The exhibit hall showcased hundreds of new products and services, and our Tech & Learning judges culled the show floor to review the many nominated products for this year’s Tech & Learning's Best of Show awards at ISTELive 25 awards. The evaluation criteria included: ease of use, value, uniqueness in the market, and proof that the product helped make teachers' lives easier and supported student achievement.

"While AI continued to dominate discussions at ISTE this year, we were truly impressed by the nominated products that bolster the core of teaching and learning while also thoughtfully integrating emerging technologies," noted Christine Weiser, Content Director for Tech & Learning. "Our judges selected the innovative products they believe support classroom and district needs. Congratulations to all our winners!"

PRIMARY EDUCATION

Acer America, Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 (model CPE794-1N-797A)
"The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 offers excellent multitasking power with Intel Core Ultra processors, crisp visuals on a 14" touchscreen, and AI-enhanced video/audio tools for teaching and conferencing."

Acer America, Acer Chromebook Spin 512 (Model R857TN-P5QA)
"Purpose-built for elementary students, the Acer Chromebook Spin 512's flexible 360-degree hinge, Wi-Fi 7 readiness, optional LTE, and replaceable components make it an adaptable and sustainable classroom companion. With Chrome Education Upgrade support, it's also easy for IT teams to manage at scale."

ActiveFloor, ActiveFloor
"This is an innovative, portable solution that utilizes movement for learning."

Avantis Education, ClassVR from Avantis Education
"ClassVR is the total package when it comes to bringing and scaling Virtual Reality use for schools to adopt this technology. ClassVR not only has made the hardware and management of that hardware easy for schools to adopt and implement, it has also created a phenomenal software platform to complement this amazing system."

Beanstack, Beanstack
"I really like their approach to reading and comprehension. The use of AI as well as other ways of tracking and discerning comprehension is very well thought out. Also, the data reporting capabilities is a huge help."

BenQ Education, RP04
"These boards and are excellent. They have a great feature set and are very easy to use and manage."

BirdBrain Technologies, Inc., Hummingbird Robotics Kit for Primary Ed
"The Hummingbird Bit Robotics Kit offers an exceptional, research-backed platform for inclusive and creative STEM learning. Its blend of accessibility, flexibility, and cross-curricular applicability make it an ideal tool for engaging students in meaningful, long-term robotics exploration."

BookBreak,BookBreak
"BookBreaks is an amazing platform that connects real-world authors in realtime to classrooms. This is a great tool to ignite the passion of reading and writing in students of all ages."

BrainFreeze, BrainFreeze by Airia
"This new BrainFreeze AI Literacy Platform is just "what the doctor ordered"! It comes just in time for the explosion of AI tools that have come on the market and provides a beacon of safety and sanity when it comes to helping students, teachers, parents, and community navigate the AI complexities of today's world."

ClassLink, ClassLink Suite
"The ClassLink Suite has been a tremendous asset in boosting both learning access and operational efficiency across schools. Its intuitive design, especially features like QuickCards and LaunchPad, makes digital access seamless for younger students while maintaining strong security for older users."

Clear Touch,Sho Software
"Clear Digital's Sho Software offers a modern, scalable approach to digital signage, perfect for schools seeking dynamic communication tools. Its creative integrations and safety-focused features make it both practical and engaging."

Clear Touch, Connect Software
"Connect Software has addressed a pain point for educators that may teaching a variety of settings outside their classroom."

Clear Touch,Next Hub
"I like that NEXT Hub is trying to keep older technology working in schools instead of disposing. This is a very nice solution that not only upgrades software and security, but adds a camera and video capability to older interactive panels."

Cricut, Cricut Explore 4
"Cricut Explore 4 is a fast, user-friendly cutting machine that makes high-quality crafting more accessible. It’s a great tool for education and creative environments, blending ease of use with the flexibility to produce professional-looking custom projects."

CTL, CTL Chromebook PX121E
"CTL Chromebooks are very well made and the addition of free provisioning and quick service turnaround are great additions."

Curriculum Associates, i-Ready: Clear data and connected instruction
"This is a very comprehensive solution. I like i-Ready’s adaptive diagnostic features and the fact that it is a connected ecosystem and not a set of disparate tools."

Edmentum,Exact Path for Primary Education
"ExactPath by Edmentum is a really nice tool for taking assessment scores and standards from annual and quarterly summative assessment companies and projecting a unique learning path for students to improve their areas of deficiencies."

Edmentum,Edmentum Virtual Tutoring
"I like how this product first identifies gaps in prerequisite skills that indicate standards readiness and then focuses on mastery of the on-grade skills. This product also emphasizes the need to quickly close gaps in a student's learning by providing targeted remediation based on that student’s needs."

FACIL'iti MYdys, FACIL'iti MYdys
"MYdys EDU, an assistive technology app, helps students with dyslexia read and comprehend text more easily."

Forward Edge, Edge•U Badges Primary Education
"EdgeU Badges is an innovative professional learning platform that brings a game-based approach to educator growth. We’ve used it to streamline PD and keep it focused, personalized, and engaging. The badge system motivates teachers while clearly showing progress in their learning journey. At the elementary level, educators especially appreciate the incentive-based format, as it mirrors the reward systems they often use with their own students making the experience both familiar and motivating. It’s a creative and effective way to build educator capacity while fostering a sense of accomplishment and continued growth."

HMH, HMH AI Tools
"I like HMH's use of AI to help automate tasks as well as their approach to data privacy which is an issue in the AI space."

HoverCam / Pathway Innovations, Inc., HoverCam Orbit Trio
"Teachers can use Trio to show student work from anywhere in the classroom without being tied to a desk or projector. Its wireless document camera and AV-over-IP casting let teachers share student thinking in real time."

IXL Learning, IXL
"IXL is a great product that they keep working on to improve. The feedback and help students get "un-stuck," are very good. The data reporting is also a great tool for the teachers."

JAR Systems, Open6 Charging Station Automated by Go-Box
"Go-Box has always been a great tool for IT Departments. It makes provisioning and refreshing Chromebooks so fast and easy. This design is even better and takes up less space with less cords."

Kahoot!,Kahoot! AI Generator
"I like how Kahoot! has grown. Their AI features are a huge time saver for teachers. The ability for students to get feedback as well as generate their own study content is terrific."

Kai's Education, KaiBot and Market Math
"KaiBot with Market Math is a playful, engaging tool that effectively combines early math skills with hands-on coding for young learners. The UDL-based design ensures all students can access and enjoy the content"

Kibeam Learning, Inc. Big Readers Start Small: The AI Wand That Transforms Paper Books Into Interactive Learning Adventures
"This is a very innovative and creative use of AI with a device that has no screen. The ability to interact with books both as an entire page, or just a word is very good. Plus the kinetic and interactive features make it more than an tool that reads a book to you. And the data feedback to teachers is great."

LG Electronics USA, LG CreateBoard Core
"This is a very competitive space, but LG has included preloaded operating system feature that helps them stand apart from the competition. I especially appreciate like management and an OPS slot for customization."

LG Electronics USA, LG CreateBoard Prep
"This is a really good tool and the fact that it allows you to import a variety of file types like, .notebook and .flipchart is terrific. The fact that it is free and can be used without a interactive board is great."

Mackin,MackinVIA
"I really like this product's comprehensive resources and features. It is an excellent addition to for the education space."

Magic EdTech, MagicBox
"MagicBox has addressed both end user and administrative and data privacy issues. They allow for integrations with LMS and SIS solutions. Feedback and the use of AI helps improve productivity."

MagicSchool, MagicSchool AI
"MagicSchool AI has been at the forefront of reliable, trustworthy AI tools for teachers looking to dig into AI and experience the "Magic" when it comes to using AI to save time and make learning more meaningful for their students."

MAXCases, MAXCases Extreme Shell-FL Case for Chromebooks & Laptops
"This MaxCases Extreme Shell-FL is MAXCases the best case yet. They have learned from the demands that cases have gone through during the past years and have found solutions and made fixes on the feedback of their users. "

MIND Education, Seeing is Believing: InsightMath Makes K-6 Math Click
"I'm impressed with the neuroscience behind this product and the interactivity and multi-modal methods of instruction."

MIND Education, ST Math: See Math. Learn Math. Know Math.
"ST Math is a powerful visual learning program that supports deep conceptual understanding through spatial-temporal reasoning. Its emphasis on problem-solving over rote memorization makes it especially valuable. A must-have resource for districts focused on strengthening math instruction."

Otus
"Otus stands out for its comprehensive, AI-enhanced data and assessment tools that help educators make smarter decisions with speed and clarity. Its integration with Discovery Education greatly broadens its reach and impact."

OverDrive, Sora
"With built-in tools like dyslexia support, reading goals, LMS integration, and real-time reading analytics, Sora not only makes accessing ebooks and audiobooks seamless—it also fosters a love for reading and student ownership over literacy growth."

Ozobot, Ozobot Ari
"I have always like Ozobot's approach and the improvements on this device are really great. I especially like the touchscreen."

Play Piper LLC, Piper Computer Kit
"The Piper Computer Kit is an inventive STEM tool that allows students to build their own computer and explore coding and circuitry through interactive, story-driven activities. By blending physical assembly with game-based learning, it introduces complex concepts in a hands-on, engaging way that makes computing accessible and exciting for students in grades 3–8."

Play Piper LLC, Play Piper's Enhanced Base Station Curriculum
"Play Piper’s Enhanced Base Station Curriculum stands out for its educator-first design, adaptability, and hands-on approach to STEM learning. It's a well-rounded tool that lowers barriers to classroom integration while still sparking curiosity and technical growth among students."

Pocketalk
"The Pocketalk system for on-the-spot translation of over 92 languages is nothing short of amazing. Perfect for students to use on field trips and using with parents who speak a language other than English when they come into school to speak with teachers and other building staff."

Prodigy Education, Prodigy
"Prodigy is a zero-cost, game-based learning platform that combines engaging adventures with standards-aligned math (grades 1–8) and English (grades 1–6) instruction. Its optional revenue model ensures free access while maintaining high standards for student data privacy."

Robotical, Robotical Cog
"I really like the simplicity of this product and the variety of coding languages. This a a great fit for an introduction to coding at the primary level."

Samsung Electronics America, Samsung WAF Enhances Classroom Collaboration
"Samsung’s WAF Interactive Display elevates classroom interaction and collaboration with high-quality hardware, familiar Android integration, and thoughtful instructional tools. It's a powerful, scalable solution for modern learning environments."

CyberNut, Security Awareness Training
"CyberNut is a game-changing tool for K-12 education that brings real-time cybersecurity awareness training to teachers and staff in a gamified approach while providing a mechanism for educators to report phishing and suspicious email activity."

Seesaw Learning, Seesaw Learning
"Seesaw Instruction & Insights offers a rich, research-backed digital platform tailored for elementary education. By combining interactive lessons, creative student portfolios, and two-way communication, it delivers an engaging, transparent learning experience."

Sergeant Laboratories, AristotleK12
"AristotleK12's digital integration platform and content filtering solution can help improve classroom management, enhance online safety for students, and provide detailed reporting for IT and administrative staff."

Smartbox Assistive Technology, Inc., Grid
"Smartbox's Grid software and Grid Pad assistive technology devices include intuitive interface, customization options, text-based communication, and environmental control."

Teachers First LLC, Toddle
"I like that this is a solution by educators for educators. They have the features needed in a good LMS as well as the integration of AI for productivity."

ViewSonic Corp.ViewSonic ClassSwift Education Software
"The ViewSonic ClassSwift Software is designed with educators in mind, offering an intuitive interface and straightforward navigation. ClassSwift is designed to integrate well with other educational technologies and platforms, including LMSs and digital whiteboards."

World Book, Inc., ClassMate
"The Worldbook Classmate platform offers expert-verified WorldBook Content combined with AI-powered scaffolding to produce and boost literacy abilities. This is a good use of AI with wonderful, well-known Worldbook content."

zSpace, Inc.,zSpace Imagine - A Headset-free AR/VR Solution for Elementary Learners
"This Z-Space Headset-free AR/VR Solution for Elementary Learners is an amazing platform that will help young students navigate their through using AR and VR. I particularly liked the 3D aspect of performing hands-on tasks. The platform also provides for life skills programs for neurodiverse students."

SECONDARY EDUCATION

Acer America, Acer TravelMate B3 Spin 12 (Model: TMB312R-31-C45D)
"The TravelMate B3 Spin 12 goes beyond basic functionality, encouraging deeper interaction with content. A smart, student-friendly device for dynamic learning environments."

Acer America, Acer TravelMate B5 14 (Model: TMB514-31-G2)
"The Acer TravelMate B5 14 offers strong performance and long-term stability for daily classroom use. A solid investment for maintaining a stable and efficient device program."

Ativion, StudentKeeper from Ativion
"StudentKeeper stands out as a multi-functional platform that enhances digital safety, classroom engagement, and student well-being. Its AI-powered tools and parent connectivity make it a smart solution for schools seeking comprehensive and cohesive digital environment management."

BenQ Education, RP04
"These boards and are excellent. They have a great feature set and are very easy to use and manage."

BenQ Education, BenQ SL04 PANTONE VALIDATED SIGNAGE
"The BenQ SL04 Series delivers impressive visual quality and Google certifications, making it ideal for educational environments where color accuracy matters. It’s an excellent solution for engaging digital signage and content display.

BirdBrain Technologies, Inc., Finch Robot for Secondary Ed
"With robust hardware, a removable micro:bit, cross-platform compatibility, and comprehensive instructional support, The Finch Robot 2.0 is a versatile and affordable robotics solution tailored for secondary students to master programming from block-based to advanced text-based coding like Java and Python."

Brisk Labs Corp.,Brisk Teaching: Helping Educators Focus on What Matters Most
"Brisk Teaching is one of my favorite AI tools for teachers on the market today. Not only do they pay close attention to student and teacher data privacy as the process input with AI, but I love the fact that it already resides as an extension to your browser."

Cellairis,The Cyber Pouch
"The Cyber Pouch is a smart, low-tech solution to tackle cellphone distractions in the classroom. It blocks signals to keep students focused without compromising safety or accessibility, using a rugged, no-fuss design that’s easy for schools to adopt at scale."

ClassDojo, ClassDojo for Districts
"ClassDojo for Districts strengthens school communities by connecting educators, students, and families through inclusive, multilingual communication and student engagement tools. It enables district leaders to broadcast updates, teachers to share classroom moments, and students to participate in learning with personalized incentives—all within a mobile-first, user-friendly platform that prioritizes equity and transparency."

ClassLink, ClassLink Suite
"The ClassLink Suite has been a tremendous asset in boosting both learning access and operational efficiency across schools. Its intuitive design, especially features like QuickCards and LaunchPad, makes digital access seamless for younger students while maintaining strong security for older users."

Cricut, Cricut Maker 4
"The Cricut Maker 4 elevates personalization with unmatched versatility, cutting everything from paper to leather and metal with precision and speed. The easy setup and free Design Space app make it both accessible and powerful for diverse applications."

Edmentum Courseware
"Edmentum’s comprehensive Courseware digital curriculum for grade 6 through adult learners is based on the development of real-world skills, identifying students’ passions, and cultivating perseverance and grit."

Edmentum, Exact Path for Secondary Education
"ExactPath by Edmentum is a really nice tool for taking assessment scores and standards from annual and quarterly summative assessment companies and projecting a unique learning path for students to improve their areas of deficiencies."

Edmentum Virtual Tutoring
"I like how this product first identifies gaps in prerequisite skills that indicate standards readiness and then focuses on mastery of the on-grade skills. This product also emphasizes the need to quickly close gaps in a student's learning by providing targeted remediation based on that student’s needs."

Forward Edge, Edge•U Badges Secondary education
"Edge U Badges is an innovative professional learning platform that brings a game-based approach to educator growth. We’ve used it to streamline PD and keep it focused, personalized, and engaging. The badge system motivates teachers while clearly showing progress in their learning journey. A creative and effective way to build educator capacity with impact."

Gale, part of Cengage Group, Learning Differentiated with Gale In Context: For Educators
"Gale's newly updated platform makes it easy for educators to share curations and resources across their grade levels and across their districts. This is a terrific resource to help librarians and educators help our students become savvy digital information curators."

HMH AI Tools
"I like HMH's use of AI to help automate tasks as well as their approach to data privacy which is an important issue in the AI space."

Incident IQ, iiQ Resources
"iiQ Resources modernizes how school districts manage instructional materials by consolidating inventory, distribution, and accountability into a single, streamlined platform."

Incident IQ, iiQ Ticketing and Assets
"iiQ Ticketing and Assets offers a tailored, streamlined solution for K-12 tech teams, combining help desk automation with robust asset management."

IXL Learning, IXL
"IXL is a well thought out product that uses research to hep students and teachers improve teaching and learning. The diagnostic data is great feedback for the teachers."

Learning Genie
"I really like the co-creation features in this product. It gives students and teachers a collaborative workspace to help them successfully understand content. It also gives the agency they speak of to the students so they can feel empowered in their learning."

Learning.com, Digital Literacy and Citizenship
"Learning.com's EasyTech Digital Literacy and Citizenship is a strong, well-structured program that equips K-12 students with the foundational skills to navigate the digital world responsibly. The lessons are age-appropriate and cover critical areas like privacy, digital footprints, and ethical online behavior."

Lightspeed Systems,Lightspeed Signal
"Lightspeed Signal is a powerful visibility platform that gives tech leaders a clear, real-time view of device usage, app access, and network health across the district. It helps identify issues like unused devices, VPN workarounds, and performance gaps that are otherwise hard to track. An essential solution for any district focused on efficiency, accountability, and digital safety."

Logitech, Logitech Reach
"Logitech Reach is a sleek, portable, and powerful tool that empowers educators to bring physical content to life in the classroom. It blends precision, ease of use, and smart design into a compelling solution for hands-on teaching, particularly in STEM and art-based disciplines."

MAXCases, MAXCases Extreme Shell-FL Case for Chromebooks & Laptops
"This MaxCases Extreme Shell-FL is MAXCases the best case yet. They have learned from the demands that cases have gone through during the past years and have found solutions and made fixes on the feedback of their users."

NetSupport, classroom.cloud
"The NetSupport Classroom Cloud product is amazing when it comes to mobile device management at the classroom and teacher level. This system is also device agnostic and allows teachers to have full control over the content and use of their students devices that are district owned."

Ori Learning
"OriLeaning provides a platform that makes teaching emotional well being and transition easy and engaging. I loved the multiple modes of lesson delivery and it's incredibly accessible with text-to-speech autoplay and text highlight, while also serving over a 136 different languages."

Otus, Otus
"Otus consolidates assessment, grading, and data analytics into one intuitive platform. Its recent partnership with Discovery Education and AI-driven insights elevate its capabilities, empowering educators to act quickly on trends and support every learner effectively. With broad adoption and deep integration features, Otus stands out as a streamlined, high-impact educational tool."

ParentSquare
"ParentSquare is a powerful communication platform built for inclusivity, helping schools foster stronger, more equitable connections with families. Its deep feature set, ease of use, and integration capabilities make it a cornerstone for modern school engagement."

PBLWorks Teach
"PBLWorks Teach is a platform that provides more than 70 projects for Project-Based Learning, all backed by research."

Power Technologies,Power Technologies PT-Pro Series Locker
"This storage solution gives IT departments the ability to securely store repaired or loaner devices."

PowerSchool, PowerSchool Attendance Intervention
"PowerSchool's Attendance Intervention tool helps schools monitor attendance patterns and automate basic outreach."

Samsung Electronics America, Samsung WAF Enhances Classroom Collaboration "With support for simultaneous student interaction, seamless Google app integration, and robust device management tools, The Samsung WAF Interactive Display promotes collaboration, engagement, and instructional flexibility. The WAF stands out for its ability to include more students in interactive learning via screen mirroring and multi-zone whiteboarding."

Teachers First LLC, Toddle
"I like that this is a solution by educators for educators. They have the features needed in a good LMS as well as the integration of AI for productivity."

ViewSonic Corp.,ViewSonic ViewBoard IFP8651 EDLA Interactive Flat Panel Display"The Viewsonic IFP8651 EDLA Interactive Display is amazing! Not only is it priced right but it offers a wonderful functionality to laptops or desktop computers by bringing the power of touch to these devices as well as additional viewing real estate."

Vivacity Tech PBC, Vivacity 36-Unit Smart Charging Cart
"This is a is a durable, easy-to-use solution designed specifically for school environments. It keeps devices secure, charges them efficiently, and makes organization simple with clear slots and smooth mobility between classrooms."

Vivacity Tech PBC, Vivacity B30U 30-Unit Pre-Wired USB-C Charging Cart
"This is a sleek, time-saving solution perfect for classrooms using USB-C devices. With pre-wired connections and organized cable management, it's ready to use right out of the box no setup stress for teachers or tech teams."

Vivacity Tech PBC, Vivacity Guardian Backpack
"The Vivacity Guardian Backpack is a fantastic and durable way to transport and protect your technology when it comes to any size laptop, Chromebook or tablet. In fact, this backpack is so versatile that it can carry all three of those items, and more, at the same time!"

Vivacity Tech PBC, Vivacity Guardian Work-in Case with Pouch
"The Vivacity Guardian Work-in Case is a fantastic and durable way to transport and protect your technology when it comes to laptops or Chromebooks. This case has many great features, especially the many pockets that are specific to the accessories and supplemental technologies that are carried with your workstation."

Vivacity Tech PBC, Vivacity Repair Academy
"The Vivacity Repair Academy is an incredible platform for learning how to repair your own devices. This academy is not only perfect for your staff in your school district, but can provide a wonderful opportunity to bring into a high school CTE program."

Vivacity Tech PBC, Vivacity V Suite Pro
"The Vivacity V Suite Pro provides the most comprehensive Chromebook warranty in K-12. V Suite Pro offers unlimited claims, zero deductibles, free shipping, and an incredible repair turnaround time."

HIGHER EDUCATION

AVer Information Inc. USA, M11WB
"I particularly like that the AverMedia M11WB features 4K resolution and 29X zoom to eliminate visibility problems, allowing every student to see fine details, whether it’s a science experiment or a piece of student art."

BenQ Education, InstaShow VS20 Wireless Presentation System
"There are a lot of wireless presentation systems on the market but this one seems to address the connectivity issue quite well. I especially like the touch back feature."

BenQ Education, RP04
"These boards and are excellent. They have a great feature set and are very easy to use and manage."

BenQ Education, BenQ SL04 PANTONE VALIDATED SIGNAGE
"The BenQ SL04 Series is a standout choice for higher education environments that demand vibrant, accurate visuals and adaptable digital signage. This solution combines performance and style, perfectly suited for the fast-paced, visual demands of higher ed."

Epson America, Epson EB-PU2116W large venue laser projector
"The Epson EB-PU2116W is a powerful solution for educational institutions seeking to create immersive, large-scale visual experiences. Its compatibility with various lenses and advanced setup tools makes it highly adaptable and effective for dynamic instructional and artistic applications."

Samsung Electronics America, Samsung WAF Enhances Classroom Collaboration"The Samsung WAF Interactive Display is a robust, Android 14-powered classroom solution that enhances collaboration and engagement with seamless access to Google Apps and smart multitouch features. Its updated Note app, intuitive annotation tools, and centralized device management make it a powerful hub for modern, interactive instruction."

ViewSonic Corp.,ViewSonic LDS138-151 Mobile Direct View LED Display Solution
"The ViewSonic LDS138-151 is an impressive 138-inch all-in-one, mobile Direct View LED Display Solution. This Video-Wall display is nothing short of amazing and even folds up to transport it when combined with the wheelable cart."

“During the swap-outs, it was clear how excited students were to get their hands on the new technology,” DeMedeiros said. “Many of them shared how much they were looking forward to using faster, more reliable devices for learning. It may seem like a simple equipment upgrade, but you could see the impact immediately—students were more engaged, more motivated, and genuinely energized by having modern tools to support their education.”

Innovation doesn’t have to mean over-the-top wizardry in the classroom to make a serious difference in the daily lives of students.

“Technology is not a magic solution, but when it’s aligned with purpose, equity, and support, it becomes a powerful catalyst for progress,” DeMedeiros says. “The work we do behind the scenes matters because it enables everything else in the school system to function better.”

DeMedeiros was recently recognized for his work with an Innovative Leader Award for Innovative Senior Technology Manager at the Tech & Learning New England Regional Leadership Summit.

DeMedeiros shares three ways technology managers can help the lives of busy educators and administrators, plus offers tips for those making edtech purchasing decisions.

Inspiring Tech-Supported Initiatives at Work

An ambitious five-part innovation initiative — including a network infrastructure overhaul, security enhancements, student device management, teacher-students classroom management, and parent-community engagement — was a blend of both long-overdue innovation and real-time necessity, says DeMedeiros.

“On one hand, the district was due for a systemic tech upgrade to meet the evolving demands of education,” he says. “The pace of change in digital learning, data systems, and infrastructure made it clear that staying status quo was no longer an option.”

