremost, and we provide unique value as the only calendar that was built explicitly to support the modern high school experience. Today, we support students at more than 19,000 schools across the country.

The social value of the product comes from being able to share calendars with your friends and connect to your community. Saturn is grounded in the belief that students’ most important community is actually the community closest to them – their high school. 

Unlike other social platforms that serve as time sinks via an endless feed of content, our mission is to give students time back in their day so they can focus on spending more time doing things they love with the people who matter most to them.

You started Saturn as a high schooler—what has the founding journey been like? 

In 2015, everyone at my high school was obsessed with finding out their classmates’ schedules at the beginning of the year. Seeing that behavior, I realized this could easily be transformed into a calendar app designed specifically for my high school. The app was called iStaples and it went viral within our high school – to the tune of 80% of the 2,000 students at the school using the app every day.

Three years later, I was a sophomore at Penn, and working full-time for Tesla as a software engineer on the company’s Supercharger Analytics team. I met my co-founder, Max Baron, a classmate who was also juggling a full-time job at global marketing agency Havas, where he was helping them develop their strategies to reach young consumers.

We started discussing our own experiences with high school schedules, and decided to roll out a similar calendar app at a school near my alma mater, to explore whether the concept could scale. Approximately half of that second school joined in three hours, and things ramped up quickly from there. Soon we had 17 schools, students loved it, and we consolidated to a single app (called Saturn) to enable us to move faster: both in launching schools and shipping features.

When we reached 50 schools, we went to California to meet investors for the first time, and General Catalyst led our Seed round. We left school to operate Saturn full-time, and haven’t looked back since. 

How do you interact with high schoolers? 

We have always considered ourselves a product created for high schoolers, by high schoolers. Ever since the beginning of our journey, we have been solving a problem that was very familiar to us. From day one, our approach was to make Saturn feel personal – like it was built just for your school.

When we first launched, a key part of our strategy was working with “ambassadors,” students at the schools we supported, to help us understand the intricacies of their individual schools and their schedules. Collectively, they allowed us to build a product that was tailored to each school’s calendar and needs.

These users naturally became advocates for the product and ended up helping Saturn grow through word-of-mouth as they shared it with friends. Even today, we are constantly talking to our users to understand their needs and incorporate their feedback to build a product that is deeply valuable to them.

‘…we are constantly talking to our users to understand their needs and incorporate their feedback to build a product that is deeply valuable to them.’

What features are resonating most with high schoolers on the app? 

We are constantly working to ensure that Saturn is the best calendar it can be. We’re regularly listening to our users through user interviews, which has informed some of our recent feature launches. This is especially true in the case of recent improvements to the calendar’s core interface, as well as smaller features like widgets for the home screen and lock screen that make it easy to access your calendar on Saturn.

We focus very much on the “single-player” value of Saturn. The reason is simple: if you find the product useful as an individual, you’ll keep coming back, earning us the opportunity to continue iterating and making the product even better over time.

Why is time management an essential skill for high school students to learn? 

We strongly believe that time is your most valuable resource, and managing it is a critical life skill. That said, high school schedules are unimaginably complicated today, which makes time management that much harder for students.

We believe that effective time management will not only make students more successful in the classroom and with their extracurriculars, but will empower them to spend more time doing the things they enjoy most.

What’s your advice to other young edtech entrepreneurs?

Build a product that solves a problem you’re deeply familiar with. We built Saturn because we had experienced the challenge of managing our own schedules in high school, and we knew why the alternative calendar products weren’t compelling for us.

Our own personal experience has always been at the forefront of how we develop our product roadmap. It’s much easier to self-empathize than it is to empathize with others, so if you’re in need of an idea, start by building something for yourself and then see if it can scale.

What trends are you looking at in the near and medium term future, why those?

We believe that the next generation of social platforms will inevitably be more utility-oriented. Countless studies and anecdotes are making clear that today’s users are inundated with content from a landscape of feed-focused social products that suck your time. We are very focused on building social value around a utility you rely on every day.

‘We believe that the next generation of social platforms will inevitably be more utility-oriented.’

For too long, social media products have emphasized the breadth of your social graph instead of the integrity of that graph. A core part of Saturn is that we are catering to a real community in your life – your high school. We see that by connecting that smaller, more intimate community, we can drive better connections.

—

Victor Rivero is the Editor-in-Chief of EdTech Digest. Write to: victor@edtechdigest.com

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Tim McIlvain is the Executive Director of the Learning Technology Center (LTC), an organization delivering educational technology services to 852 public school districts and hundreds of private schools and educational entities in the Midwest. He leads a talented team of educational and technology experts that facilitate professional learning opportunities for over 15,000 educators per year, consults with thousands of school leaders on digital learning issues, advises state agencies on policy initiatives, operates a member-based educational cooperative with over 800 member institutes, and provides technical and operational support to K-12 entities.

