Purpose and inclusivity central to Microsoft’s education strategy

techradar | January 29, 2020

Microsoft was out in force at BETT 2020 and TechRadar Pro sat down with Anthony Salcito, VP Education, to discuss the company’s education technology (EdTech) strategy. The software giant unveiled a range of small enhancements to its Office 365 product suite at the show, spanning tools such as PowerPoint, Teams, OneNote, Stream and Flipgrid. The additions, according to Salcito, “reflect some of the broader trends happening in the world of technology. [Microsoft is preparing for] the next generation of learning that will extend far beyond the classroom.” Exactly what he means by this becomes clear in the context of PowerPoint’s new feature, which allows teachers to broadcast their presentations to remote participants. The tool also supports real-time translation in more than 60 languages, allowing students of various nationalities to engage with the same lesson simultaneously.

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The B2B buyer journey has always been complex. And today, with the ever-changing demands of the modern industry buyer, it has become even more necessary to rethink the buyer journey, creating a future-ready digital experience

Spotlight

The B2B buyer journey has always been complex. And today, with the ever-changing demands of the modern industry buyer, it has become even more necessary to rethink the buyer journey, creating a future-ready digital experience

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CORPORATE LEARNING SYSTEMS

Teaching Strategies Wins National EdTech Award for Research-Based Early Childhood Education Curriculum

PRnewswire | April 05, 2023

Teaching Strategies, the country's leading developer of early childhood curriculum, assessment, professional learning, and family engagement solutions, has won EdTech Digest's "EdTech Cool Tool Award" for The Creative Curriculum®, its research-based, whole-child curriculum that serves children from infancy through kindergarten. The Creative Curriculum®, which earned the top honor in the "curriculum and instruction solution" award category, is designed to give early childhood educators, no matter their level of experience, the resources and support they need to implement a developmentally appropriate, content-rich program for children with diverse backgrounds and skill levels. The curriculum's digital platform includes, for example, planning tools to guide individualized instruction; a mobile app to engage families with learning in the classroom and at home; and on-demand professional development and community-building opportunities. Teaching Strategies was also named a finalist in seven award categories, spanning company leadership to assessment to credentialing. "Our youngest learners—and those closest to them— deserve comprehensive supports that meet their evolving needs. This is especially true as we continue to navigate the long-term effects of the pandemic on learning in the classroom and at home," said Teaching Strategies CEO John Olsen. "We're thrilled to be recognized by EdTech Digest for our leadership in the sector and for our ongoing commitment to offer children, educators, and families the most innovative, timely solutions." Established in 2010, The EdTech Awards recognize, acknowledge, and celebrate the most exceptional innovators, leaders, and trendsetters in education technology with three main honors: the EdTech Cool Tool Awards, the EdTech Leadership Awards, and the EdTech Trendsetter Awards. Teaching Strategies was named a finalist in various categories under all three main honors. The products recognized as finalists for "Cool Tool Awards" include the new Professional Development Teacher Membership; the widely-used and trusted GOLD® assessment; the trauma-informed coaching app Noni™; and Tadpoles®, a communication solution for child care programs. In addition, Olsen was named a finalist for a "Leadership Award" and the company's entire ecosystem of solutions was a finalist for a "Trendsetter Award." Access a full list of winners and finalists for the awards. This year's finalists and winners were narrowed from the larger field and judged based on various criteria, including: pedagogical workability, efficacy and results, support, clarity, value and potential. "A very big congratulations to all The EdTech Awards 2023 finalists and winners—and congratulations to all who endured the upheavals of the last few years only to come through stronger, more experienced, resilient, and resolute in laying out the future of learning," said Victor Rivero, who as Editor-in-Chief of EdTech Digest oversees the program. Rivero continued: "It's far from perfect but across K-12, higher education, and workforce learning sectors, an accelerated digital transformation has left in its wake hybrid schools, rapidly changing postsecondary models, and an increasingly remote-based workforce. The world has truly changed—and we will never be the same again." About Teaching Strategies Driven by research that shows a child's first eight years form a critical foundation for success in school and in life, Teaching Strategies has been an advocate for the early education community for over 40 years. Today, Teaching Strategies connects teachers, children and families to inspired teaching and learning experiences, informative data, stronger family partnerships, and professional learning through the leading early learning platform and resources. Its products, including the most widely-used curriculum and assessment solutions The Creative Curriculum® and GOLD®, are found in over 250,000 classrooms and reach over 4 million children each year. To learn why thousands of early childhood programs and many states choose to partner with Teaching Strategies to help ensure children's success in school and in life. About EdTech Digest and EdTech Awards EdTech Digest, a leading source of cool tools, interviews, and trends showcasing the future of learning, annually honors the best and brightest people, products and groups working in edtech with The EdTech Awards. Cool Tool, Leadership, and Trendsetter honorees span the K-12, Higher Ed, and Skills & Workforce sectors.