In many school districts, technology departments traditionally operate in a constant state of triage, reacting to outages, fixing devices, and putting out daily fires.

“It often felt like working in an emergency room—high-pressure, reactive, and focused only on the next crisis,” DeMedeiros says. “While that kept us running in the short term, it wasn’t sustainable, and it kept us from becoming a truly strategic asset to the district.”

With the support and vision of edtech influencer and Assistant Superintendent of Technology and Learning, Dr. Matthew X. Joseph (above left, with DeMedeiros), DeMedeiros began shifting toward what he calls an “operating room” approach—in which preparation, precision, and proactive planning are the standard.

“In this model, every tool has its place, every team member understands their role, and the focus is on long-term outcomes rather than simply surviving the next issue,” he says. “This change in mindset has been the real driver behind our tech-supported transformation.”

Part of this effort included improving outreach and inclusion within the local area. Engaged parents and communities create stronger, more supportive learning ecosystems. Tech can help smooth this path of connectivity.

“If communication systems are clunky or inconsistent, families feel disconnected and uninformed—especially in emergencies, school closures, or when interventions are needed,” DeMedeiros says. “A refined system ensures transparency, improves trust, and can directly impact student attendance, behavior, and performance by bringing families more meaningfully into the fold.”

3 Ways Tech Managers Can Improve Busy Lives of Staff

DeMedeiros offers this advice for tech managers who want to better empower their team.

1. Streamline Tools and Training – Too many platforms can overwhelm staff. Consolidating tools into integrated systems (such as using Google Workspace, ClassLink, or ParentSquare) helps reduce friction and makes day-to-day tasks simpler.
2. Provide Responsive Support – Whether it’s fast troubleshooting or proactive professional development, timely tech support keeps educators focused on teaching, not tech glitches.
3. Use Automation for Admin Tasks – Automating repetitive processes such as attendance reporting, communication alerts, or device check-ins, gives time back to staff for more impactful work.

Dollars and Sense

In an uncertain financial environment, balancing need versus want is a challenge when schools have tight budgets. Offering objective, factual analysis can help stakeholders see those funds responsibly put to work.

“Data analysis has been instrumental in helping us prioritize spending,” says DeMedeiros. “We use data to demonstrate ROI — whether in terms of improved attendance from communication platforms or reduced tech downtime due to preventative maintenance. It’s not just about cost, but value. We also take advantage of E-Rate, grants, and public-private partnerships to extend our budget as far as possible.”

Putting off enhancements in a perceived attempt to be fiscally frugal has downsides. Delaying infrastructure upgrades increases risk—both in terms of cybersecurity and operational inefficiency, warns DeMedeiros.

“Outdated systems can lead to data breaches, frequent downtime problems, or even safety issues if communication tools fail,” he says. “More than that, it sends a message to staff and students that we’re not investing in their success. Tech is foundational now, not optional.”

3 Considerations for Decision Makers when Choosing New Edtech

When it comes to making buying decisions, DeMedeiros says school leaders need to consider:

1. Scalability and Compatibility – Tech must scale across schools and integrate with existing infrastructure. Avoid silos; choose platforms that play well with others.
2. User Experience and Training Requirements – Even the most powerful tool is ineffective if it’s not user-friendly. Factor in the learning curve and the availability of training and vendor support.
3. Long-Term Sustainability – Always evaluate total cost of ownership. Consider licensing models, maintenance, and the vendor's roadmap for updates and support.

Tools They Use

• Cisco
• Verkada
• Chromebooks
• GoogleWorkspace
• ClassLink
• ParentSquare

“Strategic communication isn't just about broadcasting—it's about building trust and driving engagement across all stakeholders,” Runey says. “These efforts foster pride, transparency, and collaboration—ensuring that our programs not only serve students but also reflect and uplift the values of the greater DR community.”

For his work within his district, Runey was recently recognized with an Innovative Leader Award for Innovative Superintendent at the Tech & Learning New England Regional Leadership Summit.

“Every interaction is a chance to listen, connect, and advocate for what’s best for students,” Runey says. “I can gather real-time insights from staff and observe how students engage with tech to choose tools and infrastructure which will truly support learning. Strong leadership is rooted in authentic relationships, and I strive to model that daily.”

Runey shares how he helped transform his district with passion and innovation, offering five tips for superintendents to use tech to serve their district

They Have Spirit, Yes They Do!

Unlike the stereotypical tucked-away superintendent, Runey shows up for his students, even if hidden beneath a falcon mascot costume. The prize for a recent district-wide contest to see which school could show the most “Green & Gold” pride was to host an assembly to paint Runey’s hair green and gold.

“Leadership also means being approachable, having a sense of humor, and celebrating what makes school memorable for kids,” says Runey. “Being deeply embedded in the community isn’t just a job requirement—it’s a key part of how I lead. Whether dressed as our falcon mascot, attending the Fireworks Festival, school concerts, or chatting with families at the local craft fair, I see these interactions as opportunities to gather feedback and understand the pulse of the district.”

This presence raises the spirits of students and staff, and also keeps Runey in touch with how best to serve his community using tech.

“Recent initiatives like our alumni data outreach via Google Forms and the digitization of yearbooks have not only helped us reconnect with graduates but also celebrate our shared history while reinforcing a sense of belonging,” he says. “We’re also using innovative tools—like our Apptegy-powered project website for the potential Dighton Elementary School project—to keep residents informed and engaged in shaping the future of our district alongside the MSBA.”

Runey believes bringing more voices to the table can perpetuate a positive narrative about the district to build long-term support for their mission.

For example: “One of the goals of our new adult continuing education program through the Career and Technical Education (CTE) department is to bring alumni and community members back into our schools to see firsthand the powerful, modern learning experiences happening across our buildings,” he says.

Visitors are impressed by grant-driven, cutting-edge technology additions to the CTE program.

“Our students are getting that relevant experience that will put them in a position to be more marketable to college and post-secondary programs,” Runey says. “But it also makes them very well-prepared to just go directly into the workforce if that's what they choose.”

Dighton-Rehoboth also embeds PD time into the district calendar, and offers DREAM Seminars to ensure it is not a top-down mandate but features events designed to empower staff by offering voice and choice in learning, opportunities to lead sessions, and to dive deep into topics. Administrators are equipped with a dashboard for real-time data analysis and OPTIC to strengthen instructional calibration.

Safety First

Establishing a strong sense of security for the school community allows space for the good work of learning to flourish.

“When I began as superintendent, 80% of our schools had no security camera coverage. Today, every one of our buildings is equipped with modern surveillance systems—an essential step in ensuring the safety of our students and staff,” Runey says. “This transformation not only deters potential threats but also gives families peace of mind, knowing that we are proactively safeguarding our learning environments.”

The district also uses a real-time communication platform that connects staff, school leaders, and first responders.

“Safety isn't just a checkbox for us—it’s a foundational promise,” Runey says. “CrisisGo allows us to coordinate emergency responses more effectively, whether it’s a drill or a real incident, and ensures that all stakeholders have access to accurate, timely information. This level of responsiveness builds trust with families and reinforces our commitment to student well-being.”

Another arm of that concept is making sure every student feels valued and heard.

“Equity must be intentional,” Runey says. “Access for students in special education though the use of tech is one of my top priorities. Through our DRiving Toward 2030 strategic plan, we empower learners by integrating tools such as Lexia, ST Math, and Wonders—platforms that offer adaptive features tailored to individual needs.”

The district also implemented speech-to-text software and interactive digital platforms that help students with disabilities engage more fully in the curriculum.

“I view technology as a powerful tool for equity—one that removes barriers, ignites engagement and confidence, and ensures all students have the resources they need to succeed, regardless of ability,” Runey says. “Backed by targeted grants and evidence-based practices, we are shaping a more inclusive future where technology isn’t just a resource, but a lifeline that empowers every student to thrive.”

5 Tips For Superintendents To Use Tech To Serve Your District

Runey shares advice that any superintendent can follow to get the most out of education technology.

1. Lead with Purpose - Avoid tech for tech’s sake, from infrastructure upgrades to instructional tools. Tech should support your district’s goals to empower educators, facilitate learning, and shape a future-ready community.
2. Cultivate a Culture of Empowered Learning - Invest in PD that not only trains staff on tools, but cultivates innovation and leadership. Runey’s district offers DREAM Seminars or embedded PD days to explore, share, and implement tech-enhanced instructional practices that foster engagement and success.
3. Advance Equity Through Strategic Investment - Prioritize adaptive and assistive technologies (such as ST Math, Lexia, or Wonders) that support differentiated learning. Use grants and strategic funding to close gaps in access, especially for special education students and underrepresented groups.
4. Leverage Data to Empower Smarter Decisions - Use technology to gather, visualize, and act on meaningful data—from attendance and engagement metrics to learning progress and fiscal dashboards. Encourage district and school leaders to analyze trends and ignite improvement efforts through responsive interventions, resource allocation, and transparent reporting.
5. Use Tech to Strengthen Transparent, Two-Way Communication - From mass notification tools to community apps and interactive websites, technology can empower families to engage with schools in real-time. Leverage platforms such as Apptegy or social media to tell your story, highlight student achievement, and provide clarity during times of uncertainty.

Tools They Use

• Apptegy
• TouchViews
• iPad and Apple TV Combinations
• z-Space VR laptops
• OPTIC
• Lexia
• ST Math
• Wonders
• CNC Machine
• CrisisGo

• Innovative Leader Award

Too often, library media specialists are underutilized and underappreciated. A misconception they are merely babysitters or simply play a role in the entertainment side of literacy leaves a lot of quality tech expertise and opportunity for student success on the table.

“We are trained to work with teachers across subject areas and grade levels, full classes or individual students. If you have a big project that involves research, we want to jump in. I want administrators to support the work we are doing. Whether you're a principal or a tech coach or department head, involve your library media specialist in your department meetings and curriculum planning, because they have a wealth of knowledge about not only research, but technology and how to best integrate it.”

Collins was recently recognized for her work with an Innovative Leader Award for Library Media Specialist Award at the Tech & Learning New England Regional Leadership Summit.

Collins shares how tech plays a role for Library Media Specialists, offering tips for administrators and educators to make the most of the role’s expertise to benefit their students.

Truth is the Treasure

The current climate and flood of misinformation on social and in media makes becoming a good digital citizen more important than ever.

“I cover cybersecurity, online safety, and being a responsible user of technology integrating ISTE’s digital citizenship lessons, but take it a step beyond,” says Collins. “Right now, my students are creating a digital footprint map—a mind map of their most visited websites, favorite apps, and social media use. This helps them become more aware of their activity online.”

Once students have a handle on how they are interacting with media, Collins shifts to the quality of that media.

“I teach news and media literacy, using the News Literacy Project’s checkology Curriculum,” she says. “We cover things like free speech, the seven standards of journalism, and how to be smart in evaluating information. I teach them about algorithms and to be aware of things like filter bubbles and information pollution, as well as the importance of digital verification when doing research online.”

With political sensitivity on high alert, some of these areas can pose a tricky tightrope to walk for educators.

“It’s a bipartisan topic, it crosses political lines,” Collins says. “One of the lessons I do is all about understanding bias. We all carry biases. It’s simply about determining whether a piece of information that they’re looking at online is factual. Who’s the author? How do we determine how credible this is? What’s their experience level? Your Uncle Charlie might be your favorite uncle and he might know all there is to know about fishing. However, if he doesn’t know anything about physics and your question has to do with physics, then even though you love him, you need to go beyond Uncle Charlie.”

Collin’s debut book, Teaching News Literacy in the Age of AI: A Cross Curricular Approach, will be published by ISTE in August. Aimed at educators and library media specialists, the cross-disciplinary approach offers resources to help students navigate today’s news and media landscape as expert chroniclers, curators, and content creators.

“Be a Sherlock Holmes or an Enola Holmes, be a Spock,” she says. “It’s black and white, take your own biases and emotions out of it and just look at the facts. It’s vitally important. Truth is the treasure. I tell them they are the treasure hunters and their critical thinking skills are their treasure map.”

Project-Based Pizazz

“I'm a firm believer in project-based learning,” Collins says. “We do a lot of cross-curricular projects that involve research, creativity, and the use of technology in the creation process and the expression piece as well.”

Collins’ special projects include coding with poetry from Hour of Code and creating an ideal future sustainable home using 3D-design software through Ludenso Create. She also focuses on popular projects aimed at English language learners, such as a digital music creation with Soundation and drawing projects using Brush Ninja to create a meme, which allows students to communicate in a comfortable non-written form.

“They are still doing research, technology just allows them to get creative about how they're expressing their ideas, which is wonderful,” she says. “My annual session on how to use Sora to gain access to multiple different languages to read and hear their books in their own language as they're developing their English skills draws a full house.”

With much of the news and current events seeming dire and full of doom and gloom, Collins injects a dose of humor to ensure lessons resonate.

“I’ll have a little quiz on AI–there's hilarious things out there,” she says. “We look at images and I teach them the strategies of how to find the source and whether it's reliable or not. I’ll show a photo of the Pope in a puffer jacket, that's not real. So we learn things like reverse image searching to backtrack and find the original source of a photo. The Wayback Machine helps you check down a website where something came from originally. I remember when it was just a newspaper that was thrown on your porch. Now it's a lot harder with the internet, social media and speed with which the misinformation travels. So I let them play with the technology that the bad actors are using.”

AI offers the potential for an enormous effect on today’s world, yet Collins reminds students that it is just a tool, and one that can be used for good or bad.

“I will have students locate a historical photo and use Canva,” she says. “Students upload a historical photo. alter it and then we have a guessing game. What is different in this picture, which is real, which is not? It shows not tells, just how easy it is to use certain tools. Letting them use the tech is the best way I can think of to teach an awareness of what's going on right now in the world of AI.”

5 Tips to Make the Most of Your Library Media Specialist

Collins shares what you can do to ensure your media specialists are contributing all they can to your school.

1. Prioritize Collaboration and Communication. Schedule regular meetings to discuss school needs. Involve librarians in curriculum planning and showcase the library's resources, services and tech to students.
2. Advocate for the Librarian's Role. Promote the librarian’s role in curriculum and tech integration, share access to professional resources such as relevant professional organizations and conferences, and promote teacher-librarian partnerships.
3. Allocate Resources and Support. Ensure adequate funding for materials, tech, collaboration time, and PD. Publicly acknowledge librarians’ contributions.
4. Professional Development and Growth. Provide opportunities for librarians to enhance skills and knowledge, support research and innovative practices, and offer librarian-to-librarian mentorship and coaching from pros.
5. Data-Driven Decision-Making. Use library data to inform resource allocation and measure the positive impact of library programs and services on student outcomes.

The Tools They Use

• diffit.me
• Canva
• Brisk
• MagicSchool AI
• StretchAI
• Safari Montage
• Breakout EDU
• Adobe Express
• Brush Ninja
• Soundation
• Ludenso Create
• Hour of Code
• Checkology curriculum (News Literacy Project)
• ISTE Digital Citizenship curriculum
• Sora
• National Geographic
• Noodletools
• Code.org

Enter Maker Spaces Go Mobile.

“When we housed individual machines in schools, they operated in very much of a silo mentality due to the size of our district,” says Susie Simmons, Instructional Technology Coach at Bonny Eagle Schools in Maine. “Our vision with the mobile makerspace was to cut back on isolating components and increase our collaboration across the district. It empowered us to bring a larger number of pieces of equipment into a building at any given time when they need it, which helps make any projects move faster than if they were trying to accomplish it on one stationary machine.”

With the help of collaborator/partner and fellow instructional technology coach Stephen Avery, the program was thoroughly considered before launching.

“We really wanted to have kids interact with the technology and use it, rather than putting in the gatekeeper of an adult who is really the one using the tech and undermining the educational experience,” says Avery. “We worked it into not just CTE-style STEM courses, but for all students.”

Simmons was recently recognized with an Innovative Leader Award for Most Innovative Learning Spaces Award at the Tech & Learning New England Regional Leadership Summit.

Simmons and Avery discuss their impressive Maker Spaces Go Mobile project, offering six tips for districts wanting to connect such spaces with curriculum on a deeper level.

The Making of a Mobile Makerspace

As mentioned, the main focus of the project was to provide students with hands-on, creative opportunities.

“3D printing was still a big piece of the goal,” says Avery. “It was known technology and something we’d been doing for a while. Three years ago, we were also fortunate to add a set of GlowForges, one in each of our middle and high school buildings. GlowForge, a laser cutter and engraver, is very quick technology by comparison to 3D printing. It has great applications for design thinking, prototyping, and problem solving.”

Being able to spread need across the use of multiple machines also has clear benefits.

“Back in the day, a project could take several weeks and a few overnight hours of 3D printing,” says Simmons. “With our new system, the same project can be done within the course of a school day. It’s been really gratifying to work with teachers used to the old methods and now we just show up with a mass supply of pieces of equipment to get things done.”

The “mobile” element of a mobile maker lab space proved interesting.

“We actually moved a laser around a couple of times,” says Avery. “That particular machine was quite heavy and very prone to damage. In search of a more mobile solution, we selected two different types of lasers from a company called xTool. One is a bed-style diode laser called the S1.”

The team also purchased a small, portable engraving unit called the F1, ideal for speedy, small projects with students.

“While we were shooting for the moon, we added a Cricut Venture system,” says Avery. “This large-scale, industrial-sized and output-ready Cricut machine is capable of doing vinyl and other thin substrate work, to be able to cut and design for staff and student use.”

The bonus was should one elementary school need a project completed, without a hands-on piece of tech physically in the room, they could send files and jobs to be printed and delivered as a type of a processing center.

Cutting Class is Encouraged

One makerspace project featured students making physical currency in a social studies class to understand setting up their own little countries and the economy that goes with it. Other efforts have been more practical.

“One of my favorite projects was helping a student in special education with a physical limitation in art class,” says Avery. “The tech made a carving project to make linoleum stamps accessible, despite the student’s lack of physical control needed to manipulate the tools. We created digital designs and used the laser for the physical carving so that the student was able to fully participate. We continue to look for ways that we can support through meaningful opportunities to remove obstacles.”

The program has “earned its keep” further, making gifts for celebrations and staff presents, stencils for the facilities department, even manipulatives for a math class. It helps when it comes time for budget decision to justify expenses.

“We’ve been doing laser work during reading challenges or family engagement nights,” says Simmons. “Students design their own keychain or bookmark. Because of the speed at which we're able to produce those items, the kids walk away with their creation in their hand, which is awesome.”

Simmons notes that there’s even a plan for a major waste issue districts struggle with—recycling 3D printer scraps.

“We ended up buying a wood chipper off Amazon of all things,” says Avery. “We used it to break down our failed models, our scrap, and then melt it into sheets that we can actually cut with the laser to make new products.”

Money Matters

Like many districts, Bonny Eagle benefited from regional partnerships and grants.

“After receiving a grant from the Perloff Family Foundation in Maine, Bonny Eagle Schools expanded the existing 3D printing system across the district,” says Simmons, “The technology in those buildings was beginning to show its age. It no longer worked at the quality or speed we needed to support our programs.”

Located in Maine, the DoE Learning Through Technology Team at the state level offered a Teach with Tech grant. The duo decided to apply with the goal of supporting makerspace youth across K-12.

“We hoped to replace the aging 3D printing technology across the district and provide other methods of creation,” says Simmons. “Our larger vision was for the two of us currently on paper supporting grade 6 to 12 to support K to 12 instead.”

“We were very fortunate in our district to be able to have professionals support embedded professional development,” says Avery. “It's essentially a peer who can support-teach with the teachers. We created a train-the-trainer model and are actively brainstorming projects to avoid introducing technology as a toy. We want to identify it fits as part of the teaching strategy and instructional style to help further and deepen student learning. Those abilities are great for kids moving on into an engineering program, design thinking . . . but the creative problem-solving is really just a great overall life skill.”

6 Steps to Mobile Makerspace Success

Simmons and Avery share their tips for creating mobile makerspaces.

1. Make sure that you have people on staff invested in making it work. Find people on staff who can take the vision and make it happen, and support them doing so. It’s crucial.
2. Be the learner in the process. Without somebody to bounce ideas off and partner with, it’s a heavier lift and becomes really challenging.
3. FInd opportunities just to play, even if you don't have the technology yet. A lot of tools have free software with which you can experiment. The tech is often in libraries and community maker spaces. Be a student again and get some hands-on time to stretch your imagination.
4. Consider the infrastructure involved from a physical standpoint. If you are planning to do something such as this in a mobile setting, how are you going to transport it between schools? Bonny Eagle Schools has a district van and all of the equipment is on carts. Lean on your facilities department to move it safely.
5. Know that it's going to take some time. The duo is still working on building capacity within this district, so this program hasn’t been an overnight success. So be willing to be patient and don't expect it to show the fruits of your labor in year one. Trust the vision and support your staff in making it happen.
6. Don’t undersell the importance of collaboration. The coaches were begging for an opportunity to talk with colleagues and put their heads together in a room. Time is precious, but even an hour of time together to sit down and talk through ideas can be really invigorating and productive.

The Tools They Use

• Heavy duty utility carts for moving the equipment
• Bambu Lab A1 and A1 Mini 3D Printers
• 4-Color AMS Lite
• Cricut Venture Makerspace Educators School Bundle
• xTool F1 Portable Diode/Infrared Laser
• xTool S1 Enclosed Diode Laser Cutter
• TinkerCAD, AutoCAD
• Physical materials such as air handling, storage totes, replacement parts, and consumable materials such as filament, vinyl, and wood.

• Innovative Leader Award

“The STEM standards for elementary, middle, and high school lend itself to any type of agriculture initiative,” says Trina Reaves, Director of STEM and Innovation at Clayton County Public Schools in Georgia. “We started organically. A lot of the schools had gotten aeroponics towers and aquaponics systems, really trying to show children how they could grow in alternate spaces other than traditional farming. We were having students look at real-world problems, such as Clayton County being in a food desert, and how they could solve them.”

Reaves was recently recognized for the Best Overall Implementation of Technology Award at the Southeast Regional Leadership Summit as part of the Tech & Learning’s Innovative Leader Awards.

Reaves discusses her impressive agricultural technology initiative and shares three tips to plant a similar program in your district.

Growing Solutions With STEM

“As I moved to start the program, I went to Forest Park High School to see their gardens which had been growing for 10 years,” says Reaves. “They were having a salad bar for the teachers. They had a student who was cooking meals the teachers could buy! The day I visited, he was making pan-seared herb-encrusted salmon with a citrus sauce and asparagus. Wow, all of this was going on and nobody really talked about it.”

Forest Park High School had a FarmBot, or tech helper that, once coded, guides planting of seeds, watering intervals, and other key tasks for a successful crop.

“I went to an aeroponics farm in North Georgia,” says Reaves. “They showed us their farm and how this could work for our plans. They suggested a seed business. I had one school which already had a FarmBot with the space and the capability to sell seeds, so we decided to start an initiative at Forest Park High School in which they would produce seedlings to sell to the rest of the district. We call it Agritech Solutions.”

An Organic Way of Connecting the Dots

Reaves pulled in the greater community to serve as mentors, and then let students shine in all the ways that are helpful for a growing business.

“Our aquaponics labs were supported by the science department in collaboration with the Georgia Aquarium,” she says. “One of the teachers at Forest Park helped them build a system to grow tilapia throughout the year to harvest at the end. At Drew High School, they have a culinary CTE pathway with a teacher who uses several aeroponic towers for ingredients in her class.”

The program went beyond simply farming.

“We didn't want this just to be about agriculture, we wanted it to also touch other CTE pathways,” Reaves says. “We have a minority business who's helping us with logistics and distribution. We're training a group of students at the school who are going to run the business. Besides the ag element, we have marketing students creating campaigns to raise awareness. The computer science students are creating the platform so schools can take and fulfill their orders.”

By welcoming in students with a variety of talents, Reaves has built an ecosystem for industry knowledge to thrive.

“The goal is for this to simulate a real-world business,” she says. “Students get practical experience through promoting and securing sales. We want this to sustain the program, so the business students are creating a business plan. The goal was to use this one initiative to support many different pathways while we're also working on a real world problem that's a part of our community.”

Planting The Seeds and Watching Them Grow

With one successful first launch, Reaves looked for ways to include additional schools. Each school designed a unique program–some instituted rain barrels, pollinator gardens, compost bins, beekeeping, and worm farms to support projects that include traditional farming, hydroponics, aeroponics, aquaponics, and even a fruit orchard.

“We have an elementary school that just launched their program with the help of Georgia Tech,” Reaves says. “The university’s engineers came and helped us set up Oliver Elementary School's FarmBot.”

A FarmBot can do as little or as much as it is coded to accomplish.