Tim is a thought-leader in topics like educational technology, artificial intelligence, and data privacy. Through his strategic leadership over the past six years, the LTC has impacted thousands of educational organizations nationwide.

The LTC has grown significantly over the past six years from 3 employees to 30, and today the LTC:

Provides 650 to 800 professional learning events annually.

Leads data privacy and cybersecurity initiatives for 852 districts.

Consults with state agencies and national organizations on education policies.

Provides instructional technology coaches to 50 schools.

Supports digital equity initiatives for students to connect all in Illinois.

For these reasons and more, Tim McIlvain is The EdTech Leadership Awards 2024 Winner for “Best National (U.S.) Leader” as part of The EdTech Awards from EdTech Digest. Learn more.

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How artificial intelligence can empower teachers to deliver quality education.

GUEST COLUMN | by Richard Savage, Ed.D.

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Grammarly have taken the world by storm. ChatGPT alone is setting records with more than 1.6 billion visits per month and 180 million active users. 

While technology has always driven educational transformation, the fast arrival of AI tools has created considerable debate among educators, largely due to uncertainty about their operation and path forward.

‘While technology has always driven educational transformation, the fast arrival of AI tools has created considerable debate among educators, largely due to uncertainty about their operation and path forward.’

As an online-based school, we’ve asked ourselves how AI will impact our own curriculum as an online-based learning environment and our academic integrity. Whether we’re prepared or not, students are already embracing the AI trend: roughly one-in-five teenagers who have heard of ChatGPT utilized the tool to aid them in their schoolwork, according to a 2023 Pew Research Study.

Parents Say AI Skills for Children ‘Crucial’ 

While the need for critical conversation around AI tools is warranted, optimism is rising. An April 2024 YouGov survey revealed that two-thirds of parents with children under 18 consider learning AI skills crucial for K-12 students’ future career prospects.

As schools nationwide face learning loss and low student engagement, coupled with overwhelmed and understaffed teaching staff, educators have opportunities to improve their classrooms through AI:

• Tracking Classroom Learning and Student Outcomes. One of the key advantages of AI is its capacity to process large volumes of data. In the classroom, this can provide teachers with deeper insights into student learning and outcomes. Platforms like BrightBytes use AI to track student performance, identify areas of difficulty and design effective interventions. Consolidating and analyzing classroom data through AI can help teachers create targeted instructional plans, ultimately enabling them to focus more on teaching and less on administrative tasks.

Educators Need Proper Training

However, our educators need proper training, AI literacy, and ethical guidelines to ensure responsible usage. This includes safeguarding student privacy, maintaining human oversight in AI-based decision-making and actively addressing algorithmic biases.

• Personalize Learning Experiences. If the technology is available, kids will find it and use it. When it comes to AI, that may not be a bad thing. In a 2023 study by Quizlet, 73 percent of students indicated that AI helps them to understand material better; 67 percent said it helped them to study faster and more efficiently. 

 

In the classroom, AI-powered platforms and tools have the ability to provide students more tailored instruction and feedback that caters to their individual learning styles, preferences and pace of learning. Personalized approaches both enhance student engagement and motivation while fostering deeper understanding of material. New technologies can also play a pivotal role in aiding classroom inclusivity by offering tools that accommodate diverse learning needs. Technologies like text-to-speech, speech recognition and language translation break down barriers, allowing students with varying levels of language proficiency or learning abilities to engage with educational content. 

On the teacher’s end, educators can leverage AI-powered platforms like Curipod or Eduaide.Ai to develop interactive lessons, activities and assessments for specific students or the class as a whole in topics that might be a little harder to comprehend. 

• Deploy AI in the Classroom To Assist with New Curriculum: Young people are prolific at using technology as it is something they have grown up with. Students have more information at the tip of their fingers than we ever thought possible. Unfortunately, there are times when the sources of news and information that students access contain misinformation.  

Getting Educated

Last year, the California Assembly passed Bill 873, which mandates media literacy education in various subjects, in response to the massive spread of misinformation and need for such skills. AI-based tools can help educators teach students how to recognize trusted sources vs. misinformation. In turn, this underscores the responsible use of technology and our responsibility as global citizens.