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ONLINE EDUCATION

PowerSchool Partners with EDU, Inc. Common Black College Application to Support College Access & Equity for Students

Businesswire | May 26, 2023

PowerSchool the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America, today announced a partnership with EDU Inc. and PowerSchool Naviance. This exclusive partnership will connect students using Naviance with the Common Black College Application, better enabling students to apply to many Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) at once starting with the 2023-2024 school year. The comprehensive college, career, and life readiness solutions available in Naviance are used by millions of students. Naviance college research tools utilize over ninety search criteria to help students find institutions that are the right fit for their aspirations and needs. As part of their exploration process in Naviance, students view college profiles over 25 million times each year. “Our data over the last few years has shown a clear increase in students looking for HBCUs,” said Amy Reitz, Group Vice President of Product at PowerSchool. “A key part of the Naviance philosophy is ensuring each student is empowered to find their best fit, and we value the tremendous role HBCUs play in our country’s higher education landscape. We are excited to partner with the Common Black College Application to benefit students, school counselors, and colleges.” The Common Black College Application is a network of Historically Black Colleges and Universities committed to supporting equity and access for students. Students apply to all member institutions with one application fee, reducing friction in the application process. “The partnership between Naviance and the Common Black College Application will have a profound impact in the lives of millions of students, interested in attending HBCUs, in the coming years,” said Robert Mason, Founder of EDU, Inc. “Equally as important, our work with Naviance will aid HBCUs in the achievement of their enrollment objectives. The partnership between Naviance and the CBCA represents the very essence of educational access and equality – goals that so many others seek to achieve and fall woefully short.” Starting in the fall, Naviance will identify colleges that are members of the Common Black College Application on their Naviance college profiles. PowerSchool and EDU, Inc. will also work together to integrate the Common Black College Application with Naviance eDocs for the following year, making it easy for counselors to submit supporting documentation for student applications. About PowerSchool PowerSchool is the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America. Its mission is to power the education ecosystem with unified technology that helps educators and students realize their full potential, in their way. PowerSchool connects students, teachers, administrators, and parents, with the shared goal of improving student outcomes. From the office to the classroom to the home, it helps schools and districts efficiently manage state reporting and related compliance, special education, finance, human resources, talent, registration, attendance, funding, learning, instruction, grading, assessments and analytics in one unified platform. PowerSchool supports over 50 million students globally and more than 15,000 customers, including more than 90 of the top 100 districts by student enrollment in the United States, and sells solutions in more than 90 countries.

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ONLINE EDUCATION

Battelle Grants Allow Central Ohio Students to Explore STEM Through Out-Of-Classroom Learning

Businessiwire | May 26, 2023

Battelle has funded a new portfolio of 14 out-of-classroom education programs that build science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills through the latest awards with its Central Ohio STEM Grants. As a nonprofit philanthropic trust, Battelle directs the majority of its giving to STEM-related programming to provide opportunities for students to develop skills to become the next generation of innovators. "Through this program, Battelle is committing more resources toward empowering our local partners’ ideas to expand access to STEM opportunities for students across Central Ohio,” said Wes Hall, Vice President of Philanthropy and Education. "STEM programs that integrate music, agriculture, entrepreneurship and environmental science will ignite sparks of inspiration for thousands of young minds in our community." This is the tenth year for these competitive awards with the largest ever total funding awarded: $772,000. Investment in the grant program now totals more than $5.6 million. Following are descriptions of the winning programs: Continued Programs Capital University Capital University will host 100 middle school females for a day of science experimentation and STEM career and education exploration. Columbus Fashion Alliance Columbus Fashion Alliance's High School Fashion Club builds upon the principles of STEM to bolster the academic and career skills of participants through the lens of fashion. Ohio Soybean Council Foundation The Ohio Soybean Council will reach 400 students in Central Ohio afterschool/summer programs with agriculture-related entrepreneurship lessons, delivered by trained pre-service educators from Ohio State University. New Programs Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Central Ohio Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Central Ohio will host a Youth Empowerment Institute to provide middle and high school students with the opportunity to participate in eight STEM-focused weekend-based sessions throughout the school year. Charles Madison Nabrit Memorial Garden Charles Madison Nabrit Memorial Garden will deliver week-long summer STEM camps and daylong pop-up STEM camps for 115 elementary and middle school students in Northeast Columbus around food injustice. Clintonville-Beechwood Community Resources Center The Clintonville-Beechwood Community Resources Center will engage K-5 students with weekly lessons on design, illustration and publishing as children each create a comic book to be shared at a family reading event. Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (CAPA) CAPA will offer Bite-Size Science: The Singing Zoologist to students in grades 1-5 from Columbus City Schools and other districts to teach life cycles, habitats and how these interact with larger ecosystems. Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services will expand educational opportunities for New American students in the community to include programming, coding, using electronics and computers. The program will also and create a miniature working city for the local smart city initiative. Form5 Prosthetics Inc Form5 will leverage the organization’s PRE-FAB Workshop to inspire 9-12 graders. Students will explore engineering, design and medical-oriented careers through a team-based program as participants build prosthetic devices for mock recipients. Friends of the Conservatory Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens will expand a STEM program to reach thousands of students in underserved communities, where they will learn STEM principles using the conservatory's resources. Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland Council Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland Council will launch the Interactive Ecosystem Exploration Project to develop and implement a series of environmental monitoring and tracking systems for girls and to build a better understanding of the natural resources at Camp Ken-Jockety. Highland Youth Garden Highland Youth Garden will offer rising 1st-7th grade students the opportunity to immerse themselves in the daily life of a garden, strengthen their STEM learning, deepen their cooking and nutrition skills and participate in healthy play outdoors. Pyramid Community Development Corporation Pyramid Community Development’s Ctrl-R program will provide online, in-person and at-home STEAM education to underserved minority students in Linden and its surrounding communities. TECH CORPS Unplugged kits from TECH CORPS will excite and empower students on a range of STEM topics ranging from algorithms to virtual reality. About Battelle Every day, the people of Battelle apply science and technology to solving what matters most. At major technology centers and national laboratories around the world, Battelle conducts research and development, designs and manufactures products, and delivers critical services for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio since its founding in 1929, Battelle serves the national security, health and life sciences, and energy and environmental industries.Battelle conducts research and development, designs and manufactures products, and delivers critical services for government and commercial customers. Battelle serves the national security, health and life sciences, and energy and environmental industries.

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