“Some people will just use them to simply grow produce,” Reaves says. “You can program it to plant the seeds in the system. You can tell it when to water. It takes away some of the manual labor. But we're going to use it to start seedlings and sell them to schools in the district. They plant, they water, the kids then move the seedlings out to sell and just start a new system. We have to keep that rhythm going. If Brown Elementary School wants 20 plants, you’ve got to have a system that's just continually moving. The FarmBot makes that work easier.”

Reaves’ ultimate goal is to raise production to the point at which seedlings can be sold to parents and the community, as an agri-bake sale concept. Of 37 schools, 22 have FarmBot systems.

“The seedlings can be used in traditional planting or in aquaponics or aeroponic towers,” she says. “When we went to the Northern Georgia farm, they shared that a certain number of towers break even when it comes to labor and costs. Seeds are what really grew their business. We're going to start selling to schools, but we are talking about having community farmers markets. That would be a first-touch point for parents to know they can buy seedlings, plants, or fully harvested crops from the students. However, we can also buy seeds if we're growing ourselves in the home.”

Besides offering students the full entrepreneurial experience, creating an opportunity to grow backyard produce addresses the county’s food desert issue.

“We're having a September Farm to Fork event in which we will have all the schools bring their first crop of the season, with a farmer's market for schools to show off their success and sell their yield while talking about the project with customers,” Reaves says. “It's going to be an informational event with vendors and classes about healthy living. The event’s location at Drew High School is right next to Southern Region Medical Center. The hospital staff will come talk about exercise, eating healthy, diabetes, and those issues permeating our community.

“I'm really excited about the opportunity here — it’s not just all about growing,” says Reaves. “You've got finance, you've got marketing, computer science and tech, there’s a whole business side of agriculture. Every time I turn around, there's an opportunity. I joined the National Women in Agriculture association in the Georgia chapter. So many are willing to come and support the schools. It’s really good to see more women and minorities, it’s very important for our kids to see underrepresented groups and to be exposed to as much as possible.”

3 Tips to Build A Sustainable Agritech Program

Reaves offers advice to anyone interested in growing a similar program.

1. For any STEM initiative, you have to have buy-in at the school level. “I started with surveys and forums to make sure everybody saw the vision and was onboard. One of the things I've learned a long time ago as an administrator is I support you wherever you are. I can't force you to do something because when I force you, it doesn't play as well as when you let it build organically.”
2. You need support from outside. Reaves recommends building relationships in the industry to show that you’re trying to feed their workforce in the long term. “Whatever they can pour into the students while in K-12 matters. We’ve partnered with colleges with scholarship and internship opportunities we want to provide our students around the Southeast.
3. Grant writing and donation appeals are imperative. Schools budgets are not large, Reave acknowledges, so supporting programs also requires skills such as grant writing. “Create sustainability for the project,” she says. “I don’t want this to go away if I retire. Make sure relationships and supports are in place for the long term to ensure the project lives on beyond a specific district director or principal in charge.”

Tools they Use

• Google Education Suite
• Adobe Express
• Canva
• Prisms (VR)
• Wonderworks
• Lego Robotics
• Tinkercad
• 3D Printers
• Mimio Boards
• Drones
• Boxlight Labdisc
• Aviation Simulators
• Vex Robotics
• Book Creator
• Canvas LMS
• Tower Gardens
• Produce'd Hydroponics Growbox
• FarmBot

• Innovative Leader Award

“The purpose of certification is to provide guidelines and support for the Library Learning Commons transition, as well as honor schools for their commitment to providing students with an education rich in print and digital literacy,” says Frilot, who was recently recognized for Most Innovative Learning Spaces at Tech & Learning’s Southeast Regional Leadership Summit as part of our Innovative Leader Awards.

Frilot shares her motivation to create the certification as well as magical Library Learning Commons from existing media centers, and offers three tips for districts interested in transforming their own innovative learning spaces.

Creating Cool Learning Spaces Through Literal Sweat Equity

Frilot has spearheaded the transformation of more than 50 media centers into library learning commons, with 50 more in the works. These vibrant student-focused hubs of technology, literacy, creativity, and innovation include podcast booths, video studios, makerspace labs, and lots of access to power and wifi.

“I became a high school library media specialist when the school community was just starting to discuss transforming libraries,” Frilot says. “I was reading David Loerschter’s work and became intrigued by the student-focused participatory approach to school library programs. I loved working with teenagers and wanted to really engage them in our space.”

Frilot had a beautiful area with floor-to-ceiling windows in her existing media center that was a perfect place to experiment with this approach.

“I saved up some funds, got input from students, and went to IKEA to buy some student-friendly furniture,” she says. “I spent a very hot couple of days in the summer putting furniture together and the student response was awesome when they came back in the fall. It was a simple start, and of course IKEA furniture couldn’t hold up to 3,000+ students, but that was the start, and I’ve never looked back!”

Learn and Earn—These Spaces Are Certified Fresh!

Collaborative teaching and learning is at the heart of Frilot’s certification initiative, and informs the design of both the program and the space.

“Library media specialists take the lead on this transformative work, often spending years building a collaborative instructional program, positive reading culture, and a student-friendly space,” Frilot says. “The LLC Certification is awarded to the school, since it requires school-wide engagement to achieve the levels of instructional collaboration and positive reading culture required.”

In addition to the physical space redesign, Frilot worked cross-divisionally to support the CCSD Future-Ready Framework, a scope and sequence of digital literacy and future-ready skills. This framework supports the teaching and learning needed to enable student mastery of digital literacy skills as they grow into collaborators, producers, and innovators.

More Hands, More Wallets, More Impact

In an era of financial uncertainty and tightening budgets, some districts might be hesitant to embark on new programs. Engaging stakeholders with a concrete, clear plan in hand can pave the way for funding.

“Dream big and start small! Creating the vision helps stakeholders see what you’re trying to accomplish,” Frilot says. “When you get funding, get tables on wheels. It sounds simple, but it really helps move in the direction of a flexible space. Create student-friendly low-cost programming, lots of books displays, dynamic shelving, and have fun. Promote the joy of reading. Look at your media centers and make small changes that appeal to students.”

Consider local community businesses as potential partners in achieving a dream future-ready learning space.

”Business partners are opportunities for collaboration, idea generation, and real-world application,” she says. “These collaborations can also bring in funding, resources and innovation, while strengthening community ties and helping students see the world beyond school. Additionally, reach out to your public library and partner with them when possible.”

Equity matters. Offering a fun, exciting, vibrant space can make a serious difference for struggling students.

“I fundamentally believe that if students feel like they belong at school, they keep coming,” Frilot says. “For some kids that’s sports or theater, and for some it’s the library. The transformation of school libraries into student-focused collaborative hubs sends the message that all students belong. You can be a reader or not; you still belong here. We want you here. We’re designing this space, not only as a place for books and tech, but for you. If we keep students coming to school and engaging with other students and teachers, they’ll keep learning and growing.”

3 Tips to Create Your Own Library Learning Commons

Frilot shares three actionable tips to transform your media center, which also happen to describe the important work accomplished within the space.

1. Collaborate: “Library learning commons are all about creating a space for everyone, especially students, so it’s important to collaborate with stakeholders to define what the library learning commons should be for your district,” Frilot says. “Student input is often most overlooked! Teachers, leaders, students, and colleagues from districts experienced in this work should all be involved in these discussions.”

2. Learn: Learning can be a challenge for adults sometimes. “Slow down, listen, and ask good questions of students and colleagues who have gone before you in this work,” Frilot says. “See other library learning commons spaces either in-person or via virtual visits. Look with an eye not only for the way the library has been redesigned, but also the flow, the climate, and the way the library program shifts into a learning hub.”

3. Create: “I always recommend that planning teams, after collaborating and learning, dream big together,” Frilot says. “Create the comprehensive plan in both design and instructional shifts. Engage with a company that designs educational spaces. When the big plan is created first, even if funding or resources aren’t available yet, it facilitates a cohesive vision that engages stakeholders.”

Tools They Use

• Future-Ready Librarians
• MackinVia
• Library PASS
• Follett Software Project Connect 
• Nintendo 
• Nearpod
• Microsoft Office 365

• Innovative Leader Award

So rather than guess at the needs and wants of students when it comes to the education technology they might learn with best, Webb and her team went directly to the source.

“Instead of the district pushing devices, the students created videos telling us what their dream device looks like, the different features within, how it should be used and carried,” she says. “All the things your parents would tell you, but you don't listen because you're listening to your friends who are much smarter than adults.”

The result was the Digital Dreamers program, which launched in 2018 when the district instituted their 1:1 initiative for middle to high schools (2:1 for elementary).

Webb, along with Instructional Technology Coordinator Natasha Lawyer, were recently recognized for their efforts with the Innovative Educational Technology Specialists Award at the Southeast Regional Leadership Summit as part of the Tech & Learning’s Innovative Leader Awards.

Webb and Lawyer discuss their impressive Digital Dreamers program and their other edtech efforts, plus offer three tips to create your own student focus group to inform tech choices that resonate.

Ambassadors Take Charge

Enlisting student input has long been key in the district, including starting a student AI Cohort and a Hackathon focused on the school portal design.

“It was so impressive! We said, ‘Let's stop asking the leaders what they want, the students will empower us to give them what they need to have fun while learning,’” says Webb. “Accessibility features, AI, cybersecurity—they even spoke about empathy between one another in the classroom. They wanted us to recognize that not all students can afford Apple devices and flashy tools.”

Insight from students refocused the team to help students with the tools they had.

“We saw students teach one another what a certain tool is, the purpose of the tool, and how we maintain a safe digital playground,” says Webb. “These students in turn became our ambassadors.”

Then a surprising thing happened. The ambassadors decided they didn’t really need much school leadership.

“We were trying to start a club to help students fix the Chromebooks. The students said, ‘We don't need to fix the Chromebooks, we need to teach the teachers how to use the Chromebooks,’” says Webb. “It was really cool—‘In Ms. So-and-so's class, we have to show her how to share her screen or a document.’ They shared what we need to know to support them.”

Tech for Littles

Reaching students when they’re young helps start their tech journey in a positive manner.

“We built Magical Moments with Microsoft—a virtual summer program that allows second-to-eighth grade students to play with tech,” says Webb. “They use Microsoft to build apps and games. We wanted to expand and give the ‘littles’ a taste so we chose Digital Game Design, Robotics, Video Production, Multimedia Apps and Graphic Design categories. We asked the schools to try it out, hoping for 30 students. We got over 300 applications. We now have pre-K students podcasting, first graders building video games—creating serious projects and presenting their work to judges.”

Holding tech-celebratory events can lead to big things in the district and beyond.

“Our Tech Competition is a wonderful opportunity for students (grades 3-12) to have their own voice and choice in sharing their knowledge,” says Lawyer, who co-directs the event. “They showcase their tech skills from the classroom, gaining real world experience of presenting in front of a judge to show how they have transformed over this school year.”

“When I led the Tech Competition, we were excited to get 200 students to register,” says Webb. “Natasha looked at the data to see which areas of the district we were missing and personally went into the schools to explain the event. To expand it to over a thousand students in three years is phenomenal.”

“Equity was a big component,” says Lawyer. “We saw disparity with some schools who weren't being represented, so we targeted that group to say, ‘Hey, you deserve to be a part of this as well!’ We knew they were doing the work. When you hear ‘tech competition,’ it can seem so abstract or complex you feel like your students can't do it. Once we really got in the trenches, it opened teachers’ eyes.”

The district enlists digital learning team liaisons and volunteer teacher sponsors. Interested students visit a sponsor who works between the school and parent to make sure they get the work done through an appointment system or in computer labs with a dedicated teacher.

“It’s amazing to still get teachers passionate about teaching and learning without putting a dollar amount to it, because they care so much about the students,” says Webb. “Busy principals are overwhelmed, so we approach them with a ‘wow moment’ in their building. They get excited, ‘Oh! my school is doing this?’ They then support us even more.”

At Techpalooza, the district brings in vendor partners to share what’s new with students and community stakeholders.

“We feature interactive presentations, with new tech students can touch and feel to really get their curiosity going,” says Lawyer. “Inviting the community fosters conversation with parents. grandparents, cousins, siblings—everyone comes to support their students.”

Pipeline to Profession

Engaging a larger audience can result in unexpected benefits.

“One ninth grader has been a Tech Competition first-place winner for three or four years,” says Webb. “He emailed me with a business plan. He recreated an app we use for our event visitors in a way that the students can log in and be notified when it's their time to present. He knew he couldn’t get paid for the tech, so he negotiated to have his own professional table as a featured person at Techpalooza. He presented to vendors and leaders, sharing his resume and LinkedIn information.

”The kid is a businessman at ninth grade, a professional before he can even drive! After the Techpalooza, vendors and tech companies were begging to come in and support our students saying, ‘How can I create a scholarship for this kid?’ They want to nurture and prepare him for possibly working with their company. That’s what I call ‘pipeline to profession.’”

Webb says it all stems from open communication and listening to students.

“When you go to a restaurant or shop in your community, you know that that's a student that came from your school,” she says. ‘I’m always talking to everybody, ‘What school did you go to? What did you learn? What do we need to do next?’ And they tell us.”

3 Tips to Create An Impactful Student Focus Group

Webb and Lawyer share their advice for how to use students to support students.

1. Embrace the personality of the student. Allow them to just talk. Listen to the frustrations, listen to the excitement, listen to everything. Then validate their feelings and concerns by showing interest and feedback on at least one piece of what they're saying, so they understand you support them and that their thoughts matter.
2. Be open minded. Sometimes students can surprise you with the depth of their knowledge and observations in the classroom regarding tech that works and when it could work if handled better by teachers. Let them give you advice and then navigate that advice with the students.
3. Offer space and opportunity to share. Give students the opportunity to talk to leaders and decision-makers. A lot of times people making tech choices don’t have the opportunity to sit in front of students. Creating a student advisory committee space where kids can speak—about the tech, the devices, what they would like to see in the classroom—can change the game. We can learn from them.

The Tools They Use

• Microsoft
• Ignite U
• Chromebooks

• Innovative Leader Award

“As we began collaborating last summer for the Cyber Champions, we expected a group of 25 or so,” says Worthey, Manager of Security Awareness and Engagement for Georgia’s DeKalb County School District, which serves 92,066 students across 137 schools. “Instead, we had about 100 students immediately apply to be a part of this initiative to virtually meet monthly to talk about different topics such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and being a good digital citizen.”

For her efforts, Worthey was recently recognized as Innovative Educational Technology Specialist at the Southeast Regional Leadership Summit as part of the Tech & Learning’s Innovative Leader Awards.

Worthey discusses her impressive Cyber Champions program and shares five tips to launch a similar digital citizenship program in your district.

A Winning Gameplan for Cyber Champions

Worthey launched Cyber Champions with Eric Logan, Director of Information Security, but its immediate success made the duo realize they would need reinforcements to achieve their goal.

”The numbers were definitely overwhelming,” Worthey says, adding she was thrilled when a dozen teachers volunteered their time to help. “We recruited teachers to help us facilitate virtual meetings and run small breakout rooms to dive deep into the lesson shared in the monthly meeting. We’re hoping to pay them in a future cohort, but we're not there yet. So at the moment we are relying on their enthusiasm and willingness to participate in such an initiative.”

With such a wide age range, one common digital topic was presented each time with breakout rooms providing space to scale participation by grade level.

“When I first started out, I was tweaking plans from Microsoft and Common Sense Media about AI and cybersecurity,” Worthey says. “I created a template for the teachers to align to the grade level of their group of four to six students. I wanted to celebrate, not micromanage our volunteers, so I gave them the autonomy to use their expertise in their respective fields to help students understand.”

Building Leaders—The Domino Effect

Empowering and growing leaders extended beyond the volunteer teachers. Student participants not only put in the time to learn the technology-based lessons, they actively teach others in their school community what they learn.

“They're definitely our ambassadors,” says Worthey. “They're our champions for cybersecurity and AI. They act as a liaison between us and the other students. After the monthly meeting, students are required to create their own presentation based on the information they learned with us and share it with their classmates. That’s why we call them our Cyber Champions.”

Strength in numbers proves true at DeKalb. Worthey’s team reaches out not only to peers and classmates, but shares lessons with parents, teachers, the local community and beyond.

“Some of the students may get selected to present at the PTA or during their school’s morning announcements. Some participate in monthly tech cafes for the community, where they get to present to parents and visitors,” says Worthey. “Many Cyber Champions compete in our tech fair competition, placing in their respective categories. They are highlighted outside of the school community—one was even a participant in the student panel for Tech & Learning.”

Keeping the monthly message relatable and easy to digest helps kids pass the information on to others, a proven technique for ensuring lessons land and are remembered.

“We talk about topics like privacy and reading privacy statements,” says Worthey. “We talk about using artificial intelligence—who's behind those chatbots? Ask teachers if now is an appropriate time to use AI and use it as a brainstorming partner, not for answers. We theme it to what is happening for the kids to make it relevant, so over the holidays we discussed how to shop safely online.”

Worthey promotes the continuation and expansion of the program by using the champions’ own words.

“As part of our closeout ceremony, I asked our students to create a 30-60 second video to help recruit other students,” she says. “I'm definitely enjoying watching their videos, to learn their feedback and what their thoughts are on the program.”

5 Tips to Launching Cyber Champions in your District

Worthey and Logan share tips on developing a successful Cyber Champions program to boost digital citizenship and understanding.

1. Offer Opportunities to Hone Soft Skills

Soft skills such as communication, collaboration, and presenting in front of an audience creates opportunities for students to shine and really be leaders in the field. By working on those soft skills, students will be more comfortable when looking for jobs, interviewing for college, presenting at competitions, and giving classroom reports.

2. Build Model Students

Breaking information into smaller, digestible pieces helps students easily share lessons with peers in the classroom. “When we discuss using AI in an ethical and responsible way, students can model proper behavior when using the tech and show others how to be a good digital citizen,” says Worthey.

3. Bring in Subject Matter Experts

Worthey has reached out to the local FBI office and shared with them about the Cyber Champions program, explaining that they were looking for ways to partner with the FBI to bring strategies for online security awareness to the table to share with the students.

4. Create Career Pathway Awareness

“A lot of our vendors, such as Microsoft, Google, Fortnite, and others have a lot of opportunities for training students interested in careers in cyber security and IT,” says Worthey. “It's a level of experience and knowledge that they have access to through Cyber Champions, so once they go to college or into the workforce, they are already a step ahead.”

5. Offer Volunteers a Choice of Recognition

“I created a form asking teacher-volunteers how they’d like to be rewarded for their time,” says Worthey. “Some like personal recognition — a mention at year-end celebration, some wanted items boasting the Cyber Champions logo, some preferred a district-wide news flash, while others would like a gift card.”

The Tools They Use

• Microsoft Teams
• Canva
• Common Sense Media
• Fortnight
• Google

• Innovative Leader Award

“We just wrapped up our 13th Annual Technology and Innovation Competition, formerly known as Tech Fair,” says Dr. Natasha Rachell, who was recently recognized with the Innovative Director of Instructional Technology Award at the Southeast Regional Leadership Summit, part of the Tech & Learning’s Innovative Leader Awards. “This allows our students, Grade 3-12, to showcase the amazing technology and innovation projects that they've been working on throughout the year.”

Rachell shares her other impressive programs, tech partnerships, and four key pieces of advice for educators trying to juggle tech and learning in style.

Let Students Shine

Knowing that APS esports at the high school level was already up and running through the Georgia High School Association, Rachell created her own Pathway Program Initiative to prepare students to enter that arena feeling strong, confident, and experienced.

“It's viewed just like football or basketball,” she says. “We saw the need to make sure that our students were prepared for that level, so we established an elementary and middle school pathway program. We've been able to partner with Elite Gaming Live to bring this to life for them. We've seen great success including drops in discipline and increases in attendance.”

Creative minds also find a home for exploring their gifts through tech at APS, as the district prepares to roll out their Second Annual Student Film Festival in May.

“Students are able to use tech to create film projects that are in the process of being judged as we speak,” says Rachell. “We’ll have a red carpet-style event to announce the winners. It was so popular we have actually doubled our numbers from last year.”

There’s No “I” in Tech

Partnerships with tech companies not only provide necessary hardware and software, but invaluable resources crucial during these times of financial uncertainty and budget constraints.

“We have partnered with Verizon to bring Verizon Innovative Learning Schools (VILS) labs to almost all of our middle schools,” says Rachell. “That VILS partnership built amazing STEM labs where students can work, collaborate, create, innovate together. Sphero Balls, 3D printers, Glowforge machines, Oculus headsets—anything and everything you could imagine are in these labs, including a lab mentor. Those labs are $450,000 each and 100% grant funded.”

Other exciting partnerships include Canva, Magic School, Grow with Google Career Certificates for highschoolers considering entrepreneurship, ClassLink, My Backpack, Minecraft Level UP program, and Brisk, among others.

“We're a charter district, so we believe in flexibility and autonomy,” says Rachell. “Our principals and teachers have access to whatever they want. Data drives tough budget decisions, but also helps tell a compelling story for grants. We’ve seen a lot of success building partnerships and relationships with vendors and our ed tech friends to bring awesomeness to our students. My mom always said ‘if you don't ask, you don't get.’ We always ask and then we hope. At the end of the day, everything we do is for students and their futures.”

4 Tips to Find Balance with Ambitious Tech Programs

• 1. Tie everything to an instructional outcome. “Nothing we do is just for the sake of doing it,” says Rachell. “When people hear ‘esports,’ they think kids are just gaming all day or playing Minecraft. Our esports Pathway Program students are engaging in STEM career exploration. Before they even lay hands on a controller, they are going through a curriculum of content exploration to learn about game design, video production, game production—behind the scenes opportunities for their future. Our mission at Atlanta Public Schools is preparing our students for college, career and life.”
• 2. Create a “Principal 360 Report.” The Department of Instructional Technology, the Atlanta Virtual Academy, and the media services department all contribute to a monthly report for principals to see at a glance the support that the division has provided to their teachers, media specialists, administrators, and students or administrators in their school. These impact reports are used for programs lacking hard data to show what Rachell’s team hopes to accomplish.
• 3. Empower and delegate. “I am always delegating and empowering my team to come up with great ideas, to implement the concept, to devise plans for the rollout,” says Rachell. “It's definitely a team effort. This helps to build their capacity and helps make them experts, too. Everyone owns a piece— we're all invested because we all want to see it work and don't want to see it fail.”
• 4. Capture data to tell the story. Rachell’s team has been extremely diligent in capturing data, whether it's quantitative or qualitative to tell the story of their work. “Our edtech specialists operate on a request and feedback system,” she says. “Teachers are able to request their services, they're able to offer feedback which tells the story of what is happening in the schools. If a principal ever says, ‘What is such and such doing in my school?’ We have that data to lean on to measure the impact.”

The Tools They Use:

• Classlink
• Canva
• Formative
• Securly
• Grow with Google Career Certificates
• Google for Education
• Microsoft for Education
• Minecraft for Education
• Apple Education
• Verizon Innovative Learning Schools
• zSpace
• Book Creator
• Common Sense Media
• MagicSchool AI
• Ciena Solutions Challenge
• Kick Up
• Paper
• Adobe
• Brisk
• Remind

• Innovative Leader Award

The awards celebrate the products, and businesses behind each one, that are transforming education in schools around the world. Our panel of judges will award the products and solutions to exhibitors at ISTELive 2025 who show the greatest promise to the industry, according to the U.S.'s most tech-savvy and knowledgeable educators.

Benefits of entering:

• All nominees will be invited to a special Tech & Learning reception on the penultimate day of ISTE. Winners will be formally announced at the Tech & Learning reception, to take place on July 1. Crystal glass trophies will be available for winners to capture their success at the event, individual trophies will be sent directly to winners after the show.
• Tech & Learning's fully licensed "Best of Show" awards badge to use on promotional materials, in addition to a suite of pre-made winner's assets including social posts and a press release.
• All winners of the awards will be featured in a special digital issue distributed to the Tech & Learning audience and reaching 72,000 school district decision makers.
• Winners are announced in a press release on techlearning.com during the show. Further promotion will continue after ISTELive 25 through other Tech & Learning subscriber-facing channels.

Why should you nominate your product?

• Nominating a product is easy. No shipping of products or setting up guest user accounts. Just complete a simple form that includes your product's name, image, and a brief description.
• Winning a Best of Show award signifies that your product has, or will have, an incredible impact on teaching and learning experiences. Our judges are looking for the best of the best in edtech innovation.
• Winners of the Best of Show award will be featured in Tech & Learning’s digital magazine, reaching industry professionals who will see your product showcased in a special section of educator-endorsed products.

FAQ

What are the ISTE Best of Show Awards?
The program recognizes products exhibited at ISTELive 25 which are believed to be changing the way we educate around the world. Winners are selected by panels of professional users and editors based on product descriptions provided in the nomination form, as well as on judges' inspection at the show.

Who can enter?
Any organization who is exhibiting at ISTELive 25 can nominate their products for a Best of Show Award. If your company has developed a new innovative product or service, or updated an existing product, entering the Best of Show Awards is a great way to stand out!