• New, Innovative AI-Themed Classes: Offer “Intro to AI” or AI-forward classes. These types of classes can help students learn about the vast, real world applications of AI beyond ChatCPT and open up a world of future possibilities for them to consider. Potential class offerings could include a coding class for AI or science which focuses on the vast applications of AI in medicine today. 

 

Lastly, if your school is incorporating AI into the classroom or including it as part of the students’ educational experience, it is imperative that you establish a clear AI policy. Also, it is very important to explain and reiterate the policy to students as they advance grade levels.

As educators, we play a crucial role in molding the foundation for the next generation. Drawing upon our own experience in the technology revolution and leading in the next, let’s ensure every student has the opportunity to thrive.

—

Dr. Richard Savage is the superintendent of California Online Public Schools, an accredited, tuition-free online public school serving students in grades TK-12 across 32 California counties. He has taught high school Spanish, coached soccer and volleyball, and served as vice principal to over 2,500 students at Antelope Valley High School. He also coordinated a Distinguished School Award, a successful six-year accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, and school-wide project-based learning implementation, during his time as school principal at Calistoga Junior/Senior High School. He holds an Ed.D. in Organizational Leadership from the University of Laverne. Connect on LinkedIn.

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Rebecca Leis, Ph.D. is a Full Sail University Program Director overseeing the Computer Science Bachelor of Science – Mobile Development Concentration, Computer Science Master of Science, and User Experience Bachelor of Science degree programs. In her role, she continues to work to build new hands-on educational opportunities for current and future students.

Leis brings with her into the role knowledge from earning a master’s and a Ph. D in Modeling and Simulation. Her research focused on an acute understanding of the human mind through technology. For example, while earning her master’s degree, one of her research studies explored how people could use technology to become safer, more efficient workers in high-risk jobs at oil rigs or nuclear power plants.

Recently, Leis, Ph.D. has done the following:

Aided in the launch and deployment of three new Full Sail emerging technologies degree programs – Computer Science Master of Science, User Experience Bachelor of Science, as well as the Computer Science Bachelor of Science Mobile and Artificial Intelligence (AI) concentrations.

Played an instrumental role in the grand opening of the “Full Sail University Fitness Technology Lab Powered by Echelon Fit.” This on-campus lab environment allows students across the emerging technologies-focused degree programs to participate in innovative research initiatives centered on enhancing existing Echelon equipment and features, as well as the development and implementation of new features for different Echelon product lines.

Continued to manage a team of over 50 educators while regularly evaluating the effectiveness of the programs she oversees. For these reasons and more, Rebecca Leis, Ph.D. is The EdTech Leadership Awards 2024 Winner for “Best Higher Education Leader” as part of The EdTech Awards from EdTech Digest. Learn more. 

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An interview with Brian Shaw, Discovery Education’s new CEO.

INTERVIEW | by Victor Rivero

He’s not new to Discovery Education; Brian Shaw recently served as Discovery Education’s Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operations Officer. He joined Discovery Education in 2018 and has played a significant role in the growth of the Company as a standalone business. And now, most recently, Brian has assumed the role of CEO. 

‘I believe that at this moment, edtech is in an unprecedented period of change which is going to have major implications for years to come…’

Prior to joining Discovery Education, Brian created and then led the Corporate Development, Investments, and Investor Relations functions at Red Ventures, a technology-enabled portfolio of digital companies. Prior to Red Ventures, he held leadership roles in the financial planning and analysis and accounting functions at Time Warner Cable, and in the assurance practice at Ernst & Young. 

“For the last six years, I have worked alongside an incredibly talented team of individuals to create and distribute high-quality digital learning solutions globally,” says Brian. “I look forward to progressing our tradition of innovation, expanding our impact on education, and building on the foundational initiatives we’ve invested in over the last several years to drive growth alongside my colleagues at Discovery Education as well as our partners at Clearlake.” In this EdTech Digest exclusive, Brian talks about the moment before us, how we can better serve school systems, his past informing his present role, ensuring the “voice of the educator” is heard, technology’s role in education, and the future of learning. 

Great to meet you, Brian!  You are taking over as CEO of Discovery Education at an interesting time. Tell me what you sense is going on in edtech at this moment.

Thanks Victor.  It’s a pleasure to connect with you!

I believe that at this moment, edtech is in an unprecedented period of change which is going to have major implications for years to come, not only for companies like Discovery Education, but also for teachers and students around the world. At Discovery Education, we are calling this moment The Great Rationalization and Consolidation. 

During the pandemic, school districts made unprecedented investments in education technologies. Now, districts are carefully analyzing their edtech spending and rationalizing their purchases through a careful review of the usage data and alignment to outcomes and evidence of learning. With efficacy data in hand that highlights which resources are working, and which are not, school systems are consolidating their edtech spending on fewer, higher-impact services. 