When are entries due?
The deadline is 11:59 PST on June 27, 2025. We reserve the right to consider late applicants as circumstances dictate.

How much does it cost to enter?
Single entry: $625.00 per entry
2-4 entries: $595.00 per entry
5+ entries: $525.00 per entry

What are the entry categories?
The categories are broken down into Primary (Tools for K-6 grade education), Secondary (7-12), and Higher Education. You may enter the same product into multiple categories.

May I enter more than one product?
Yes, there is no limit to the number of products you may nominate. Each requires a nomination form and entry fee(s).

How are the products evaluated?
All entries are reviewed by a panel of judges and editors - chosen in advance by the editors of our publications - who will review nominations and choose the winners on a points score against a range of criteria. Judges use a combination of on-site inspection and the online nomination information to build their scores.

What do I get if I win?
Winners of Tech & Learning's Best of Show at ISTELive 25 will receive an award certificate, the award seal graphic to be used in digital promotions, and a feature in the digital edition of Tech & Learning.

Winning a Best of Show award is a great accomplishment for any organization, and the benefits go far beyond just an announcement at the conference. For more information, Contact Beckie Sirs, beckie.sirs@futurenet.com

Tech & Learning's panel of expert judges scored each nominated product on ease of use, value, versatility, and utility. Those products that score highly across the criteria were named winners.

“We saw an explosion of innovation in educational technology in 2024, and these nominated products represent the best of the best,” says Christine Weiser, content director for Tech & Learning. “Our judges were impressed with the breadth of these winning products that empower deeper learning, personalized experiences, and student engagement. Congratulations to the winners!”

AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE: BEST OF 2024

Higher Education

• Anthology, Blackboard by Anthology
• AVer Information Inc. USA, TR315
• BenQ, ideaCam S1 Pro, BenQ Board RP04
• Bloomberg, Bloomberg for Education
• Cisco, Cisco Networking Academy
• ClassLink
• Copyleaks, AI Detector
• Crestron Electronics, Inc., Crestron 1 Beyond i-Series Cameras
• D2L, D2L Lumi
• Gale, part of Cengage Group, Gale Digital Scholar Lab, Gale Literature Resource Center
• Instructure, Canvas LMS
• IXL Learning, Rosetta Stone
• Realms IP.TV, EduxGen.AI
• Samsung Electronics America, WAD, Smart Monitor M80D, 27” ViewFinity S8
• Science Interactive Group, Science Interactive
• Sharp Information and Imaging Company of America, X171 Laser Projector
• Turnitin, Turnitin’s AI Writing Detection Feature + Product Portfolio
• WIN Learning, Academic Skills Courseware, My Work Ready
• Zoom Communications, Inc., Zoom Workplace for Education

Primary Education

• 95 Percent Group, 95 Literacy Intervention System
• Acer, Chromebook Plus 514
• Age of Learning, My Reading Academy Español, My Math Academy, My Reading Academy
• Amplify Education, Amplify Desmos Math
• AVer Information, U50+ USB FlexArm Document Camera, M15W Mechanical Arm Wireless Document Camera, AmpliWave Lite
• Benchmark Education Company, Benchmark Universe
• BenQ, BenQ Board RP04, ideaCam S1 Pro
• Capstone, The PebbleGo Suite
• Cignition, Cignition K-12 Math & ELA High Dosage Virtual Tutoring
• ClassLink
• Clear Digital, The Müv
• Clear Touch Interactive, Inc., The NEXT Hub
• CTL, CTL Chromebook NL73 Series
• Curriculum Associates, i-Ready
• D2L, D2L Lumi
• Defined, Defined Learning
• Discovery Education, DreamBox Math, Mystery Writing, Experience
• Edmentum, Exact Path
• eGlass, eGlass Lightboard
• FEV Tutor, FEV Tutor
• HoverCam, HoverCam Orbit Wireless USB Document Camera
• Inletech, ArtMath
• Inquisitive, Inquisitive K-5 Science
• Instructure, Mastery Connect
• IXL Learning, IXL
• JLab, JLab JBuddies Pop 2 in 1 Wireless + Wired Kids Headphones, JLab JBuddies ANC - Noise Canceling 2 in 1 Wireless + Wired Kids Headphones
• Kibeam Learning, Inc., Kibeam Reading Wand
• Kibeam.com, Kibeam
• Learning Genie, Inc., Learning Genie, Inc.
• LG Electronics USA, LG CreateBoard
• Magic EdTech, MagicBox
• Makina Editorial, MakeMake Digital Library en Español
• MAXCases, MAXCases Shield Extreme-X2 Case with 3.5mm Adapter and Tamper-Resistant Design, MAXCases Extreme Headsets/Headphones
• MobyMax, MobyMax
• Otus
• Pikmykid, School Messaging
• Pitsco Education, LUMA
• Pixton Comics Inc., Pixton
• Pocketalk, Pocketalk S2 Plus
• Presence, Presence Therapy Platform
• Read Naturally, Inc., Read Live
• Reading Horizons, Reading Horizons Discovery Product Suite
• Sadlier, Building Reading Success with Wiley Blevins
• Samsung Electronics America, WAD
• SchoolStatus, SchoolStatus Attend
• Seesaw Learning, Seesaw Instruction & Insights
• Share-A-Cart, Share-A-Cart+
• Sirius Education Solutions, Sirius Online
• SMART Technologies, Lumio
• Sphero, Inc., Sphero BOLT+
• Teachers’ Curriculum Institute (TCI), Bring Science Alive! and Social Studies Alive! K-5 programs
• TeachTown, enCORE
• TechTerra Educaton, STEM in a Box
• TouchMath, Wittly by Classworks, TouchMath
• Vivi, Vivi Video and Text Announcements
• Wonder Workshop, Make Wonder
• Xello Inc, Xello

Secondary Education

• Acer America, TravelMate P4 Spin 14, Acer Premier Service Programs
• Ativion, StudentKeeper Powered by ContentKeeper
• BenQ, BenQ Board RP04, ideaCam S1 Pro
• Bloomberg for Education, Bloomberg Finance Lab
• ClassLink
• Compro Technologies, Engage / comproDLS
• D2L, D2L Lumi
• Defined, Defined Careers
• Discovery Education, Career Connect, STEM Careers Coalition
• Edmentum, EdOptions Academy, Edmentum Courseware, Exact Path, Edmentum Virtual Tutoring
• Everway (Formerly Texthelp), uPar, Read&Write, Equatio
• ExploreLearning, Gizmos
• Follett Software, Destiny Library Manager, Destiny Resource Manager, Destiny Fundraising Manager
• Gale, part of Cengage Group, Gale In Context: For Educators
• Hiveclass, HiveclassPE
• HoverCam, HoverCam Orbit Wireless USB Document Camera
• Incident IQ, iiQ Resources
• Instructure, Canvas LMS, Mastery Connect
• IXL Learning, Rosetta Stone, Vocabulary.com, Wyzant, IXL
• Lightspeed Systems, Lightspeed Insight
• MAXCases, MAXCases Shield Extreme-X2 Case with 3.5mm Adapter and Tamper-Resistant Design
• Medal of Honor Character Development Program, Path to Honor
• Mynd.ai Promethean, Inc., Explain Everything Advanced
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory and IKM 3D, Renewable Energy Discovery (REDi) Island
• NetSupport, classroom.cloud
• NoRedInk Co., NoRedInk
• Otus
• ParentSquare, Smart Sites
• Pikmykid, School Messaging
• Presence, Presence Therapy Platform
• Proximity Learning Inc., Live Virtual K-12 Education
• PSNI, LLC., SNAP Health Center
• Read Naturally, Inc., Read Live
• Reading Horizons, Reading Horizons Elevate®
• Realms IP.TV, EduxGen.AI
• Samsung Electronics America, WAD
• Savvas Learning Company, Savvas CTE
• Scholar Education
• Senturo LLC, Senturo Unified Mobile IT Asset Protection
• Sergeant Laboratories, AristotleK12
• Share-A-Cart, Share-A-Cart+
• Sirius Education Solutions, Sirius Online
• SmartPass, SmartPass Pro
• Sooth Inc., Sooth.fyi
• Study.com, Praxis Core Test Prep
• TeachTown, enCORE
• Tutor.com, High-Dosage Tutoring
• UL Research Institutes, Xplorlabs
• Vernier Science Education, KidWind Wind Experiment Kits
• Vivi, Vivi Wireless Screen Mirroring and Share Camera
• Xello
• YouScience, YouScience Brightpath

Here we speak with Greg Reichelt, Instructional Technology Specialist at Maine Township High School District 207 in Illinois, about integrating AI policy with existing tech and security policies and focusing AI to help handle tedious tasks and provide teachers with more time to deal with other classroom challenges.

Reichelt was recently recognized as Most Innovative Technology Director at a Tech & Learning Regional Leadership Summit with an Innovative Leader Award.

An Unbiased Look at AI

For Reichelt, having a dedicated AI committee was essential to understanding what AI was, how it could be used in the educational space, and what sorts of tools would work best for learning. Nearly 35 teachers, administrators, and other district leaders (separate from the existing Technology Advisory Board) came together for this task. Reichelt also recruited less tech-savvy educators as well as folks who were generally reluctant to change, as he wanted a full array of viewpoints to provide the most objective perspective (not unlike Abraham Lincoln ‘s “Team of Rivals”). They started by brainstorming ideas, frustrations, and challenges, and then discussed all these with the group to build guidance.

“We wanted to specifically look at AI,” says Reichelt. “This is when ChatGPT was just getting announced. We wanted to take an agnostic approach to looking at it and not make any preconceived decisions, one way or the other.”

This might not be new for some districts, but having an extreme reaction to AI tools is common. Many schools either outright ban its use, while others welcome different kinds of AI tools without much regulation. Reichelt chose a very proactive approach to incorporating AI into his schools.

“The committee of 35 people, we got them every AI tool imaginable for us to try so we had an opportunity to see what [those tools] were capable of,” says Reichelt, who also made sure that no student data was involved. “As we were doing that, we had a lot of policy conversations about what we can do to shape guidance on what AI does. We ended up drafting our own policy.”

The policy was pieced together based on what Reichelt and his team found through research, what they agreed should be added to the policy, and what already existed in tech and security policy already in play. This allowed for a comprehensive set of guidelines that felt familiar but also incorporated the best bits of policy that existed at the time.

Policy in Place…Now What?

With the AI policy set, all that was left was to figure out what tools, apps, and platforms would be useful to consider adding to an educational environment. In addition to bringing in outside experts to help steer the process, Reichelt’s team opted for a teacher-friendly approach.

“Once we had a policy in place, we thought about what we could do to get into the heads of teachers to help meet the needs of our staff and students,” said Reichelt. “We specifically wanted to focus on staff at first, not students, just to give staff an opportunity to see what AI could do for them.”

Encouraging teachers to try AI is not always about how to use it with their students. AI tools can help handle other tasks that present as being tedious or otherwise time-consuming.

“Teacher burnout was a huge thing,” said Reichelt. “So we thought about how we can take a new tool on the market and have it help with something contributing to teacher burnout. Too many emails coming in. You have to write too many communications. Here are some tools that can help you with that process.”

The tools that Reichelt gravitated toward were pretty popular programs, such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini, but they also found use in other programs too. Claude AI, for instance, was a huge help in data processing and analytics.

Ultimately, this approach went a long way to a successful adoption of AI tools. It also encouraged other educators in the district to get involved in the process.

• Innovative Leader Award
• Regional Leadership Summit 

Callie Salaymeh, Instructional Technology Coach and Biology teacher at Lyons Township High School and Head of Community for Enlightened AI, discusses how her district implemented a successful professional development plan that integrates AI guidelines to help students effectively navigate AI use personally and professionally.

Salaymeh was recently recognized for the Best Example of Professional Development at a Tech & Learning Regional Leadership Summit with an Innovative Leader Award.

Making Professional Development a Team Effort

Technology is only as good as the hands that wield it. For educational technology to be used in the right way, proper instruction is key for teachers. Professional development in this area is critical when helping teachers introduce technology to their students.

Salaymeh introduced her method of PD that helps keep the district on the edge of modern technology.

“There are five of us technology coaches for a staff of 280 teachers and about 500 faculty members total,” Salaymeh says. “We are a single school district split up into two campuses. So as technology coaches, we’re involved in a lot of the professional development for our district. We bring in a lot of technology. We go out, educate ourselves at conferences or on our own. We bring technology initiatives to our director of technology. We also provide support and coaching for our staff on how they can better implement technology in their curriculum."

Salaymeh has always been very into cutting-edge technology.

“When generative AI hit the tech space, I was fascinated by it,” says Salaymeh. “The first time I started being clued in to all of that was August 2023. I quickly joined a Slack community formed by Amanda Bickerstaff, cofounder of AI In Education.”

Within this Slack community, Salaymeh was able to learn much more about AI and how it was being used. Through her interactions with AI tech leaders and educators, she was able to collaborate with her team of tech coaches to develop a comprehensive PD session based around AI. This session not only helped to educate staff on AI, it led to increased tech literacy among teachers as well.

Leveraging Information Into AI Guidelines

Having a wealth of knowledge in technology at your fingertips can turn into helpful tools for the future. In Salaymeh’s case, this information became the guidelines that the schools in the district use for proper AI use in curriculum development.

“The whole last semester of spring 2024, my focus was increasing AI literacy among staff,” says Salaymeh. “As the semester rolled on, it became obvious that having some sort of guidelines for this coming school year was important. A lot of schools were working on that last spring and I didn’t want to be behind in that initiative. So I proposed that we start a task force for AI. We used a lot of different resources from TeachAI and AI for Education, and put together the stop light guidelines. which we introduced in August of 2024.”

The stop light guidelines help let teachers know whether to utilize AI in any given assignment.

The Stop Light Guidelines

• Green Light: A green light assignment gives a student the ability to use generative AI to complete a project.
• Yellow Light: A yellow light assignment gives a student limited use to use generative AI at the teacher's discretion. This can mean using some AI tools while not using others. (For example, only using image generation AI tools but not ChatGPT to gather information.)
• Red Light: A red light assignment bars the use of generative AI to complete the project.

How to Create Forward Progress in Education for AI

The discussion of AI has been varied based on who you speak to. Many schools and districts want to begin implementing AI into their curriculum (or find better ways to do that than they already have been) but are unsure how to proceed.

Salaymeh shares the following recommendations on what schools should focus on to support their staff on the safe and effective use of AI.

“I think the starting point is to focus on the way that AI can make teachers more efficient,” she says. “Have a better work-life balance. A lot of people are leaving the teaching profession because they are being run down and overworked. Using AI as a tool to not only help [teachers] become more efficient but also eliminate some administrative tasks is a great angle for a school district to start at.”

AI literacy is also a crucial component to the effective use of AI in schools.

“The goal of increasing AI literacy is an important thing I learned early on,” says Salaymeh. “How [AI] is used in their jobs, what is myth and what is fact. Everything they can learn about AI to trust in it and know how to use it appropriately. The AI literacy of staff is really important. Once that’s there, a school district could move into introducing it to students appropriately and supporting their use of it. But those guidelines need to be in place.”

AI literacy is important, especially for teachers. More and more, AI-integrated tools are becoming available and teachers will need to understand not only how best to use these, but also how best to educate their students on how to use these. AI will only become more important going forward, and developing a working knowledge of it now can help create smooth educational transitions into the future.

One final thing that Salaymeh recommends when creating AI guidelines is to include students in the process.

“I think [school districts] need to include students in the discussion," she says. "Students need to have a seat at the table.”

Callie Salaymeh’s Tech Toolbox:

• ChatGPT
• MagicSchool
• Brisk
• EnlightenAI

• Innovative Leader Award
• Regional Leadership Summit

We speak with Travis McGuire, Assistant Superintendent for Learned Resources for Community High School District 99 in Illinois, about his efforts in implementing a new student information system, the planning and coordination that went into it, the pain points to be dealt with, and the method that led to a successful transition.

McGuire was recently recognized as Most Innovative Superintendent at a Tech & Learning Regional Leadership Summit with an Innovative Leader Award.

Time is On Your Side

One of the greatest assets you can have as an educational decision maker is time. Knowing how much time you have to introduce a change to a school or district environment can mean the difference between a successful launch or not. With the nature of programs and how time-restrictive it can be (with licenses and contracts that can run out), it can be easy to feel overwhelmed when a decision is there to be made.

“You’re on a timeline. The great thing for us is that we knew [how much time we had],” says McGuire. “So that was not as much of a pain point. I can see where some districts [might work under a tight time schedule]. I would suggest, if you can have a full year for your data migration and training before full implementation, that would be a huge thing.”

Knowing how to best utilize your time is important, but what about knowing whether you should make a change in systems or stick with what you have?

“What it comes down to is knowing whether the current system you have meets your needs first and foremost,” says McGuire. “There are always products out there that look like they are better, and it’s good to investigate those, but not always. You have to understand how much time it will take to [implement a new system]. And, because time is our greatest commodity, is that return on investment going to push us to the next level? We know there will be some time intensive moments, some anxiety, and being cognizant of that [is important]. It’s a balancing act.”

Looking to Make a Change?

Changing your student information system, for example, is a big decision to make. The information being handled is sensitive and you will want to make sure you go with the right choice for your students, your school, and your district. However, as McGuire points out, the process doesn’t need to be painful. It just needs to be thorough.

“It’s going to take a lot of work,” McGuire says. “We vetted different providers. We had them come in and do demos. One of the things we pointed out was to show us exactly what we’ve been talking about and if there is anything additional you need to point out. So we had those where we had our first rounds. Then we had our second round with Infinite Campus. We had them come in, we had a whole bunch of staff, different levels that came in.”

In the first round of demos McGuire and his team cast a wide net to have various service providers come in to make sure that the discussions they had prior to meeting in-person would hold up in a physical demo. Infinite Campus made it to the second round and, upon a second meeting, were able to answer direct staff questions from those educators who would be using the platform. This provided a major boon in professional development by helping teachers and other staff understand Infinite Campus before agreeing to accept it as a new system.

“It really allowed us to dig into the functionality, the operations, just the overall flow of the system," he says. "So I suggest getting the right people around the table.”

The best kind of relationship you can have with a vendor is one where they genuinely listen to your questions and pay attention to your needs. Know what you are looking to accomplish before you start wading through salespeople. It’s beneficial to know what path you're on before you accept an offer from a vendor. They need to be on the same path as well. This will benefit you in the long run and will make sure you not only do what’s best for your students, but that you build a lasting relationship with trust as a cornerstone.

• Innovative Leader Award
• Regional Leadership Summit

District leaders worked in teams to explore how emerging tech has impacted teaching and learning, including how to vet tools, assess data privacy risks, and prepare staff and students for the Generative Age.

Find information about upcoming Tech & Learning Leadership Summits here.

Key Takeaways

1. ANTIDOTES FOR THE ANXIOUS GENERATION

During his opening keynote, Carl Hooker discussed whether or not to ban cell phones in the classroom. He also addressed the need for educators to be equipped with strategies to address student anxiety through mindfulness, social-emotional learning (SEL) techniques, and effective classroom management.

For example, one strategy revolves around notification awareness, and helping students learn to silence and/or regulate what they get notified about on their phones, which can directly help with their focus, especially when they are working, collaborating, or being productive. Discussing this with students helps them create more proactive solutions to their own focus. Do they need to get notified about the group Snapchat or can it wait until after school? What things do they need to be notified about right away? What happens to learning when they get distracted? Reflecting on these and other questions can be the first step in addressing the problem.

See all seven of Hooker’s antidotes for the anxious generation here.

2. ESPORTS WINNING IMPACT

During his presentation, “Scholastic Esports: More Than Just Gaming,” John Phillips, Technology & Innovation Consultant for Berrian RESA, discussed the far-reaching impact of scholastic esports.

Phillips explained how esports equips students with far more skills than just gaming. He cited research that showed that esports can help:

• Improve visual acuity and attention
• Foster scientific reasoning
• Accelerate language learning
• Improve digital and print literacy
• Increase problem-solving skills
• Boost math achievement
• Build technology fluency

He cited dozens of career paths that launch from esports experience, including business, IT, sales & marketing, education, event management, communication & media and more.

Phillips also noted that the average esports scholarship student receives $4,800 in tuition awards a year, according to the National Association of Collegiate Esports—but some can receive up to half off tuition.

Phillips works with the North American Scholastic Esports Federation (NASEF), a nonprofit that offers free esports tournaments and more to help students develop STEAM-based, collaboration, and problem-solving skills they need to thrive in work and in life.

3. BUILDING ENGAGEMENT AND EQUITY

Attendees from Chicago Public Schools discussed Chi-Craft, the district’s esports afterschool Minecraft Build Challenge program. Inspired by New York City Public Schools’ “Battle of the Boroughs", the new program features more than 500 students from 70+ schools, and unlike some other extracurricular programs and activities that can require certain physical abilities and skills, every student is eligible to participate.

Using Minecraft Education, the competition involves “Build and Present Challenges” that are scored with a STEM-powered rubric. Students essentially receive a 3D creative writing prompt that includes key focus vocabulary and Chicago-centered resources. In return, they create innovative architecture, beautiful murals, and constructs from “out of this world.”

Innovative Leader Award Winners

At the close of the Tech & Learning Leadership Summit, the following leaders were recognized for their outstanding work in their districts:

• Innovative Technology Director - Greg Reichelt, Director of Technology, Maine Township HSD 207
• Best Example of Professional Development - Callie Salaymeh, Instructional Technology Coach, Lyons Township High School District 204
• Innovative Superintendent - Travis McGuire, Assistant Superintendent for Learning, Community High School District 99, Downers Grove, Illinois
• Best Overall Implementation of Technology - Chicago Public Schools, Chi-Craft Esports Competition

Special thanks to our partners who made these important conversations possible:

Apptegy
D2L
ClassLink
IncidentIQ
MagicSchool
Wonder Workshop
Hovercam
Stride Learning Solutions
Tinkrworks

Find information about upcoming Tech & Learning Leadership Summits here.

Here we speak with Kathi Kersznowski, educational technology specialist at Washington Township Public Schools in New Jersey, about how she helped her district switch from Microsoft to Google, some of the steps she took to ensure a smooth transition, and what other schools and districts should know if they are looking to make a switch as well.

Kathi was recently recognized for Best Example of Professional Development at a Tech & Learning Regional Leadership Summit with an Innovative Leader Award.

One Small Step for a District

The idea to switch from one technological ecosystem to another doesn’t come lightly, but every great change starts with a spark. Even if the change is small, it can have massive ramifications if everyone is not on the same page.

“We got a new superintendent last year, and the new superintendent came from a Google district,” says Kersznowski. “He wanted us to be a Google district as well. So we knew it was coming. We had a year to do a turnaround. I have a team of three other people that work with me, it’s just the four of us. We were tasked with making this happen.”

WTPS is a district of nearly 8,000 students with six elementary schools, three middle schools, one large high school, and two preschools, so that transition seemed daunting at first.

“There’s so many people to train, so many to teach,” recalls Kersznowski. “It’s new for the teachers, it’s new for the students. Then we realized it’s new for the secretaries and the administrative assistants as well. We had a lot of people to get this knowledge into. It’s a big shift when you go from Microsoft to Google. Word translates to Docs, and Excel to Sheets, so there’s compatibility with a lot of products, but it works very differently in many ways.”

Embracing “Google Day”

Switching to another technology ecosystem isn’t uncommon. However, some districts may be put off from making the change because of the overall headache it may produce. So how did Kersznowski and her team overcome typical challenges associated with a shift in technology for a whole district?

“I’ll tell you what the best thing is that other districts could do if they want to replicate this,” says Kersznowski. “We had Google turned on last year. The official switchover date wasn’t until the middle of the summer, but we had Google turned on by February 16th of last year, which was a full day in-service for the whole district. As a tech team, we asked for permission to have that day, then we commandeered it and called it Google Day. We wore shirts that had Google day on them. We spent months planning for what this was going to look like, but the fact that we had it turned on last February gave us a sandbox where we could play with it. The only things we didn’t turn on were Gmail and Calendar because those were still running in Microsoft Outlook.”

What was the benefit of having extra time to work with the Google ecosystem?

“With Google Day, we wanted to find out what the core things were that every single person is going to need to know to survive in Google,” says Kersznowski. “We identified those things as Google Drive, the Chrome OS, Google Calendar and Gmail, and the overall app suite. Those were the core things that everyone had to take a session in. We offered live sessions and we offered recorded sessions. Everybody had to take at least two live sessions. We wanted people in person to interact and discuss.”

And how do you deal with pushback?

“Change is hard,” says Kersznowski. “So it would have been the same pushback if we had gone from Google to Microsoft or anything else. People are resistant [to change]. But the fact that we got them PD and training and support so early on, and gave them a place to play, work, and learn, [that was helpful for the transition.]”

Making such a big change for a school, let alone a whole district, can be a daunting task to undertake. But, as Kersznowski and her team have proven, with proper planning and plenty of time to learn the technology, you can set your district up for success as well.