Does this period of “rationalization and consolidation” impact how you look at serving school systems?

Discovery Education has always provided school systems with innovative, best-in-class digital resources.  We pioneered the use of digital content in the classroom, created the first digital-first textbooks, or Techbooks, and we are now leaping ahead again though our AR/VR content and our applications of Artificial Intelligence. 

That said, I think the rationalization and consolidation of edtech spending turns up the heat on Discovery Education and all other edtech providers in the space.  

During a time when school systems are evaluating the ROI of their edtech spending and categorizing it according to value and potential for improvement, Discovery Education is looking carefully not only at how we can demonstrate greater value for our school-based partners, but how we can continue to innovate and bring the school systems we serve the highest-quality digital products that empower educators to create the most impactful learning experiences possible. 

Prior to your current role as CEO, you served as Discovery Education’s COO and CFO.  How did those roles prepare you for your current position?

As Discovery Education’s COO and CFO, I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside talented CEOs and Board members to craft plans and strategies for expanding our impact on teaching and learning. While this was good training for my current role, I think the experience I gained as COO will be most helpful to me moving forward.

As COO, I had the opportunity to work alongside Discovery Education’s talented team around the globe to implement our growth strategies. During that time, I learned—from the inside out and from the folks on the ground doing the work—what [our company] actually does, how we do it, and what impact we have on the teachers and students we serve.  

One added benefit to having served as COO is the opportunity to learn from what I think are some of the most talented educators in edtech.  At Discovery Education, you will find educators in every aspect of our business.  They play an important role in ensuring that everything we do is informed by the voice of the educator and most especially, the needs of students. 

You mentioned that everything Discovery Education does is informed by the “voice of the educator” How do you ensure the educator’s voice is heard when DE designs and builds products?  

Well, as I said, ensuring the educator’s voice permeates everything we do begins with the former classroom teachers and school administrators on our team. Having so many former educators on our staff from almost every type of school system imaginable helps inform everything from our corporate strategies to our decisions on where we place the buttons in our digital services.

‘Having so many former educators on our staff from almost every type of school system imaginable helps inform everything from our corporate strategies to our decisions on where we place the buttons in our digital services.’

Equally important however is input from active educators in the field. Through qualitative and quantitative means— 1:1 interviews, panels discussions, surveys, studies of product usage patterns, third-party research and more, Discovery Education’s team is aggressively working to identify the challenges teachers are facing and create ways to address those challenges through our products.

Finally, the Discovery Educator Network or DEN, one of the oldest and most active professional learning networks of its kind, is a never-ending source of feedback. This year at ISTE, the DEN will celebrate 19 years of connecting members across school systems and around the world through social media, virtual conferences, and in-person events, fostering valuable idea sharing and inspiration. Over the years, the DEN has played a tremendous role ensuring the educator’s voice guides Discovery Education’s path, and I look forward to hearing even more insights from this group in my new role.

What role should technology play in education, and what are some of the challenges leaders face as they consider this evolving relationship? 

I believe technology’s role in education is to empower teachers to more easily scale what we know is best practice, improve student achievement, and save teachers time and effort that is better spent with the students they serve.

When I think about the challenges school leaders face in the evolving relationship between school leaders and technology, I think of accountability. In today’s data-driven world, school leaders are in the position of demanding more accountability from their edtech providers. To do so, those leaders will need to know how to read the data to which they will have access.  Aligning edtech resources with learning objectives and then securing, reading, and understanding evidence of student progress often requires a nuanced understanding of the resource’s impact on learning.  To ensure the level of accountability coming in this new era of edtech is going to require both providers and school leaders to learn some new skills.

We began with a question about what’s going on in edtech at the moment.  Let’s jump ahead. Where do you see edtech in the next 1-2 years?

I believe that the next 1-2 years will provide a new level of clarity as to which edtech resources work. In school systems, there will be a heightened emphasis on selecting products that deliver high quality materials and drive student engagement. The use of data and a focus on efficacy will grow even more critical in the evolution of edtech.

‘I believe that the next 1-2 years will provide a new level of clarity as to which edtech resources work.’

For companies like Discovery Education, this will spur a new era of innovation as we work to continuously improve our products to meet the evolving demands of both teachers and students. It is an exciting time to be working in educational technology and I am looking forward to the challenge!  

—

Victor Rivero is the Editor-in-Chief of EdTech Digest. Write to: victor@edtechdigest.com

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A call to action for edtech.

GUEST COLUMN | by Jason Katcher

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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