• Innovative Leader Award
• Regional Leadership Summit

Here we speak with Caroline Lightfoot, CTO of Dickinson ISD in Texas, about her efforts to build equity within her 12,000-student district by providing proper tools and programs to all schools and utilizing Schoology for blending learning.

Lightfoot was recently recognized as Most Innovative CTO at a Tech & Learning Regional Leadership Summit with an Innovative Leader Award.

Upgrades Across The Board

Some days it can seem impossible to keep up with the tools that will make the greatest impact on education. However, by organizing your resources to provide proper tools and programs to every student and teacher within a district (regardless of how old the campus is), all can enjoy the same levels of education. Lightfoot explains how she approached this goal in her own district.

“We have a tendency to fund our new campuses for technology, and they are able to get the latest, greatest tech,” says Lightfoot. “So when I became the executive director of our department, we really wanted to start getting that out to all campuses and not just our new buildings. So we looked at the age of devices and where the work orders were and we started pecking away at it from there.”

Lightfoot and her team were able to update half the campuses last year, and plan to have everyone on board by February, with the exception of a few teachers at the high school.

Why was it so important to make this shift within the district?

“All of our teachers deserve the latest, greatest technology,” Lightfoot says. “Also, we have a little bit of a push because we have many older desktops that are not compatible with the systems we replaced. We needed to replace those anyway. This was a great opportunity to be able to do that and get some more portable, brighter technology in our classrooms.”

Challenges of Updating Tech

Taking on challenges comes with the territory when education is involved. Lightfoot experienced her own obstacles in reworking her district’s technology.

“We are in Texas,” Lightfoot says. “And, like many districts I know around the nation, we’re in that education funding crisis. We have to get pretty creative with some funding. So we funded at first with our technology budget, but we also asked [for money from the federal programs] to help with our teachers.”

The challenge then becomes spending the money to best support learning goals.

“Like so many other districts, we’ve been moving toward that blended learning model,” Lightfoot says. “We’re definitely there, but Schoology happens to be our learning management system of choice here in Dickinson. We’ve got lots of procedures in place to make things easier for teachers. After COVID, people were on board with online learning. It’s really been great to see them grow and thrive and integrate different tools within Schoology that we have in our district here as well.”

A Focus on Equity

Ideally, all schools, teachers, and students should have access to the same tools and programs to provide the same level of education across the board. Many districts struggle with maintaining a level of equity that would empower these goals.

“It’s just making a point that [achieving equity] is what needs to happen, and getting all the people in your district on board with it,” says Lightfoot. “It’s time that all educators realize that there are occasional funding things that get in the way, but we’ve been able to standardize on equipment as well so that things aren’t as hodgepodge. It makes things easier and more efficient.”

Bringing equity to a school district doesn’t always mean breaking the budget to put the latest technology in your schools, but having the mindset that you want to elevate the schools in your district equally can help advance the tech you have while not breaking the established budget. It also means that getting everyone in your district on the same page can make a big difference in agreeing on how to move forward.

• Innovative Leader Award
• Regional Leadership Summit

Here we speak with Dr. Michael Nagler, Superintendent of Minneola USFD in New York, about his work in adopting technology early on, the importance of maintaining creative thinking skills to prepare students for the future, and how keeping open lines of communication has enabled students and teachers to have an input in the growth of their educational practices.

Nagler was recently recognized as Most Innovative Superintendent at a Tech & Learning Regional Leadership Summit with an Innovative Leader Award.

Adopting Technology Early

New forms of technology crop up almost on a daily basis, and many schools and districts make decisions on what hardware and software to add to their environment everyday. Nagler notes how early adoption primed his district to become known as a tech district and synonymous with innovation.

“More than 10 years ago, when the iPad came out, we embraced it,” says Nagler. “We had a pilot with a group of fifth graders the first year. Within two years, we were one-to-one. The entire district. And we’ve been known as a tech district based on that.”

Under Nagler, Mineola was one of the first school districts in New York to implement a comprehensive computer science curriculum starting in kindergarten, and he continues to encourage his schools to embrace technology in a thoughtful manner. “We do a ton of innovation,” he says. “But it’s a misnomer that we’ve centered around technology as the answer, whereas I think we use tech appropriately as a tool to try to push changes in teaching and learning.”

How has technology changed the educational approach?

“Direct instruction is a vestige of a long ago time,” Nagler says. “We need to engage kids a lot differently. If we use technology to help them be creative in how they do their work and explain what they know as an assessment form, the better we’re positioning kids for the next wave. AI is coming, and I think the more creative things we ask kids to do, the more we don’t have to worry about AI doing all the work.”

It can be easy to offload all of our processes onto AI programs that are created to handle these. However, it is important to note that the skills students will need in their professional lives are still relevant to be taught. Technology is important, but it cannot replace the human element.

Embracing Technology, Finding Balance

New innovations in education can help achieve a lot, but it can also provide too many options for students and teachers. Nagler says sticking with one form of technology for the district can help to keep students involved in the innovation process.

“We were very purposeful with the iPad,” Nagler says. “I think it’s a device you can use to create. If it’s not web-based, you’re not really doing much. That’s why we’re Apple Distinguished. There’s only 18 districts that earn that recognition. And the reason we leverage Apple products is because we want kids to create.”

But how do we keep kids in the spirit of learning even after leaving an educational environment? Nagler says maintaining a level of flexibility within the district is key to adapt to changes and obstacles along the way.

Nagler also embraces a driven sense of inclusion for teachers when it comes to making innovative advances within the school and the district. Having adequate input from educators can help to create an inclusive and understanding educational environment, even if it doesn’t make everyone completely happy.

“Everybody complains about something,” Nagler says. “That’s the nature of humans.”

How to Keep Your Technology Growth in Check

Dealing with issues stemming from technology in a school can create chaos without having a clear cut approach for obstacles, says Nagler. Not allowing technology to take over is also fundamental in providing a leveled educational experience. In addition, fostering the creativity in students through technology helps them stay ready for a future in technology. And, as Nagler adds, teacher inclusion is key.

“My philosophy is, it’s got to be teacher-driven,” Nagler says. “You have to pitch an idea that teachers can embrace and give them the ability to change it, to make it work for them. Teachers spend years studying to ply their craft, and we need to let them do that.”

• Innovative Leader Award
• Regional Leadership Summit

Maurie Beasley, Network Administrator at Llano ISD, talks about how AI has been used to assist teachers in their daily tasks to help save time and improve student/teacher relationships. Beasley was recently honored by Tech & Learning during a recent Regional Leadership Summit with an Innovative Leader Award for Innovative System Administrator.

How the AI Integration Began

One of the biggest booms in recent tech memory has been the incorporation of AI into almost everything we use nowadays. Once AI made its way into the mainstream, the possibilities for its use were endless.

“Our technology director has been here for 20 years, and he actually has a background in computer engineering. Full disclosure, he’s my husband. He keeps up with all the latest [tech developments],” says Beasley. “Maybe a little over two years ago, when OpenAI first released AI to the world, he was on it immediately. He was in the pilot program. He would play with it and ask it questions and really dig into the technical aspects of what it was capable of. He knew it would be a game changer.”

How did he begin using AI for the district?

“He started developing internal onboarding, similar to a chatbot, using AI,” says Beasley. “He had already started doing a chatbot before AI became a thing, and so we started really looking into taking it in.”

The number of daily administrative tasks a teacher has, such as putting in a work order, not only affects their interaction with their students but can take time away from what’s truly important. And from this obstacle and a deep curiosity in AI, Agnes was born.

Just Ask Agnes

Agnes is a chatbot that, through the addition of AI, has become a reliable way for teachers to offload some of the time-consuming administrative work within a day, giving them more time to focus on other tasks AI cannot perform.

“We were trying to get teachers to [ask Agnes] what their schedules were, whether they had class duty, what the phone number is for the payroll person,” Beasley says. “Especially for our new teachers, because our turnover rate is so high in education now that we really thought this would be great for new staff. That’s where it started.”

While helping teachers had its own benefits, moving the Agnes chatbot to the administrative level helped solve a new gamut of problems. Preparing documents that either took a large amount of time to complete or had to be outsourced (which added to the budget) was exactly why Agnes was created. And as more administrators have understood its purpose, more schools have been ready and willing to adopt it into their environment.

Beasley says that integrating AI into the district's operations has saved several hours of troubleshooting while also helping to make up for limited resources in a smaller district. As with any AI tool, there are concerns about safety and security, but Beasley points out that existing regulations covered AI in its usage and regulation.

How AI Can Help Your School at Higher Levels

Beasley says that the best way to introduce AI into a school, whether at the classroom level or the administrative level, is by prioritizing educator integration. Making sure that teachers and administrators know how to use AI tools can go a long way toward introducing them in the classroom while also helping to deal with tasks that take too much time away from educators on a daily basis. For example, there are AI tools that can help teachers create lesson plans, such as Diffit and EduaideAI, or ones that can assist with multiple tasks, such as MagicSchool.

Another way to help integrate AI into a school or district can be through a dedicated curriculum. Beasley notes that starting AI education is important due to the continued popularity of the medium and its swift adoption in the educational space. To assuage fears related to AI use, Beasley suggests following existing district technology use guidelines and ensuring that AI is used within closed systems to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information.

• Regional Leadership Summit
• Innovative Leader Award

Jaw, Technology Coordinator at Warren Hills Regional School District in New Jersey, was recently honored with an Innovative Leader Award at a recent Tech & Learning Regional Leadership Summit for his IT work.

Your Call Is Very Important To Us

Dealing with customer service can be stressful for many, as it involves trying to resolve an issue or solve a problem that you cannot do on your own. Sometimes it requires you explaining an issue to another live individual, and this can result in varying outcomes based on a number of factors. Most importantly, you never know what kind of individual you will be dealing with and whether you’ll get your issue solved or not.

Jaw maintains that the way to make the customer service approach work in an educational setting is to begin by showing patience and understanding. Exhibiting qualities that mark excellent customer service can be very helpful when others look to you for answers to their technical questions. With the amount of tech we use in schools, just one device not working can derail an entire day. As Jaw puts it, showing empathy and compassion can go a long way.

“It starts with me, right?” Jaw says. “If I don’t conduct myself with that level of patience, customer service, empathy, and compassion that I expect the people that work in my department to exhibit, then it’s not going to work. The first step is starting with me and making sure that I’m doing that. From there, when I onboard people, we would go over our values, we talk about what’s important to us and try to come up with a shared set of values.”

Involving people who come to work in IT from the beginning mitigates potential pushbacks.

“It doesn’t take a lot of arm-twisting,” Jaw says. “If we are not there serving the people who work in the school community, what are we doing?”

Making Customer Service the Standard

Customer service normally invokes images of business, not education. However, as Jaw says when asked how other schools and IT departments can follow his lead to revamp their own offerings, it costs nothing to change a mindset.

“I would say that people are the most important thing,” Jaw says. “It’s just how we conduct ourselves, how we communicate, and how we operate that brings that success. It’s not due to a system. It’s not due to a product. It’s what we do on a day-to-day basis, who we are as people, and what we bring to the school community every day that makes the biggest difference. [If another school wanted to follow suit] that is what I see as having the biggest impact.”

But what happens if there is pushback to a customer service-oriented mindset?

“Everybody has different experiences and different personalities,” Jaw says. “I think that if we expect ourselves to have that level of understanding and patience and empathy toward the stakeholders that we serve in the school community, then we should have that toward each other as well. When there are people who are having a bad day or have something going on, I let my people know that I’ll take that call. I’ll help that person. I’ll make sure that it’s done the way that we want the department to be perceived in the school community. We have each other’s backs.”

Making the extra effort to help those in need, no matter what they may be dealing with, can help make an IT department go from a dreaded environment to the superheroes of the school.

• Regional Leadership Summit
• Innovative Leader Award

The Tech & Learning Awards of Excellence: Best of 2024 celebrates educational technology from the last 12 months that has excelled in supporting teachers, students, and education professionals.

Whether the product is for those in Primary, Secondary, or Higher Education, these awards provide a great opportunity for innovative edtech companies to showcase their work to educators and administrators nationwide.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER NOW

3 Reasons to Enter

1. All winners receive a “winner's package.” This includes a fully licensed winners badge for in-house promotion, a designed social post, press release, and template winners email.
2. Winning products will be showcased in a special edition of Tech & Learning distributed to our readership, which is built of education professionals, district leaders, and school administrators.
3. A Tech & Learning Award of Excellence: Best of 2024 is a highly recognized accolade provided to only the best in EdTech, based on evaluation by a panel of education experts.

How It Works

Our panel of education experts will evaluate each nominated product. Here’s what they will be looking for:

• Is the product easy to use and include support for teachers as needed?
• Does the product simplify and enhance the teaching and learning experience?
• Is the product flexible to support both in-person and asynchronous online teaching and learning?
• How is the product unique compared to other products in the market?
• Can the product be easily integrated with other products being used in schools?

Tech & Learning's panel of educators and judges will evaluate each of these answers, along with submitted product descriptions, images, and case studies. The panel will score each product on Ease of Use, Value, Versatility, and Utility. Those products that score highly across the criteria will be named a winner in this year's Awards of Excellence: The Best of 2024.

The entry deadline is January 17, 2025. Companies may begin their entry by clicking the button below or continue to read through the awards site for more information on eligibility, benefits for entering, and information on the Awards of Excellence. Do not miss out on your opportunity to be recognized for a year of hard work and dedication to educational excellence!

CLICK HERE TO ENTER NOW

Heather Brantley, CTE Digital Communications Specialist, discusses the Lego Build the Change Initiative taking place at Pine Tree Junior High and being facilitated by Take Action Global. For her efforts she was recently recognized by Tech & Learning with an Innovative Leader Award for Innovative STEM Program Award.

Building a Better World . . . with Legos?

Legos are very popular and can be used to build any number of structures. Brantley says joining the Take Action Global Lego Build the Change Institutes sparks student interest in providing solutions to real-world problems.

“Last year, I had the opportunity through Take Action Global to be part of the Lego Build the Change institute,” says Brantley. “Take Action Global did an incredible job. They partnered with LEGO Group, separate from LEGO for Education. And what they did in that six weeks was they provided problems that were very open-ended. Students were to create [solutions] with Legos.”

Students were given the opportunity to choose from a list of real-world challenges, such as designing sustainable schools, or teachers could choose for them.

“It was open-ended, but it led to conversations for solutions,” says Brantley. “So one thing that Lego represents is building through play and taking action. Take Action Global looks for how we can find solutions for climate problems through play.”

Sustainability and climate problems may seem like big topics for students to consider, but adding in an element of play can inspire them to find solutions in new and innovative ways.

Building A Program Brick By Brick

The Build the Change initiative uses common play rules to have a student look at issues from a different perspective. Legos can be used to build all manner of structure, but how does this play out in a school under the banner of education?

“I always tell my students that they are bigger than the classroom,” says Brantley. “‘You’re bigger than the walls of the school. You’re bigger than the town you live in and, for us, you’re bigger than Texas. Your voice needs to be heard.’ I’ve tried to give those opportunities.”

Brantley’s district applied for its junior high campus to be a Lego school, which inspired other campus leaders to also participate. Take Action Global ultimately adopted five of the district’s campuses into the program.

“Out of the 25 [participating school seats] for this year, Pine Tree holds five of those seats,” Brantley says. “With that, we become the first to do this on a district level.”

How can this program grow to incorporate more schools and districts? Asking about it can be the simplest way to get involved, as word of mouth has helped other districts join.

“I absolutely see this as the beginning of a great thing as word comes out,” Brantley says. “I didn’t know about it, then I learned through the institute about becoming part of the showcase schools.Then I wanted to know what the next steps were and whether we could increase the scale of the program.”

What’s Brantley’s advice for other teachers?

“Ask the questions. Worst-case scenario, they say no,” she says. “And I really think that it’s important for people to realize that if it doesn’t work the first time, it may just not be the time. Don’t give up on it. Keep having those conversations later. Follow up, make sure everyone is still on board and going.”

Having your voice heard as a student can be a huge boon in your formative years. Not only does the Build the Change initiative provide solutions to problems in innovative ways, it lets students feel more involved in the world around them, engaging them in a way that standard education might not.

• Innovative Leader Awards

Staying in consistent contact with your child’s teacher can keep you up to date with what’s going on in your child’s class, help you better understand a teacher’s way of teaching, and provide an answer when you need it the most. However, for many schools, keeping connected with what’s going on at a school has been left to the likes of Facebook. Lacey Merrifield thought of a better way to keep families connected with teachers without forcing them to be exposed to social media.

“We’re a really tiny district,” Merrifield says of her 750-student school community. “The main way they were communicating and getting information out was Facebook. At the end of every year we do a parent survey, a staff survey, a student survey, and one of the biggest things on the parent survey was that they had to actually get on social media when a lot of them avoid social media. I’d already wanted to redesign the school website and add communication to it. Our website was really outdated…and adding the app came from parents wanting to be able to avoid getting on social media [to stay connected].”

The Bosqueville ISD app acts as an extension of the updated website, which can also help keep parents connected if they find themselves without their phones or tablets.

For this effort and other work, Merrifield was recently honored with a Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award for Innovative Director of Technology during a recent Tech & Learning Regional Leadership Summit.

Making Safety a Priority

Parents today now have higher levels of access to teachers through emails and text messages. Pushing that communication through a single platform can help organize the messages that a teacher can receive regularly, and allows for communication without sacrificing privacy and security.

“We don’t want our teachers texting,” Merrifield says. “This is on the app. That way our teachers aren’t giving out their numbers. They don’t have to get a Google number. They can still use their phone, but their privacy is protected. We’re still communicating, but it’s not intruding on personal boundaries.”

What if a teacher does not want the app on their own personal device?

“The cool part about this is that if a teacher doesn’t want to put the app on their phone, they don’t have to,” she says. “It’s a web-based app as well so they can do it all from their school computer.”

This can help to separate the working world from a personal life for teachers who feel the two may blend together too often. Keeping school-related apps and tools strictly on school devices (or separate devices if they are not school-issued) can create peace of mind for a teacher while also allowing for full focus when sending information to families or responding to an inquiry from a parent.

6 Steps To Put Together a Communication App

With the idea and the execution of the communication service running smoothly, it might seem like the Bosqueville ISD app was a walk in the park to make. However, it took strong collaboration with programmers and designers, as well as vocal opinions from the community itself, to help get this innovative moment off the ground.

“The number one thing was getting a needs assessment that came through our staff, student, and parent surveys,” Merrifield says. “Then we collaborated with Edlio, telling them what we wanted from [the service]. We had to test, and there were some glitches. Our Google Sign On didn’t work as it should have, things like that. Then we had launching and training. I think getting those in the right order [is important], because if you launch it and it doesn’t work, nobody wants to go back to it.”

Merrifield shares the step-by-step process that ensured the app achieved the proper goals and met the needs of her school community effectively.

Needs Assessment: “We began by gathering input from stakeholders, including teachers, parents, and students, to identify their communication needs and preferences,” Merrifield says. “This feedback guided our overall vision for the app.”

Collaboration with Edlio: “After defining our goals, we collaborated closely with Edlio's development team. They provided us with insights into the features and functionalities that could be incorporated, ensuring the app would align with our communication strategy.”

Design and Development: “Together with Edlio, we worked on the app's design, focusing on user-friendly navigation and an appealing interface. Edlio's team helped customize the app to reflect our school’s branding and unique needs.”

Testing and Feedback: “Before launching, we conducted thorough testing of the app with a small group of staff who were also parent users to gather feedback on functionality and usability. This step was crucial to identify any issues and make necessary adjustments.”

Launch and Training: “Once the app was finalized, we launched it to the staff first, then the rest of the community. We also provided training sessions for staff and parents to ensure they were comfortable using the app effectively.”

Ongoing Support and Updates: “After the launch, we established a system for ongoing support and periodic updates, ensuring that the app continues to meet the evolving needs of our community.”

The Hidden Ways A Communication App Helps a School

The main focus of the communication app is to keep teachers and families connected, but having that service can also have other benefits that are more uncommon but just as important.

“There are so many apps,” Merrifield says. “When I started here, we had a different company for door access, a different company for cameras, a different company for guest services. We’re also in the process of changing that. That’s been my thing coming in. I’ve tweaked a few things. Our guest services, cameras, and door access are all going to one company now.”

Combining multiple services into one convenient spot can save time, effort, and money. Doing so with the Bosqueville ISD app had a profound effect on other aspects of school life, not only influencing community communication, but also the consolidation of multiple school tools and functions into better managed situations.

• Innovative Leader Award
• Regional Leadership Summit

Beverly Miller, Assistant Director of Schools for Administration/Chief Technology Officer for Greeneville City Schools in Greeneville, Tennessee, and recent winner of a Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award for Best Implementation of Data Privacy, discusses how much student information schools should keep and the questions we should be asking about collection policies.

‘Why Are We Collecting So Much Data?’

Thousands of students attend hundreds of schools every year, and each one has data collected in some way in the process. Miller saw this practice as a disservice to students and wondered whether schools should be collecting all of the data that they do.

“As a forty-year technologist, about 15 years ago, I really started to become concerned about the massive amounts of information that we had on both students and the adults who work in a school district,” says Miller. “Long before the real focus on data security and data privacy became such an industry focus, we started working in my little school district in the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee. I started assembling a team of district leaders and district employees. We started by conducting a paper data records inventory. What I became immediately concerned with is the records we had.”

Gathering information on students and teachers isn’t out of the ordinary for a school or an educational system, but Miller took issue with what kinds of data schools were collecting and how long they were holding onto it.

“Along the way, what I started to realize was that we had social security numbers on people all throughout our community because so many had graduated from the Greenville City school system (including our existing students),” she says. “So I really started digging at that time saying ‘Why in the world do we even collect student’s social security numbers?’”

A Two-Pronged Approach to Data Security

Collecting data for a school might not be alarming, but keeping it forever might pose a significant risk to anyone who has attended or is attending that school. The same goes for former and current employees.

To protect both former and current students and staff, Miller led a district-wide initiative to limit access to critical data and bolster security.

“[Our school] became one of the very first schools to completely eliminate student social security numbers,” Miller says. “We went so far as to delete them electronically. We no longer ask parents for that information. But then we went back through all of those historical paper records and shredded all instances of the social security numbers coming up. It just put the district and the individuals at such risk. We made sure that if we were ever breached that the data would include only the absolute minimal data that we needed on people.”

The district also partnered with Scribbles Software to convert roughly 50 years of paper records into a digital system, only accessible in a secure cloud. This streamlined the records management process and made it easier for designated staff to find what they were looking for quickly, and significantly improved security by eliminating the concerns that come with paper-based records systems, such as data being accessed by unauthorized personnel.

The multiple security measures embedded into the cloud-based system also reduces the likelihood of sensitive information falling into the wrong hands. Both of the initiatives above are examples of how Miller’s proactive approach is ensuring student and district data remains private and secure.

Using Data Mitigation to Reduce Risk

As technology continues to evolve, our information becomes more susceptible to breaches everyday. Yet no matter where your school is, controlling the data you keep can be an attainable goal.

“Even though we’re a small rural community school district in eastern Tennessee, I think we have built a model that could very well be replicated and scaled up or down based on school district size,” Miller says, noting her two-pronged approach. “From this point forward, we will have this process in place. It’s just a matter of how dedicated people would be in order to take care of the data. I think of things from a corporate standpoint. People always have a need or use for [information], so they’re always going to find a way to dig information out of you. But from a school standpoint, where things like ransomware attacks are so rampant, having less information to give would actually be more helpful.”

Personal information needs to be protected no matter what. With a template like this in place, students can learn in peace without fearing their data will fall into the wrong hands.

• Innovative Leader Awards
• Keeping Student and Teacher Data Safe and Secure

A virtual classroom for teachers around the world to work together to create something more for their students was a difficult project to undertake, but in the right hands, it was not only made possible, but also made to flourish. Fortunately, Jacqueline Gardy was the right person for the task.

Gardy is Global Program Officer at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, DC, for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in the Office of English Language Programs. She was recently honored by Tech & Learning during a recent Regional Leadership Summit with an Innovative Leader Award for Best Example of Virtual Learning.

Content for Comics in the Classroom

The concept for this collaborative pilot project involved gathering multiple teachers from around the world to help develop curriculum for use in the classroom. It just so happened that this curriculum was focused on using comics. Gardy explains how the idea started to come together.

“My supervisor gave me the greenlight to set up a pilot virtual exchange program with a limited budget,” she says. “I worked with five consultants, who helped me develop the curriculum and launch it. We used a combination of Google Docs, a Google YouTube channel, and Slack (free version). We made an Adobe Spark page as a homepage. So we did everything with a low budget in mind. We decided we wanted 40 teachers from all over the world to work with us synchronously online to develop content for comics in the classroom.”

Providing this new type of curriculum to teachers from all over the world helps to diversify their educational outlook and their teaching methods. Using comics as a tool for teaching is a novel approach to education, and the visual aspect also helps when connecting with teachers of varying backgrounds.

Since the pilot,16 other virtual exchanges have been developed with the administration aid under the English Access Scholarship cooperative agreement with FHI-360 and delivered by a variety of nonprofits and universities. The topics have been on Climate Action (with World Learning and Take Action Global), Global Perspectives in the Classroom (Azusa Pacific University), Global Citizenship in the English Language Classroom (UMASS Lowell), Business and Entrepreneurship in the English Language Classroom (Georgetown University), Differentiation for the Contemporary English Classroom (United Planet), Building Blocks for Service Learning (World Learning), Civil Communication with a focus on Computer-Mediated Instruction (Azusa Pacific University), Developing Digital Citizenship (Azusa Pacific University and iEARN-USA), New Literacies and 21st Century Skills in the English Language Classroom (iEARN-USA), Embedding Life and Career Skills in the English Language Classroom (World Learning), Future-Forward Teaching in the English Language Classroom (Take Action Global), and Power Skills in the English Language Classroom (UMASS Lowell).

How to Keep Teachers Engaged and Connected

Creating the program with everyday tools helped to keep the project within a recognizable scope, regardless of who was using the program, Gardy says. But a main obstacle was keeping teachers involved in the program given their locations and accessibility. Having the program come to fruition during the beginning of the pandemic was coincidental, but it also helped when teachers were switching to an online format en masse.

“Our launch date [for the program] was March 15, 2020, and that was right when the pandemic started, right as everything shut down,” Gardy says. “It just happened to be a blessing in disguise because suddenly teachers are no longer doing their full time teaching. They had a lot of time to learn tech skills and interact with people.”

Connecting at the beginning of the pandemic also led to teachers around the world realizing how similar their COVID experiences were, leading to a ready-built rapport that served as the foundation for expanding the program.

“It ended up being a conversation group once a week where we would all talk about our COVID experiences, while we were experiencing it all over the world,” Gardy says. “What was striking was how similar all of our experiences were even though you wouldn’t think any of us would have anything in common. That laid the groundwork for more virtual exchanges.”

This project led to a foundational understanding between teachers, no matter where they were located on the map. Their experiences during the pandemic and in teaching were similar if not exactly the same.

Putting It All Together

Operating an online program in a synchronous manner comes with its own challenges, such as catering to teachers living in different time zones and countries. But Gardy says that having teachers in different parts of the world makes for a more diverse grouping.

“There are usually 40 teachers per exchange, and then we divide them out by four facilitators,” she says. “So the pods were 10 teachers per facilitator. We usually set the pods up using timeline groups along the latitudinal lines to create participant diversity, with no more than three hours apart.”

Once the groups are made, a combination of synchronous and asynchronous interactions helps the teacher pods enhance their knowledge on particular topics.

“We introduce all the information at the beginning of the week, and then we have lots of different interactions that are either synchronous or asynchronous, either in discussion boards or in Zoom calls,” Gardy says. “Then we have these reflect and apply sections where they reflect on what they’ve learned and try to apply it in their classrooms immediately and/or to their final lesson plan. They have to attend 70% of the synchronous events. If they can’t attend the synchronous events, they can watch the recording and fill out an exit ticket to show they have participated.”

Gardy’s efforts demonstrate a method of global citizenship that helps educators reach out and collaborate with teachers across the globe. This endeavor makes education more accessible to teachers everywhere while empowering them to make education more accessible to their students as well.

• Innovative Leader Awards
• Regional Leadership Summit

Dr. Betsy Fowler, Head of Schools at ASU Preparatory Academy in Tempe, Arizona, and recent winner of Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award for Chief Academic Officer during the recent Denver Regional Summit, discusses her school’s Family Choice Friday, which lets her district “go big.”

“ASU Prep is a large organization in the perspective of we’re more than just full-time schools” says Fowler, adding it offers a full K-12 digital program and a globally developed curriculum. “We have amazing assets to offer our students and families, so being boxed into a traditional five-day week felt so outdated to us. There’s so much we can offer our students that are beyond our walls. So, this past year, we accepted the challenge to create a few sites piloting Family Choice Friday. Now it’s going network wide for our campuses to offer more flexible and fluid learning environments for all of our students.”

What Is Family Choice Friday?

Each Friday, ASU prep students can choose between working from home or spending a half-day program directly on the institution’s campuses engaged in special programming. On-campus sessions include academic interventions, enrichment activities, college-going experiences and coursework support, and special field trips, all designed to complement and augment the standard curriculum.

Students also have a menu of choices of other academic opportunities.

“One example is our partnership with ASU,” says Fowler. “Our kids get to go on Fridays and learn with faculty who are experts in their field. It’s not a formal learning experience. It’s like opening the doors to learning that is possible. But if we were stuck with a regular, five-day, traditional school week, it would be nearly impossible for our students to have the time they needed to be able to have this unique learning experience.”

Being able to work with professional experts can provide life-changing opportunities. It can help students learn more about subjects they find interesting, while also getting real-world experience in how those subjects are being applied to a working environment. With the leeway of having a full day to engage with this level of educational interactivity, students also find they are not restricted with time constraints holding them back.

How Important is the Idea of Choice in Education?

As a student, what you can learn may feel very limited. Oftentimes choice is not a luxury students or parents are granted when it comes to education.

“I think there’s a huge motivation that comes when we give more authority to our learners and their families,” says Fowler. “We still want to be the curators of high expectations. We make ourselves so busy as a society and having enough rest and having those well-being parts of our lives shouldn’t be underrated either. But we’re driving home the point that [students] have the most incredible opportunities to take advantage of something that would not normally be available to you if you were just going to traditional school.”

How can we make sure students see the benefits of Family Choice Friday instead of thinking about it as just another day off?

“We’ve seen that [students] rise to the occasion when we give them the choice to see it for what it is,” says Fowler. “Our hope is that even if they take some opportunities for a little more flexibility, which might mean just accounting for wellbeing, we know that each one of our students at the high school level will take advantage of these sorts of power moments to really invest in themselves with incredible opportunities.”

These types of educational opportunities provide students with invaluable moments early in their lives. Chances to build a resume, to work with professionals, and to discover their life calling. Fowler has recognized how critical this time in a student’s life is, and has found a way to maximize its impact.

Related:

• Innovative Leader Awards
• Building CTE Pathways Between Schools and Local Businesses

Christine Jones, Coordinator of Educational Technology for the Palmdale School District in California and recent winner of a Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award for Best Implementation of Data Privacy during the Denver Regional Leadership Summit, discusses the ways she has upgraded data safety practices in her school and how educators can keep student and teacher data safe from outside threats.

Data Threats Are Not New

When it comes to protecting students’ data in and out of school, the threats they are exposed to are not a new occurrence. Breaches in security have been happening for years.

“Our district, back in 2016-2017, had a ransomware attack. That was shortly after I joined the district and it was not a pretty sight,” says Jones. “It was a moment where we realized that our security had been set up for physical events very well. We had offsite [areas] where our records were being kept. There were multiple locations in anticipation of fire, earthquakes, and that kind of thing. But we hadn’t done an excellent job of thinking about a digital attack or event.”

On the heels of this event, Jones and the district made a concerted effort to improve cybersecurity efforts.

The Influx of Apps and the Need for Data Privacy Agreements

Previously, computer security was a simple addition of one or two programs to thwart outside interference. Many programs that were used on computers were known to be safe. However, with the ever-growing influx of programs, data is increasingly at risk.

“The risk is higher because everything is installed digitally or comes from the internet, and you’re loading everything up into the cloud,” Jones says. “The bigger issue started happening when a lot of these apps started requiring accounts. You had to have an account to participate or to play. It took a little time to understand what was happening, how that data was being transferred to the application and how it might be used. And that’s when I started carefully reading their policies and their agreements and wondering [what’s happening with our data?]”

Many people tend to sign up for a service or give our information without a second thought. This kind of behavior can put their data at serious risk. But there are some regulations in place meant to safeguard that information.

“In California, we became aware of the NDPA, the National Data Privacy Agreement, and so we started to take a closer look at that and at the same time CITE, California IT and Education, started to lead the charge for how carefully we look at the programs we’re adopting,” says Jones.

As a result, Jones has developed a curated list of “Approved” resources that can be found on the district website that helps to guide staff to digital resources that have been reviewed and have been deemed “high quality.” To receive this designation the resources must have current data privacy agreements (DPAs) in place with the district, have appropriate fully ad-free content for students, and are not connected to social media, blogs, or any other type of social sharing.

The list is updated monthly as DPAs are updated. New resources may be added and current resources may be removed if any fail to adhere to district guidelines.

Implementing Security Measures at the Cost of Convenience

Keeping student information safe is critical, and to do so means making access to devices more challenging.

“We just implemented multifactor authentication this past school year, and we did get some pushback,” says Jones. “So we gave them multiple ways to authenticate. One was through YubiKey. The positives with this method is that you’re the only person with access to the USB device. The negative was that the physical device could be left at home or misplaced. Using MFA, teachers could authenticate with their devices. I’d say that 90% of our staff choose to do it through their phone or their iPad because they found it simpler.”

Even though it might take a little while longer to log into an account or access some sensitive information, having MFA implemented can be the difference between keeping your data safe, and leaving your data wide open for a breach.

Tools Jones Uses

• Classlink
• YubiKey

• Innovative Leader Awards
• Gamifying Cybersecurity Training

As schools get ready for the 2025-26 school year, Tech & Learning announces the opening of their annual “The Best Tools for Back to School” to help our readers find the most impressive products and solutions that will support their work in any learning environment.

For this year's contest, Tech & Learning is seeking nominations for products that offer schools versatility, value, and solutions to specific problems to support innovative, effective teaching and learning. From security solutions to LMSs to hardware and software, this award will recognize both new and legacy technology that support effective teaching and learning practices in the new school year.

Find out more about the awards here

Why Enter?

Winning an AOE for The Best Tools for Back to School is more than just a pat on the back from Tech & Learning's editors. It's a fantastic way to showcase your products and their contributions to education:

• Nominee and Winner logos will be distributed for use on product marketing and collateral.
• Winning products will be showcased in a special edition of Tech & Learning distributed to 70,000 district leaders and school administrators.
• An Award of Excellence represents the highest approval rating -- based on evaluation by actual educators using education technology every day.

Frequently Asked Questions 

What are the Tech & Learning Awards of Excellence: The Best Tools for Back to School?

The Awards of Excellence are a legacy award program recognizing innovation in the edtech industry. Tech & Learning magazine’s new Awards of Excellence program, “The Best Tools for Back to School,” is a way to celebrate the most impressive products and solutions that support the work of teachers, students, and parents as they prepare for the new 2025-26 school year.

Who Can Enter?

Any company that has a product that supports innovative, effective teaching and learning (it can be a new or legacy product).

Why Should I Enter?

Winning an Award of Excellence tells the industry that your product has been approved by the most important audience - the educators themselves. The top products will be selected and featured in a special edition of Tech & Learning magazine reaching more than 70,000 edtech professionals.

When Are Entries Due?

All entries are due by September 5, 2025 at 11:59 PM EST.

How Much Does It Cost To Enter?

• Single Entry: $625
• 2-4 Entries: $595
• 5+ Entries: $525

What are the categories?.

Primary (K-6)

Enter any product that supports innovative, effective teaching and learning for elementary students, teachers or parents.

Secondary (6-12)

Enter any product that supports innovative, effective teaching and learning for secondary students, teachers or parents.

Higher Ed (college and beyond)

Enter any product that supports innovative, effective teaching and learning for higher education students or teachers.

May I Enter More Than One Product?

Yes. There is no limit to the number of products you may nominate. Each requires a nomination form and entry fee(s).

How Are Nominees Evaluated?

Entries will be passed through a panel of Tech & Learning advisors. Evaluation criteria includes:

• Ease of use
• Value
• Versatility/Product integrates with existing systems
• Product solves a problem

When Will Winners Be Announced?

Winners will be announced in September 2025 and featured in a special issue of Tech & Learning.

What If I Have More Questions?

If you have any questions about nominations please contact Beckie Sirs at beckie.sirs@futurenet.com.

Learn more about the Tech & Learning Awards of Excellence Best for Back to School contest here.

Chief Information Technology Officer at San Antonio ISD, serving 45,000 students in 70 schools, Mendoza is known for creative attempts to teach cybersecurity, such as her popular “Phish Market” poster and PSA-video contest with winner’s artwork appearing as the lock screen on the district’s chromebooks and school monitors. She also offers a PD version of a popular television game show.

“It’s standard ‘Family Feud’ with a cybersecurity theme,” says Mendoza, who was honored for her efforts during a Tech & Learning regional leadership summit. “We follow the basic rules of the game, where a hundred people are surveyed and participant teams guess the most common responses. We just happen to have a hundred people on our IT staff, so it worked out great.”

Surveys are created with simple Google docs or Microsoft forms, free options that any district budget can handle.

“We send out a survey, asking questions such as, ‘What is the most commonly used password?’” Mendoza says. “Then we take the game around to different targeted departments because of the data they handle, and get some volunteers to make up two teams. We usually try to gamify anything within HR and finance. It’s just really engaging when you add in competition.”

Mendoza finds this style of engagement helps important info sink in, both for participating game contestants and the audience.

“So we might say, ‘We asked one hundred people, what are the most commonly used passwords? And the responses come — ‘1234’ or ‘pet’s name,’ ‘year of birth,’ all of these things that people do, but are super easy to guess or find,” she says. “There will be some funny responses and then ‘Survey says— ‘ and the results can be eye-opening. We want to hit them with that real-world shock. ‘Oh, wow — we all do that or know someone who does.’”

Some of the answers are entertaining, such as during the real show, which keeps the audience attentive rather than the dynamic of zoning out, too often seen in PD sessions. Mendoza then has the principal or a tech director give a short one liner of actual information, enough to drive home the lesson without ruining the fun and engagement of the activity.

“We created it within PowerPoint, using the graphics and theme song. It took a little bit of tweaking, but now that it's established, we can take it around to our different departments to take part in the game,” she says. “I personally think cybersecurity's super cool and fun, but you know, not all my colleagues across the district may feel that way. Sometimes people think it's a little intimidating or they think ‘It isn’t part of my work.’ Cyber safety is a shared responsibility. We all play a part in it and we want them to learn and understand the important role they play in cybersecurity.”

Gamification Isn’t Just For Students

Most school districts in Texas are required to have cybersecurity training approved by the state.

“These were often formal, traditional, sometimes boring videos that we were required to watch,” says Mendoza. “If you can reach beyond that traditional training, however, you can make a serious impact.”

It doesn’t matter how secure and advanced your system is if it is made vulnerable by those using it. This can be a real problem when human error leads to leaks of sensitive student data such as social security numbers, grades, health matters, personal phone numbers and addresses, and other family information.

“With cybersecurity, the No. 1 way people hack into systems is to hack the person, not the technology,” says Mendoza. “They go after those without cyber awareness, capitalizing on human error and carelessness. We need to ensure educators and staff realize the threats that are out there and that they are one of the most important parts of the strategy to keep our environment safe for our students.”

This sort of fun exploration of cybersecurity can even be a unique way to engage students in assemblies, cheering on teacher teams while learning.

“Hackers don't care if a target is a six-year-old, it is just an account to get in,” says Mendoza. “Kids need to learn just as much as our staff. Our students are growing up in a digital age from day one. Even if you're itty bitty, you have a digital footprint, and you need to learn to stay safe and how to protect your data. We did a little lesson with all K through 12. Some of the feedback we got from the teachers were stories of ‘My Roblox account was hacked and they took all my points.’ They are in their own world, but that could be so much bigger if they're not taught early and are ready for the future.”

Tips When Creating Your Own Cybersecurity Training Games

Create real-life activities. Mendoza says, “We did a tabletop exercise to take staff through a full-day scenario of what it’s like when you go through a ransomware attack. For example, 9:13 a.m., teachers complaining ‘I can’t log in or get to my email.’ How are you going to get through the day without no system? What happens if somebody picks up their kid early, what happens at dismissal? Now extrapolate that into a system down for three to five days. It was meant to be an exercise for staff, but it turned into a great resource for us to document and make a plan of everything schools would need from us and the central office to get by. Suddenly, it comes full circle and we have staff saying, ‘I couldn't make that connection, that my clicking a phishing link could lead to the whole district being down for five days.’ We were able to make it real for them.

Share the why. “A lot of the time we have processes for the vetting process on technology or digital tools,” says Mendoza. “Sometimes applications or softwares are denied. Educators see something on social media, a blog or a seemingly helpful app, and don't really understand why— ‘It’s free! I don't see why!’ It comes down to data privacy and protection. We have to read all the terms and conditions. At the end of the day, the ‘No’ is for the students and for our staff so we can be into a good digital environment.

Focus on the people. “Having the people part of your strategy is so important,” says Mendoza. “You have your processes, you have your technology, all your cybersecurity systems and solutions. But you need that people piece to make sure that your cybersecurity posture is strong.”

• Innovative Leader Awards
• How Gamifying Education Brings Out the Best In Students

The exhibit hall showcased hundreds of new products and services, and our Tech & Learning judges reviewed the nominated products on the show floor to choose the winners for this year’s Tech & Learning's Best of Show awards at ISTELive 24 awards. The evaluation criteria included: ease of use, value, uniqueness in the market, and proof that the product helped make teachers' lives easier and supported student achievement.

“Although AI was the most talked-about topic at this year’s ISTE conference, we were impressed by the array of nominated products that continued to support the nuts and bolts of teaching and learning and meaningfully integrated emerging tech,” says Christine Weiser, content director for Tech & Learning. “Our judges chose the products that they believed best supported innovation in the classroom and district. Congratulations to our winners!”

Winners of Best of Show at ISTE 2024

• Acer Chromebook Plus 514, Acer TravelMate P4 Spin 14
• AGParts Education, EmpowerED360
• Avantis Education, Enhanced ClassVR Portal
• AVer Information, M15W Wireless Document Camera, U50+ USB FlexArm Document Camera
• AVID Products, WonderEars, AVIGA
• Boxlight, Unity, Robo E4/E4 Pro 3D Printer, Clevertouch Impact Lux, Clevertouch Impact Max, MimioWall, MimioPro4, Xploris, DS Series
• Breakout EDU, Breakout+
• Brisk Teaching
• ClassLink, ClassLink Suite, ClassLink DataGuard
• Clear Touch, NEXT Hub, Evo Roll Series, Evo Tall Series
• ClickView, ClickView
• Copyleaks AI Content Detector
• CricutCricut, Autopress, Easy Press 3, Cricut Explore 3, Cricut Maker 3, Cricut Venture, Cricut Joy, Cricut Joy Xtra
• Curriculum Associates, i-Ready
• CyberNut, Cybersecurity Awareness Training for Faculty, Staff, & Students
• Edge•U Badges
• Edmentum, Exact Path, Edmentum Courseware, EdOptions Academy, Apex Learning Tutorials
• ExploreLearning, Gizmos and STEM Cases
• IPEVO, IPEVO P2V Ultra
• IXL Learning, IXL
• Kami
• KinderLab Robotics, Thinking with KIBO: Introducing Artificial Intelligence in Early Grades
• Lightspeed Systems, Lightspeed Digital Insight
• Linewize, Linewize Monitor, Linewize Classwize, Linewize School Manager, Linewize Pulse
• LocknCharge, FUYL Tower Pro Smart Lockers
• Logitech, Zone Learn
• Mackin, MackinVision, MackiknVIA
• MAXCases, MAXCases Explorer 5 Work-In Case, MAXCases Extreme Shell-F3
• MIND Education, ST Math
• Mynd.ai's Promethean, ActivPanel LX with Google EDLA-certified OPS-A computing module, Promethean, Inc.Explain Everything Advanced
• NetSupport, classroom.cloud
• Otus
• OverDrive Sora
• Pocketalk Ventana
• Prodigy Education, Prodigy Math
• Renaissance, FastBridge, Accelerated Reader, eduCLIMBER, Star Assessments, Lalilo, Nearpod, DnA, Freckle, myON, Flocabulary, Renaissance Fundamentals/SAEBRS
• Robotical, Marty the Robot
• ScreenBeam Inc., ScreenBeam EDU Gen 2, Orchestrate by ScreenBeam
• Seesaw Learning Experience Platform
• Sergeant Laboratories, AristotleK12
• SMART Technologies, Lumio
• Swank Motion Pictures/Swank K-12 Streaming, Swank K-12 Streaming
• Tools for Schools, Inc., Book Creator
• ViewSonic Corp, ViewSonic ClassSwift Software
• Vivacity Tech, PBCEmpower+ Warranty, PBCStudent Repair Academy, PBC36-Unit Smart Charging Cart, PBCGuardian Backpack, PBCGuardian Work-In Case with Pouch, PBCDream
• Vivi
• Wonder Workshop, Make Wonder
• Zoobean, Inc., Beanstack
• zSpace, Career Readiness Solution Powered by Career Coach AI

This approach is the essence of gamifying the learning process.

Dan Ryder, Director of Design and Innovation at Community Regional Charter School in Maine, believes that making learning more like gaming can have a profound effect on students and how they interact with their work. Ryder was recently honored by Tech & Learning during a recent Regional Leadership Summit with an Innovative Leader Award for the Innovative Director of Design & Innovation.

Using Game-Based Learning to Reach Students 

Students, not unlike working adults, may or may not find pleasure in their work.

“What I tried to do with learners is use their love of gaming in whatever way–card games, video games, role-playing games–find the angle in, and then have them become creators of games that demonstrate deeper knowledge [of a subject],” Ryder says. “Instead of writing a book report or preparing a boring project, I’ll have you design a game. I’ll give you the parameters on it for design. And what we’re asking of the kids is to connect the dots between all these things.”

In the gamification process, having a deeper understanding of the subject matter comes across in how well a student can translate it in game form. Adapting characters as historical figures, portraying historical events as environments in a game, and implementing certain rules to provide certain outcomes can all be a part of the learning process. The student creating the game can also demonstrate expert knowledge of the subject being used as the basis of the game, making the gamification process potent as a teaching and learning model.

Raising the Stakes 

One of the hallmarks of gaming is the addition of stakes as having a reason to play is extremely important in becoming the driving force behind your progression. Understanding what the stakes are in game-based learning is important, but it isn’t the only factor necessary to bridge the gap between education and gaming. Knowing what your margin of error is holds equal importance, while being allowed to make those errors can influence growth.

Ryder explains that students need to have a wide berth when it comes to the learning process as it helps them through their educational and professional lives.

“Every game has trials and errors. You try things, you make mistakes. The only way you learn from it is by screwing up, right? Games that don’t have that aren’t really games,” Ryder says. “[And] if the stakes are so high that you can’t afford to lose, then it’s not really a game. It’s gambling, and I would argue that gambling isn’t a game at all. It’s more of a risk-taking exercise. You can’t really game it because you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Systems, Rules, and Mechanics 

Knowing the stakes is important, but overcoming an obstacle is the main reason you play. Students know about overcoming obstacles throughout their time in school. In order to overcome these, understanding what the world is asking of you plays an important role. Ryder equates this to the mechanics and systems found in any game we play.

“Every game has mechanics and systems. Like Mario, right? There’s a reward system. You get 100 coins, you get a free play. There’s a system to it,” he says. “Then we have rules and guidelines, but rules are different from mechanics. You not being allowed to do something is different than how something works. All of education is one gigantic game system.”

Choice and a narrative (or lesson) are necessary in game-based learning.

“You’ve got choices and consequences in every game. You have the choice you make, and then you have the result of making that choice,” Ryder says. “And finally, you have stories and quests. When I see things get gamified, [people] don’t create stories. They create the most basic system of reward. Maybe there’s a rule involved, but it’s basically a mechanic of performing an action, earning a point, and turning in points for a reward.”

The process of integrating education with gaming is a novel idea that can help open students up to a new side of learning, becoming more accessible and inclusive while also adding an element of fun.

Related:

• Gamifying Teacher Training
• Best Sites & Apps for K-12 Education Games

Kerry Gallagher, Assistant Principal for Teaching and Learning at St. John’s Prep in Danvers, Massachusetts, expounds on a method she created to help acknowledge and implement AI use in her district, as well as to make an ongoing commitment to staying involved and informed with its use.

As the recipient of a Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award for Most Innovative Assistant Principal, presented during the recent New England Regional Summit, we have the privilege of learning more about Gallagher’s method of understanding and implementing AI in her school and doing so in an inclusive manner.

Staying Open-Minded About AI

Overcoming the early media coverage of AI in schools was a significant challenge, Gallagher says.

“I think most of the media attention [for AI] at the time was pretty negative and meant to scare people,” she says. “So we had some colleagues who were scared. We also had some colleagues who were curious, and we had some people who had a mix of all of those emotions. We started by listening first to our colleagues and what their concerns were. We then started to take notice, with a very trained eye, of what types of work students might be submitting, and trying to identify what ways we can discern whether a student has used AI in the course of creating his work.”

Understanding both the concerns educators had as well as the ways students used AI helped Gallagher get a better idea of how to approach the idea of AI in schools.

“In hindsight, I’m proud of the way we didn’t rush to a ban or a policy or creating guidelines before we approached the situation with curiosity,” she says. “We looked at our academic integrity policies and our data privacy policies, then we did some work about how those existing policies apply to AI.”

Regardless of who was involved in the process, everyone was made aware of what was going on with AI within the school.

“We shared what we learned with students, parents, and teachers all at the same time, on the same day,” Gallagher says. “Everyone who is a part of our school community, no matter what their role, was on the same page.”

Gallagher stresses that it was a collaborative effort to get the ball rolling with the AI school culture cycle. Alongside Gallagher, Kelley Papa, Instructional Coach at St. John's Prep, was an integral part of the ideation, creation, and implementation of the ongoing AI plan. Further still, the endless input and cooperation from educational peers and open-minded families help to keep the cycle moving. Large shifts in educational culture like this one do not happen without the understanding and support of both faculty and parents.

Addressing AI Through Existing Policy 

As it turned out, new policy did not have to be created for AI as existing policy already handled its use among students, as Gallagher explains.

“We also talked about how our academic integrity policy requires students to cite sources if they use a source besides themselves,” she says. “That would include generative AI and it requires them to not use computer-generated materials, unless they have the permission of their teacher. That particular wording was already in our integrity policy, so we didn’t have to create anything new. We just helped people understand how to apply generative AI.”

Throughout the time spent going through the cycle of integrating AI, Gallagher implemented the academic integrity policy whenever it was deemed necessary to do so. She also kept families in the loop as to where the school was in the integration process.

“And that’s how we close the school year, applying our policies as we promised we would and allowing people who were really interested in exploring [AI] to explore on a small scale,” she says.

Building On the Existing Model 

After creating an initial AI integration cycle over last school year, Gallagher expanded on it, honing in on specific AI platforms.

“This school year, we took the next step forward and we decided to focus on finding the generative AI tools that would be the tools for our teachers at our school that we could sign off on,” she says. “[The tools] would be something that would be of use to our teachers, and that we could do more dedicated professional learning on it so our teachers felt more prepared. We did select a tool, we rolled it out, we trained all teachers on it across the board.”

Training all teachers on the use of AI helped make it a more accepted concept, even if everyone doesn’t use it in their classrooms.

“As a result of [the widespread training], in addition to ongoing listening sessions and professional learning, I’m confident in saying we have normalized the use of generative AI by our teachers in the course of their work,” Gallagher says. “I feel confident that our teachers are using it in a way that is aligned with our mission and our sense of ethics as a school. And the reason I have that confidence is that the platform we chose allows us to see what our teachers are doing. We’ve given teachers the opportunity to share with us what they’re doing as part of our routine and structure.”

With a more stable structure in place, Gallagher says that AI elicits more positive feelings this time around.

“I think the excitement is growing. The curiosity is growing,” she says. “The feelings of fear and anxiety are not gone, but they are easing. So the next step is doing the same cycle of work around what a student might use AI for. But we need to do the same culture work that we did with our teachers. We need to start by listening and not assuming that we know what people’s concerns are. We need to start by training everyone, communicating effectively, and applying our values to what we are seeing.”

This approach to AI helps to mitigate inherent biases and fears about its use while also fostering a learning environment for teachers, students, and parents. Turning apprehension into curiosity, and without compromising on school policy, Gallagher has safely put AI on the radar and ushered in its use through professional development and open dialogue.

• Innovative Leader Award
• Northeast Regional Summit

The Connors Center in Dover, Massachusetts, provided a beautifully lush backdrop of trees and grass that held fast against the ongoing conversation between educators, edtech partners, and other attendees about the advent of technology in schools. As part of a professional learning experience, those in attendance were tasked with creating an action plan based on the various activities they would take part in throughout the day.

Getting Our Feet Wet 

Throughout the summit, there was a concentrated focus on AI, which was bolstered by a fearless and entertaining introduction made by Carl Hooker, the emcee for the event. After being split into teams, attendees were tasked with coming up with a two-minute presentation that encapsulated one action plan to be incorporated in the next school year.

Throughout the day, while some attendees made time for one-on-one meetings with vendor partners, others participated in roundtable discussions based on common educational challenges that were facilitated by experts in multiple fields.

The roundtable talks covered subjects that impacted educators, students, and parents, and included:

• AI Media and Literacy
• Personalized Learning Coaching
• Creating a Personal Wellness Plan
• Integrating Technology into the MTSS Structure
• PD In the Age of AI
• Addressing Chronic Absenteeism
• Data Privacy and Cybersecurity

Chronic Absenteeism Prevention 

An in-depth conversation about chronic absenteeism was led by Michael Hale, Director of College, Career, and Citizenship at Casco Bay High School in Portland, ME. Hale divulged the alarming rate at which high school students who miss school regularly are prone to miss graduation: 30%! Hale also elaborated on other potential detrimental effects of chronic absenteeism, such as diminished health and low future employment prospects.

In order to address the issue of chronic absenteeism, Hale discussed how his district employs a multi-tiered support system designed to help and incentivize regular attendance for students. The system involves support, prevention, and intervention if necessary, designed to help eliminate obstacles keeping students from attending school.

Implementing AI Across a District

Kerry Gallagher, Assistant Principal of Teaching and Learning for St. John's Prep in Danvers, MA, and Kelley Papa, Instructional Coach at St. John’s Prep, discussed how their district prepared a comprehensive plan to integrate artificial intelligence in a way that helps foster an accepting culture among students, teachers, and parents. The process acts as a cycle that will constantly gauge the opinions of all participants to know what direction to take with AI.

Gallagher presented an action plan that worked with existing school policy. The plan is designed to evolve as the needs of the students and educators evolve. The main idea behind the process is not only to educate students, teachers, and parents on the potential of AI, but also to demystify AI from the established reputation it garnered through early media coverage. Approaching AI with understanding makes its use more palatable, and Gallagher and Papa have paved the way for a roadmap for the ever-changing landscape AI in education.

Gamifying Schools, Looking Forward to What’s Cool 

Dan Ryder, Director of Design and Innovation for Community Regional Charter School, presented a game-based and human-centered problem-solving model to help reimagine how to tackle educational challenges. The presentation was accompanied by a brief activity in which participants divided groups of two, learned about game-play styles, and ultimately, each created a game that their partner would enjoy playing.

After the presentation, attendees were given the opportunity to get an advanced look at cutting-edge technology companies. This provided some quality time with industry innovators to get a glimpse of what the future of educational technology could look like.

Artificial Amateurs are Absolutely Amazing 

Once the day reached its final moments, the original teams organized at the beginning of the summit reconvened and, equipped with the knowledge gained throughout the day, created endearing proposals for introducing AI to a school. Some groups had used AI tools to craft and sing unique songs about the benefits of students and teachers using AI. Other groups used AI to create artworks to emphasize the helpfulness of artificial intelligence.

Innovative and Celebrated 

After the team presentations, Tech & Learning recognized the innovative leaders in attendance for their achievements. The Innovative Leader Award winners were:

Innovative District Instructional Tech Specialist: Russell Levendusky

Innovative Director of Design and Innovation: Dan Ryder

Innovative Assistant Principal: Kerry Gallagher

Best Example of Virtual Learning: Jacqueline Gardy

Tech & Learning Regional Leadership Summits offer a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with passionate educators from across the nation. Whether organizing unique solutions to complex and ongoing challenges, or being on the cutting edge of the edtech space, the connections made and time spent here become indispensable in helping to further educational endeavors for students, teachers, and parents.

Wall is the Senior Instructional Technology Administrator for Sebastian River High School and she created a high-tech, state-of-the-art learning environment that puts students first. For her efforts, she was honored by Tech & Learning during a recent Regional Leadership Summit with an Innovative Leader Award for the Most Innovative Learning Spaces. 

The media center upgrade grew from the idea of creating a central hub for students to explore their educational possibilities. The furniture in the media center is mobile, able to be rearranged to suit the needs of the students when necessary. The center houses 3D printers, a coffee shop (students can eat food in the space), and accommodating chairs and tables.

Student Input Made All the Difference

Input from the students was critical to Wall’s efforts.

“Some of the things they wanted to be able to be in there before and after school–they wanted to be able to eat in there, they wanted their computers. And they wanted to see other groups. They wanted it to be like a hub,” Walls says. “And so we took those points, then we paired them with our renderings to show them, ‘These are the things you want. And these are things we’re going to make happen.’ Then we paired it with the final images and they were able to see exactly what [they] asked for.”

Having input from the students was a major selling point for the useability of the media center. With ideas implemented from student suggestions, students then felt as though they directly impacted their school. “Once you have that input, they’re committed, they’re with you 100%,” she says.

Students even came up with some innovative ideas themselves.

For example, CTE classes can now be seen from the media center, giving students a first-hand look at potential options for their professional futures. This stemmed from the students wanting to have an almost open-air concept for the space.

The renovated media center represents more than just a fancy space for students to work, says Wall. It represents dedication toward the impact students can have regarding their educational and professional futures.

The Blueprint for Student Advancement and Engagement

Seeing the success of the space, the input from the student body, and the support from educational leadership coming together to create something innovative, other schools can use this media center as a blueprint for their own renovation projects.

“Leadership and support is important. I would say you have that kind of perfect recipe,” says Wall. “I have friends in other districts that are already branching out and trying some things because it’s like, ‘Really, we really can do it.’ You don’t feel like you know much about furniture, but, you’d be surprised what a couple phone calls can start to get happening.”

Wall made a concerted effort to create a comfortable space for students to explore educational options and make decisions on their futures. She was empowered by the overwhelming support she received from her leadership group as well as the student input that helped mold the space into the ideal environment for learning and growth.

Now that the media center is fully functional, more students have felt empowered to make it their own, using it for varying purposes.

Wall had a simple purpose for creating this space: give students the tools they need to succeed. With this media center, students can thrive in their educational endeavors and other schools have a blueprint for ways to engage students in their educational futures.

• Collaborating with School Librarians and Media Specialists on Lessons
• How School Librarians Are Evolving

“I think the whole notion of equity and access from day one should start from pre-K, not middle school, not high school, but pre-K and go through college,” says Dr. Godfrey Rangasammy, K-12 Science Supervisor for the district. Rangasammy and Jessica Leedy, PGCPS high school literacy coach, were recently honored for their work by Tech & Learning with an Innovative Leader Award during the Delaware/Maryland/Virginia Regional Leadership Summit. 

Consequently, the district has undergone a decade-long effort to address STEM equity across all grades – pre-K-5, middle, and high school – with Rangasammy spearheading the effort. The focus has been on equitable access to exemplary teachers, science/STEM curriculum programming, and instructional best practices. In addition to making sure content is NGSS-aligned, an additional emphasis has been put on student achievement and career and college readiness. 

Building Equity Through NGSS: Being Intentional 

Rangasammy points to research that shows Black and Brown preschoolers are marginalized. “When I look at whatever behavior of Black and Brown students, be it suspension rates in middle school, high school, and even in society – it all starts in pre-K,” he says. 

Thus, pre-K is the ideal time to start all students down the STEM path. “The excitement is there, especially in the early grades. We get the kids excited and asking questions and talking about science or writing about science. You know, the ‘light bulb going on’ moments.”

The PGCPS STEM equity effort originally started with an internal assessment, and then has focused on improving engagement with new NGSS-aligned textbooks and course materials, phenomena-based learning, hands-on activities, and creating opportunities to connect with those working in STEM fields.

“You really have to bring in the experts in science in the city, so the students can see people of the same race, ethnicity, and so forth, in the district,” says Rangasammy.

Collaboration is also key, says Rangasammy, both with his staff and teachers, as is building capacity. Acknowledging that many teachers may have only had a few basic science courses in their own education, addressing gaps in curriculum and pedagogy through external audits and connecting with experts is critical. Getting everyone involved and invested needs to happen.

“In my office, I keep telling my folks, ‘Change is a concept. Go with it. It's gonna be here and you're here when you leave, it's still gonna be here,’” he says.

And, of course, involving the community is also essential. Since initially there was no science taught until second grade, Rangasammy pushed to start STEM Fridays during summer school that feature fun hands-on activities such as coding and robotics, as well as sending home hands-on manipulatives. “The kids loved it, so the parents loved it,” says Rangasammy. “Also, the focus there was 40% ELD. So that's the marginalized population, and trying to support bringing them up to a level where they could compete with all kids.”

‘No Price on Curiosity’ 

The district has also embraced phenomena-based learning, and is connecting it to real-world situations, such as studying the nearby Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. For a hands-on learning example, ninth-grade students grow live mussels in tanks in their classrooms, checking and analyzing data on pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen turbidity, and other factors. 

The district also encourages participation in its annual science fair, which is in its 76th year now, making it one of the oldest in the nation. They recruit STEM organizations to be involved and provide scholarships. “We’ve had winners who happened to be Black and Brown kids, so we know we can make a difference,” Rangasammy says. “We can challenge the status quo and we can change it but we have to be consistent. So it takes a lot of work. The vision is okay, but you have got to put in the work. Plus, the right people have to be in the right place to want to do the heavy lifting.” 

Ultimately, Rangasammy says that NGSS focuses on supporting marginalized populations and meeting kids where they are, from pre-K through 12.

“There's no price on curiosity,” says Rangasammy. “That crosses all socioeconomic groups, right?”

• Best Practices for Implementing STEM Resources
• Using the U.S. National Parks to Support STEM Learning

“Anything affecting education in our classrooms takes top priority,” he says. This mantra served as McGaha’s north star as he implemented a district-wide cybersecurity plan that includes regular staff training and more secure storage solutions. For this and other efforts, McGaha was recently honored with an Innovative CTO Award as part of Tech & Learning’s Innovative Leader Awards during the Regional Leadership Summit in Baltimore.

McGaha was drawn to education due to a longtime love of working with kids. “From my early days as a camp counselor to volunteering at Sunday school, I found joy in helping young minds grow,” he says. “During college, I landed a job at the afterschool program in my local YMCA, where I continued to learn and contribute. While I knew teaching wasn’t my calling, I discovered another passion: technology. Computers, networks, and electronics fascinated me. So, I pursued a degree in Business Computer Information Systems. After graduating, my first role was as a desktop technician at a local school. Over time, I climbed the ladder.” 

He adds, “What brings me the greatest fulfillment is knowing that our daily work directly impacts the teachers and students in our district.” 

Below McGaha shares the strategies that have made Belton ISD’s district-wide cybersecurity plan so successful. 

Building a Comprehensive Cybersecurity Plan for Schools: Phishing Awareness Campaigns and Staff Training 

One of McGaha's first initiatives focused on threat identification. “We implemented regular phishing awareness campaigns to educate all staff members about recognizing and avoiding phishing attempts,” McGaha says. “Additionally, comprehensive training sessions were conducted to enhance their cybersecurity awareness.” 

Rather than being one and done, these efforts are ongoing. “We prioritize continuous education and training by conducting workshops, webinars, and awareness campaigns for staff, students, and parents,” he says. “Robust password policies encourage strong, unique passwords and multifactor authentication. Regularly applying security patches keeps our systems up-to-date.” 

Staffing Study, Incident Response Plan, and More 

Early in the process, McGaha conducted a thorough staffing study to assess the adequacy of the current network staff. “This analysis helped identify any gaps or areas for improvement in our cybersecurity team,” he says. 

He then collaborated with that team to develop a detailed incident response plan that outlines clear procedures for handling security incidents promptly and effectively. He also looked beyond the district for additional support.

“We engaged a consultant who worked closely with us to create a comprehensive cybersecurity plan. This plan addresses risk management, threat mitigation, and proactive measures,” McGaha says. 

Secure Data Storage

McGaha and his team recognized the need to replace outdated backup hardware and software. “As part of our upgrade, we invested in Dell hardware, known for its reliability and performance,” he says. “Our choice for backup software fell on Rubrik, a robust solution that offers efficient data protection and management. Rubrik not only streamlines backups but also provides seamless integration with cloud storage.”

This integrated approach adds an extra layer of protection. “By combining these upgrades, we’ve significantly bolstered our storage system’s security, ensuring data integrity and availability,” he says. 

Data Privacy Agreement Standardization 

Data privacy is increasingly important given how many learning apps are used. McGaha’s cybersecurity plan recognizes this. 

“We established a standard data privacy agreement for all software used within our district. This ensures that privacy and data protection are prioritized consistently across applications and platforms,” he says. 

In addition, the district established a software vetting committee responsible for examining any new software proposed for use within the district. “This process ensures that only secure and reliable tools are adopted,” McGaha says. 

More On This Vetting Process for New Tools 

The process of vetting new technology is comprehensive. “First, we conduct a needs assessment to understand specific educational goals and challenges,” McGaha says. “Next, we meticulously research and evaluate potential solutions, considering factors like functionality, ease of use, and support. Security and data privacy are top priorities, ensuring compliance with relevant regulations.” 

Once a tool passes through this phase, the district pilots the technology with features, gathering feedback on usability and impact. “Finally, we carefully weigh the costs and benefits, assessing the technology’s long-term viability,” McGaha says. “Establishing a feedback loop ensures continuous improvement, enhancing teaching and learning experiences.” 

• 5 Cybersecurity Tips from CoSN’s CEO and a Digital Security Expert
• School Cyberattacks: How the FBI Works to Protect School Districts
• 4 Cybersecurity Tips for Schools

Kara Thorstenson, Director of Digital Learning and Libraries for Chicago Public Schools, discusses the district’s impressive feat of launching a digital curriculum. For her part in that effort, she was recognized by Tech & Learning with an Innovative Leader Award during the Midwest Regional Leadership Summit.  

Launching A Digital Curriculum: The Bigger the District, the Bigger the Challenges 

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is the fourth largest school district in the U.S, with more than 323,000 students, spread across 634 schools, encompassing 24.7% English language learners and 16.1% diverse learners. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the district did not have a formal districtwide 1-to-1 device plan. The shift to remote learning required a rush to distribute tech to cover students, with 1-to-1 remaining the CPS norm since. But a shift to digital learning required more than tablets-in-hand, and that change started from the top down.

“Delivering professional learning at scale has been a huge challenge for a district of our size,” says Thorstenson. “We started off with an enormous amount of edtech/curriculum vendor-developed and delivered professional learning, with a gradual handover to our internal teams (exclusively by SY25). Moving into a virtual environment during COVID-19 allowed us to think more flexibly and creatively, offering high-quality PL to more educators than ever.”

The next hurdle was to walk back a history of school-by-school autonomy to ensure everyone was on the same page. 

“After decades of decentralized purchasing for curriculum and no district- or state-mandated curricula, schools and individual teachers were teaching with learning materials with a lot of variability in terms of quality and standards-alignment,” says Thorstenson.

A visionary board and proactive senior leadership ensured funding for the ambitious project was covered. Finding the right curricula for CPS, however, was key.

“Evaluating the state of home-grown and purchased (out of the box) curricula adopted by other large districts, we discovered most resources did not directly address the needs of urban students of color, and were not relevant to the lived experiences of CPS students,” says Thorstenson. “Modifying and adapting licensed content to meet the district’s definition of high-quality curriculum ensured resources for teachers and students were designed with Universal Design for Learning principles in mind, including built-in support for English language and diverse learners.”

Why Go Digital? 

Considering the immensity of the task, one wonders why push for full digital while still recovering from pandemic-era challenges?

“Prior to developing our curriculum, district leaders traveled around the country to learn from other large districts to hopefully avoid some of the pitfalls that they had encountered in tackling similar projects,” says Thorstenson. “We learned that districts who had purchased countless textbooks or ‘published’ their own content in print were then bound to disseminate those materials into perpetuity. Development of physical materials also significantly slowed the process.”

At the time, CPS learned that approximately 50% of district teachers had no material available to them in the subject that they taught. This created both an opportunity and a sense of urgency to develop and deliver Skyline, its unique self-developed curriculum, to schools.

“Because Skyline was developed digitally, we were able to distribute it universally needing only sufficient bandwidth and appropriate content licenses,” she says. “We can continually update it to accommodate changes big and small, from the name of Chicago’s mayor to editing entire units if a different text is selected or a new state mandated learning topic is required.”

3 Key Steps When Launching a Digital Curriculum 

1. Do Your Research. Talk to similar districts and attend conferences to interact with curricular products, both print and digital.
2. Relationships Are Key. Custom development of curricular content and digital resources require solid connections with external partners.
3. Choose Wisely. Ask the stakeholders what they need. Test scores and data tell a story, but that story is incomplete without ensuring the needs of teachers and students are put at the forefront of any priority project.

The Buy-In Roadshow 

Launching any big project requires all stakeholders to be on board. 

“Our Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Digital Learning traveled around the district presenting the project to principals and our 17 network chiefs to gather input,” Thorstenson says. “We leveraged a huge group of teachers called the Curriculum Collaborative to review curriculum against a rubric and make suggestions for edits then used by vendor partners developing the curriculum.”

The district established a clear expectation that schools needed to demonstrate quality (defined by Ed Reports) in all content areas. Skyline was not mandatory, but being pre-approved and developed specifically for CPS on the central district budget’s dime offered a bonus of being a “free” option tailored to local students. 

“We are really proud to be doing curriculum development in partnership with local Chicago museums and other cultural institutions,” Thorstenson says. “We provided schools with thousands of picture books, novels, science kits, and more to ensure that students are engaged in hands-on learning while learning from a digital curriculum. We have worked hard to ensure Skyline is holistic and lots of learning takes place away from screens/computers, even as materials are accessible digitally.” 

Digital Readiness Guides and Other Roll Out Strategies 

Digital readiness guides function as a checklist to ensure schools have the appropriate infrastructure, devices, and peripherals to ensure a successful implementation of a digital curriculum.

“We did not have to be 100% ready in order to leverage the Skyline learning materials,” says Thorstenson. “Digital readiness guidance acts as a roadmap in order to best budget and plan for establishing the best possible environment for digital learning over the course of years/budget cycles.”

The CPS Office of Teaching & Learning increased staff, hiring grade level-specific professional learning specialists to train teachers in Skyline. External partners helped develop the structures necessary to scale up for district-wide delivery. 

“For the technical platforms, we leveraged asynchronous professional learning and microcredentials to award digital badges to teachers, school leaders and district staff who complete the appropriate technical professional learning modules,” says Thorstenson. “These are continually updated so that they keep up with new development and ensure that all stakeholders are aware of the recommended workflows for planning, teaching, and delivering and scoring assessments.”

• Innovative Leader Award
• Defining a Digital Curriculum

Tech & Learning asked our team of expert judges to evaluate hundreds of nominations to select products they believed supported education this past year. Each nominee answered the following questions: What specific problem does this product solve? How did your product exceptionally support teaching and learning in 2023? How does your product address the challenges facing education today? The products below were selected as winners by our judges based on this criteria. 

“2023 will surely be remembered as ‘the year of AI,’ but there were plenty of examples of products that integrated a variety of innovative technology to help to improve teaching and learning,” said Christine Weiser, Content Director for Tech & Learning. “Congratulations to the following winners for supporting innovation in schools.”  

PRIMARY

95 Percent Group, 95 Literacy Intervention System
This new digital platform puts the tools for diagnosing skill gaps, digitally grouping students with similar needs and assigning targeted reading instruction at teachers’ fingertips. Judges noted: “A must-have component of this product is that the system feeds real-time data up to school and district levels, empowering key decision-makers to make informed curriculum and instructional choices and to propagate best practices.”

Accelerate Learning Inc. Collaborate Science powered by Accelerate Learning
Collaborate Science is a K-5 science curriculum that fuses phenomena-driven, project-based learning for students with focused professional development for teachers. Judges wrote: “The professional development for teachers is the clincher for a school district. So many programs do not have sustainable PD for the classroom educators.”

Accelerate Learning Inc. STEMscopes Math powered by Accelerate Learning
STEMscopes Math is a core mathematics program for grades K-8 and Algebra I. Judges noted: “STEMscopes Math supports educators seeking to elevate math instruction. This comprehensive platform seamlessly integrates STEM principles into the learning process, engaging students in interactive and dynamic math experiences.”

Acer TravelMate B5 14
The TravelMate B5 14 laptop supports students of all ages with a robust, yet sustainable design featuring a compact 14-inch display, up to 9 hours battery life and MIL-STD-810H certified construction. Judges wrote: “This is a well thought out and constructed laptop. I like that the drop height has increased to 48" as well as the ease of replacing the components. The warning for eye strain and taking a break using a sensor is very good as well as its green initiatives.”

Arizona State University Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College Community Educator Learning Hub
The Community Educator Learning Hub--available at ASUCommunityEducators.org--is an online learning platform with over 130 nanocourses that break down the competencies of teaching and learning into easy-to-understand tips developed by award-winning ASU faculty and community organizations. Judges said: “ I like the idea behind this product. The need for training of others in the volunteer and NGO community is needed.”

Avantis Education ClassVR
ClassVR is aVR/AR headset built specifically for K-12 education. Judges wrote: “ClassVR is the total package when it comes to bringing and scaling Virtual Reality use for schools to adopt this technology.”

AVer Information A30
The A30 is a multi-functional classroom tool that enhances the teaching experience by combining a document camera, web camera, microphone, and speaker. Judges said: “AverMedia has done it once again! Not only does Aver make some of the best document cameras and Web Cams in the world, but now they have combined those great features with the power of a speaker and microphone built right in! I want one of these!”

AVer Information U50+
The AVer U50+ FlexArm USB Powered Document Camera includes 8MP display resolution and 16x digital zoom. The U50+ ensures vivid and detailed image presentations. Judges wrote: “The AverMedia U50+ is a solid document camera that offers great optics and many features for great presentations. This product is an amazing, compact and easy to use, presentation tool.”

Benchmark Education Express! Asset-Based Access to English
Express, a Grades K-6 English Language Development program, employs an asset-based approach to leverage students' first language knowledge for a robust foundation in grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and writing skills. “This is a good product,” wrote the judges. The curriculum utilizes highly scaffolded and visually supportive practices, ensuring students acquire essential skills for accessing complex texts. 

Benchmark Education Company StartUp BuildUp SpiralUp Phonics
StartUp BuildUp SpiralUp Phonics teaches phonics to students in grades K-2+ with effective and efficient small group instruction. Assessments and flexible pacing allow teachers to pinpoint individual needs and accelerate as student’s progress. Judges wrote: “Overall, this is a very well thought-out and researched solution with a price point that districts can afford.”

Bloomz Bloomz
Bloomz is a unified parent-teacher communications platform that increases parental engagement and handles all district, school, teacher, parent, and student communication. Judges said: “Bloomz is an invaluable tool for enhancing the educational experience.The platform makes navigating easy for families, educators, and school administrators.” 

Bluum STEM Kits/Bundles
Bluum's kits make learning STEM interactive and fun, with eight different options to choose from, including robotics, 3D printing and design, makerspaces, augmented and virtual reality, science labs, collaborative classroom furniture; and coding products. “Bluum's STEM Kits support technological proficiency and lets students explore various STEM careers, fostering inquiry-based learning and interdisciplinary connections.”

Bluum STEM AR/VR Solutions
Bluum's STEM augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) kits help bring STEM concepts to life inside the classroom. Each STEM AR/VR Bundle is customized for the individual school or district that purchases it. Bluum's STEM AR/VR Bundles offers students hands-on learning beyond classrooms, yielding outcomes like applied theoretical knowledge, critical thinking, and teamwork.  

Boxlight MimioWall
The MimioWall transforms education learning spaces with Android digital displays, offering seamless images, scalability, and exceptional visual quality in nine size options. Judges said: “We particularly like the ultra-wide, 3-in-1 LED board that combines the power supply, receiving card, and hub board which facilitates a shorter Installation time because of this streamlined design.” 

Boxlight MimioConnect
MimioConnect, an online platform, serves as a versatile educational solution for various learning environments, including blended, flipped, or remote setups. Judges said: “This is a very good solution for blended learning tools. The features and versatility make the Mimio Connect a very good tool for teachers and students.”

Branching Minds Branching Minds
Branching Minds is an online K12 education platform that brings together easy-to-use technology with advancements from the learning sciences to help educators achieve a Multi Tiered System of Support (MTSS) to improves students' academic, social-emotional and behavioral outcomes. Judges noted: “Its approach to MTSS and supporting underrepresented students is a whole child solution for schools.”

Capstone PebbleGo
PebbleGo is a curricular content hub specifically designed for K-2 students. Judges wrote: “PebbleGo provides a safe and engaging platform for research and exploration for young learners. Its interactive features make learning fun and accessible.”

Cignition, Inc. K-12 Math & ELA High Dosage Virtual Tutoring  
Cignition is a K-12 virtual tutoring provider led by experienced educators who produce proven, repeatable results in student success for math and English Language Arts. Judges said: “Cignition has a well thought out virtual tutoring solution that can assist school districts and students achieve their math and ELA learning goals.”

ClassLink ClassLink Suite
ClassLink is a global education provider of identity, access and analytics products that create more time for learning and help schools better understand digital engagement. “An ideal solution for every district,” wrote judges. 

ClassLink, ClassLink DataGuard
DataGuard protects schools from data theft. Instead of giving vendor partners all of student and teacher personally identifiable information (PII), DataGuard gives them only what's absolutely essential and masks all key fields. DataGuard “elevates the level of security, enabling teachers to focus on teaching,” noted judges. 

Clear Digital Evo Roll and Evo Roll Pro
The Evo Roll signage shines both indoors and outdoors with its impressive HD display and sleek design. Judges said: “This solution has the portability, stability, and software to meet the needs of a school environment. The weather resistant features of the pro model only adds to its uses.”

Clear Digital Vue II  
Clear Digital Vue II is a modular LED video wall system that ranges in size from 132” to 220”. Judges wrote: “I like all of the features of this board. It has some very good use cases and appears to be very durable and manageable.”

Clear Touch, 6000A+ Interactive Panel
The Clear Touch 6000A+ interactive panel series features native EDLA integration, which ensures seamless updates and full Android 13 compatibility. Judges wrote: “ClearTouch has outdone themselves with this product, solving problems that most Interactive Panels have not figured out yet. Multi-touch with 20 points of touch and 10 points of writing fosters amazing collaboration opportunities. I want one right now in my classroom!”

Curriculum Associates i-Ready Assessment and Personalized Instruction
Curriculum Associates’ i-Ready Assessment and Personalized Instruction equips educators with a deep understanding of students’ skills and areas for growth. Judges said:  “i-Ready Assessment integrates assessment and tailored learning experiences. The personalized instruction adapts to individual strengths and weaknesses, fostering a customized learning path.

Defined Defined Careers
Defined Careers online K-12 college and career readiness platform helps schools and districts provide students with the opportunity to explore and experience careers through hands-on Project-Based Learning. Judges noted: “It is a challenge for a teacher of any subject and grade to be an expert to answer the question "when will I need this?". Defined Careers gives the teacher an answer and lesson resources to allow the student to answer that question for themselves.”

Defined Defined Learning
Defined Learning provides K-12 teachers with the resources and tools they need to engage all students in high-quality Project-Based Learning. Judges said: “This is a great platform to implementI PBL in a district or school, offering plenty of resources and ready-to-use lessons.”

Discovery Education Experience
Discovery Education Experience connects educators to a vast collection of standards-aligned content, digital lessons, quiz and activity creation tools, and professional learning resources. Judges wrote: “The platform's multimedia resources, virtual field trips, and interactive lessons captivate students, fostering a deeper understanding of subjects.”

Discovery Education Mystery Science
Mystery Science service is a K-5 ready-to-use multimedia science and STEM curriculum resource. Judges said: “ Mystery Science by Discovery Education is an innovative resource transforming science education. The platform's compelling lessons and hands-on activities make complex concepts accessible and enjoyable for students.”

Discovery Education DreamBox Reading
DreamBox Reading by Discovery Education is an adaptive program that enhances silent reading fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, and motivation. Judges wrote: “DreamBox Reading is an effective tool for developing student reading skills. Using adaptive learning technology, it tailors lessons to each student's proficiency, providing personalized and engaging content. The platform's interactive activities support individual learning paths.”

Edmentum Exact Path  
Exact Path helps elementary schools and districts scale intervention plans with personalized instruction and immediate data insights proven to accelerate growth. Judges noted: “ExactPath by Edmentum is a really nice tool for taking assessment scores and standards from annual and quarterly summative assessment companies and projecting a unique learning path for students to improve their areas of deficiencies.”

Forward Edge Edge•U Badges
Edge•U Badges is a professional learning system that adapts to the needs of educators. Judges said: “Edge U Badges recognizes and motivates student achievements. The platform's customizable digital badges provide a visually appealing and tangible way to acknowledge skills and accomplishments.”

Frontline Education, Frontline Special Programs Management
These case management tools for managing special education and other diverse learner programs improve program compliance and support the best outcomes for students. Judges wrote: “Frontline constantly evolves to address needs of health services in schools.”

FrontRow by Boxlight EzRoom with ELEVATE
ezRoom with ELEVATE revolutionizes classroom management and emergency technology, integrating classroom audio, AV control, and school-wide communication. Judges noted: “The new EZRoom Elevate product by FrontRow/Boxlight offers a unique school safety and security communication set that takes command of multiple senses in order to alert the entire building instantly.”

HoverCam Orbit Gigabit Wireless Document Camera  
The HoverCam Orbit is a plug-and-play, gigabit wireless USB & HDMI document camera. Orbit uses Wireless USB, meaning it can cast its 4K image to any PC, Mac, Chromebook or Interactive Flat Panel. Judges wrote: “This is an excellent camera with all of the features and ease of use of the end users you could ask for.”

Inletech ArtMath
ArtMath is a research-based interactive learning and creation platform that engages K-8 students and AI technology to solve and create their own math stories. Judges wrote: “ArtMath does differentiation well, along with mathematical modeling, and moving students from consumers to creators of content. It has a lot of potential for impact on student learning.”

IXL Learning IXL
IXL gives school districts everything that they need to close learning gaps, boost academic achievement, and facilitate meaningful growth. Judges said: “In my years as a building and district leader, IXL has proven itself to be an excellent educational platform that goes beyond traditional learning methods. Its adaptive approach tailors content to individual student needs, ensuring a personalized learning journey.”

Learning A-Z Raz-Plus 
Raz-Plus empowers elementary educators to differentiate instruction for every student at every level using research-based resources, personalized practice opportunities, and assessments designed to enhance reading comprehension and boost literacy performance. Judges wrote: “Raz-Plus is an impactful program for literacy instruction, providing an extensive digital library and robust resources for educators. Raz-Plus simplifies lesson planning and individualized instruction with a user-friendly interface and seamless integration.”

Learning A-Z Writing A-Z  
Writing A-Z is a flexible K-5 writing curriculum rooted in cutting-edge research and best practices. Judges wrote: “With a library of leveled resources, Writing A-Z seamlessly supports differentiated instruction. The platform's interactive tools engage students, from emergent readers to advanced writers, and improve writing skills. Noteworthy features like e-books and lesson plans make planning and implementation easier.”

Learning A-Z Foundations A-Z  
Foundations A-Z is a digital  program that harnesses the power of the Science of Reading research for students while supporting teachers each step of the way. Judges said: “Foundations A-Z’s  systematic approach, engaging activities, and extensive leveled content create a solid foundation for emergent readers. The platform's adaptability allows educators to tailor lessons to individual needs.”

Lincoln Learning Solutions Lincoln Content Bank
The Lincoln Content Bank (LCB), powered by Amazon Web Services, is a highly secure LMS add-on tool that gives educators access to discover and add enterprise-level curriculum content into their courses. Judges said: “This is a comprehensive resource for educators. The fact that it is secured in the AWS Cloud and is compatible with any SIS system is invaluable.”

Logitech Zone Learn
Zone Learn is a wired headset designed specifically for young learners. “The ZoneLearn Headset by Logitech is amazing! Logitech really has thought of everything when designing this headset for schools,” wrote our judges. 

Magic EdTech MagicBox
MagicBox is a SaaS-based, cloud-hosted, end-to-end digital publishing platform. It empowers educational publishers, authors, and content providers to create, manage, enrich, and deliver digital content through custom-branded web and mobile apps. Judges liked that MagicBox “offers AI-powered learning tools to scale content development and provide personalized, engaging, and interactive online learning.”

MIND Education ST Math
ST Math is a PreK-8 visual instructional program that leverages the brain's innate spatial-temporal reasoning ability to solve mathematical problems. Judges said: “ST Math is a game-changer for mathematics education. Its visual and interactive approach to learning engages students and promotes a deep understanding of mathematical concepts. As an instruction leader, it is my most trusted program.”

MindPlay Education MindPlay Reading
MindPlay Reading revolutionizes the way students learn to read. Grounded in the principles of the Science of Reading, it offers a comprehensive, adaptive learning experience tailored to each student's unique needs. Judges wrote: “This program has a lot of potential and can be a game changer for the science of reading in schools.”

MobileMind MobileMind
MobileMind delivers a comprehensive professional development platform that facilitates district-scaled, sustainable, personalized learning while engaging educators in gamified, self-paced micro-courses. Judges said: “MobileMind’s s on-demand courses empower teachers with practical and innovative strategies for integrating technology in the classroom. The platform's interactive content makes learning accessible.”

MobyMax MobyMax
MobyMax offers teachers a comprehensive K-8 curriculum for 27 subjects, including math, reading, phonics, language, vocabulary, spelling, writing, science, social studies, state test prep, and so much more. Judges noted: “MobyMax meets diverse student needs and ensures mastery of subjects at an individualized pace. MobyMax's diagnostic assessments identify student strengths and weaknesses, allowing for targeted interventions.”

n2y Inspire
Inspire is a special education intervention curriculum solution that provides intensive, explicit, skill-based instruction for special education students who are assessed on the general education standards. Judges said: “Inspire Special Education has a well-structured curriculum and adaptive strategies. I like that it caters to individualized learning plans. The program's content fosters a positive and inclusive environment, making it a useful tool for educators committed to supporting every student's potential in special education settings.”

Open LMS Open LMS + Monash University + Smart Osvita Partnership
As the largest commercial provider of hosting, training, and support services for the open-source Moodle learning platform, Open LMS ensures organizations and institutions deliver the highest quality learning experiences without complexities. Judges said: “This is an innovative and empathetic solution to address the needs of learners most in need. It gives them access when they are so limited. I applaud them for their insight and action to deliver instruction.”

Otus Otus
Otus empowers K-12 educators to help every student reach their full potential through an all-in-one platform of integrated tools to gather, visualize, and act on student growth data. Judges wrote: “Otus simplifies tasks for educators, from grading to lesson planning. The platform's assessment and analytics features provide valuable insights, allowing for data-driven decision-making. Using the data tools to plan lessons allows teachers to strategically plan for student needs.”

OverDrive Sora, the student reading platform
Sora is the leading digital reading app and platform for K-12 schools. Judges said: “Sora enables teachers to push out ebooks to students while also allowing students access to local libraries. Both teachers and students can curate ebooks within their own collections or classroom. Its assistive technology tools ensure that all students are avid readers.”

Paper Educational Support System
Paper is a personalized learning platform that accompanies students throughout their K-12 journeys by offering a suite of academic support & independent practice tools. Judges wrote: “Paper provides 24/7 real-time, real person tutoring support for students with all K-12 subject areas. Paper is customized with avatars for students and is also customized with each grade level. Paper is amazingly intuitive and an asset to any school district wanting to expand their homework help and after school academic programming!”

Pencil Learning Technologies Pencil Spaces
Pencil Spaces is a unified education delivery system, with tools to empower teachers and administrators. Judges said: “I really like this tool. Schools can consider using this product to replace their IFP software and collaborative meeting/learning subscription.”

Pikmykid Pikmykid School Safety and Dismissal Platform
The Pikmykid platform streamlines dismissal, increases safety, and allows teachers and parents to focus on what really matters – learning. Judges wrote: “I really like this solution and am especially impressed with the arrival and dismissal features.”

Promethean ActivPanel LX
Promethean's ActivPanel LX is an easy-to-use, flexible, and affordable front-of-classroom display built to engage, enlighten, and excite both teachers and students. Judges noted: “I appreciate that Promethean has a more affordable interactive flat panel that is easy to use and has basic interactive features for teachers.”

Promethean OPS-A
The OPS-A computing module, an Android 12 device, was built specifically for use with Promethean’s ActivPanel LX interactive display. Judges noted: “This device is a great addition to the LX series boards, extending the functionality with a powerful Chrome OS solution.”

Promethean, Inc. Explain Everything Advanced
Explain Everything Advanced is a software platform for interactive, engaged teaching and learning. It's everything educators need, all in one place. Judges wrote: “The Explain Everything platform is a well designed and delivered solution that can be used in any classroom.”

Reading Horizons Reading Horizons Discovery
Reading Horizons Discovery is a research-based foundational reading program that streamlines instruction for K–3 teachers. Judges said: “I like this solution and think that it gives a nice balance of content and feedback for the teachers to make informed decisions. It also has choices of analog and digital content.”

Robotical Marty the Robot
In Marty the Robot, Robotical has developed a complete STEM learning solution built around a small walking robot with a big personality. From screen-free coding right through to advanced programming on Python and new machine learning applications, Marty is a flexible learning tool that grows with students. Judges wrote: “This is a very nice and well designed cross curricular coding and STEM solution.”

Samsung Electronics America WAC
The Samsung Interactive Display (WAC) is an interactive whiteboard that provides enhanced usability and specialized features for teachers and students to seamlessly collaborate. Judges said: “Not only does this Interactive Panel by Samsung offer stunning, vibrant displays of life-like content for learning, but this product is amazingly versatile in accepting content from many curriculum companies as well as converting lessons that were created using other brands of displays and other interactive software platforms.”

Sourcewell SpringMath by Sourcewell
A complete, schoolwide, MTSS solution, SpringMath engages both teachers and students — increasing confidence and long-term understanding. Judges wrote: “This MTSS based Math program is a great solution for educators, math coaches and interventions as they support math learners. Through pre and post assessments, students learn at their own pace and interventions are identified and implemented for struggling learners.”

Stages Publishing, Inc. Language Builder: Academic Readiness Intervention System
The ARIS (Academic Readiness Intervention System) curriculum is a comprehensive program designed specifically for children with autism. It blends structured, evidence-based learning with flexibility, enabling personalized education tailored to each child's unique needs and abilities. Judges wrote: “This is a well designed program that addresses the specific needs of autistic learners. Well done.”

Teaching Channel Teaching Channel's EMPOWER Platform
Teaching Channel's EMPOWER Platform is a professional learning product that brings together resources and tools that teachers, instructional coaches, and school and district leaders need. Judges said: “This solution can be of great value to save time and improve teacher success and evaluation. The ability to have a library of resources and examples help with a district's mission to give high quality instruction.”

TeachTown enCORE
enCORE Elementary (a component of TeachTown’s full K-12 curriculum) is a standards-based, adapted core curriculum based on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) that provides students with moderate to severe disabilities access to the general education curriculum. Judges said: “I really like the way this solution is put together. They used a great combination of expert resources, research, testing, and data to create this product.”

TouchMath NOW
TouchMath NOW is a transformative, digital platform that offers a modern delivery of evidence-backed instructional materials proven to measurably drive student outcomes. Judges noted: “The price point on the manipulatives would be a good entry point to test this product out in an intervention setting. Success in that environment would entice me to expand the use of their products in a school.”

TouchMath PRO
TouchMath PRO is an adaptive, digital solution that delivers individualized math intervention to remediate skills and accelerate student learning. Judges said: “This program pairs well with its manipulatives and curricular resources and provides a personalized experience for students of different ability levels. It has a good dashboard for teachers and students to monitor progress.”

ViewSonic Corp. ViewSonic IFP52 ED Series Interactive Displays
The ViewBoard IFP52 ED series of displays provides education users with a powerful productivity and collaboration tool. Judges said: “The Viewsonic IFP52 ED Interactive Display is amazing! Not only is it priced right but it offers wonderful functionality to laptops or desktop computers by bringing the power of touch to these devices as well as additional viewing real estate. I liked that the display comes equipped with a range of security features such as password protection, two-step authentication, and data encryption.”

Vivi Vivi
Vivi is an all-in-one collaboration and communication suite designed exclusively for education. Judges said: “The ViVi wireless screensharing and student engagement platform seems to solve multiple device platforms for casting their screens onto an interactive display or projector. Where other casting systems fall short, ViVi really appears to have overcome those challenges.”

Writelike.org Frankenstories
Frankenstories is a fast-paced, online, multiplayer game that develops advanced writing skills. Moderated by their teacher, students can play as a whole class, in small groups, or even as individuals. Judges wrote: “This is a great collaborative solution that will keep students engaged and help improve their creative writing skills.”

Zoobean, Inc. Beanstack
Instead of a quiz-based approach, Beanstack uses competition, recognition, and proven gamification principles to motivate students to read and grow a school district’s reading culture. Judges said: “Beanstack has taken the right approach by giving students agency in selecting what they want to read. Anyone will read more if they are interested in the topic. Making it gamified will only increase that interest. Also, incorporating the community aspect of it will increase participation throughout the school.”

SECONDARY

Accelerate Learning Inc. Math Nation powered by Accelerate Learning
Math Nation provides comprehensive, proven math resources for 6-8th grade Math, Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and beyond, offering 24-hour access to a flexible platform that can be used inside or outside of the classroom, as well as online resources and printed workbooks. The judges said, “It captures both the print and digital environments for our students.” 

Acer Acer Student Repair eLearning Program
The Acer Repair Certification eLearning Program gives high school students in the U.S. and Canada the opportunity to learn more about technology and build transferable skills in a hands-on setting. “Acer has put together a nice training curriculum that can be applicable in most school districts,” the judges said. “Training students will benefit not only them but also the school district as a whole.” 

AllHere AllHere
AllHere provides schools with a behaviorally intelligent chatbot powered by cutting-edge conversational AI to support school-to-family communication. It provides 24/7 AI-powered family support tools to improve attendance and academics. The judges note, “This product uses AI chatbots to personalize communication in school communities.”

Aristo Educational Press Ltd. Aristo Science for the New Century
Aristo Science for the New Century offers a comprehensive blended learning package for junior secondary students, focusing on Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, and also incorporates emerging technologies such as the metaverse and AI. Judges liked “the way their curriculum is designed to meet the needs of modern learners.” 

BenQ LK935 4K Laser Projector
BenQ’s LK935 4K UHD laser projector brings affordable cinematic quality to school auditoriums and classrooms. The 5,500-lumen LK935 also enhances content with a super-dense 1,149 pixels per square inch. “It is reliable and fits the need for schools,” said the judges. 

Bluum Esports Solutions
Each Esports Solutions Bundle is customized for the individual school or district purchasing it and is tailored to each school's desired outcomes.  Bluum also reviews every customer's curriculum to ensure that pieces of each bundle integrate with the material students are exploring throughout the year. “This product supports teachers as they develop and sustain esports programs in schools,” the judges noted. 

Bluum Integrated Safety Solutions
Bluum's Integrated Safety Solutions are designed to help protect students, staff, and school property while also delivering operational benefits.  These safety solutions are designed to help whether you're looking to keep an unwavering eye on who enters and leaves campus or working to improve crisis response systems. The judges noted, “This product is a valuable security and communication tool for school districts.”

Boxlight MimioWall
The MimioWall offers Android digital displays for seamless images, scalability, and exceptional visual quality in nine size options. Its 3-in-1 board simplifies installation, combining power supply, receiving card, and hub board. The judges said, “We particularly like the ultra-wide, 3-in-1 LED board that combines the power supply, receiving card, and hub board which facilitates a shorter Installation time because of this streamlined design.” 

Boxlight MimioConnect
MimioConnect is an online platform for various learning environments, including blended, flipped, or remote setups. It offers real-time monitoring capabilities, features like screen locking, and customized instruction based on assessment data to address diverse student needs. “This is a very good solution for blended learning tools,” noted the judges. 

ClassLink ClassLink Suite
ClassLink is a global education provider of identity, access and analytics products that create more time for learning and help schools better understand digital engagement. The tool offers instant access to apps and files with single sign-on, streamline class rostering, automate account provisioning, and provide actionable analytics. Our judges noted, this is “a solution for every district.” 

ClassLink ClassLink DataGuard
DataGuard protects schools from data theft. Instead of giving vendor partners all your students and teachers personally identifiable information (PII), DataGuard gives them only what's absolutely essential and masks all key fields. DataGuard dynamically replaces selected fields with meaningless letter scrambles. Judges noted, “It elevates the level of security enabling teachers to focus on teaching.” 

Discovery Education Experience
Discovery Education Experience provides a vast collection of high-quality, standards-aligned content, ready-to-use digital lessons, intuitive quiz and activity creation tools, and professional learning resources. Judges noted, “The platform's multimedia resources, virtual field trips, and interactive lessons captivate students, fostering a deeper understanding of subjects,” and “It has a user-friendly interface and alignment with curriculum standards.” 

Discovery Education Science Techbook
The Discovery Education Science Techbook series is a comprehensive, research-backed science solution for grades K-12. Used in classrooms across the U.S., the Science Techbook drives engagement with exclusive phenomena and interactive content. Said the judges: “The Techbook engages students in immersive learning experiences. It is aligned with curriculum standards, offers multimedia resources, virtual labs, and real-world applications.” 

Discovery Education DreamBox Math
DreamBox Math by Discovery Education is a K-8 online math program that supplements core instruction in the classroom or at home and is independently proven by several third-party research organizations to increase math achievement. “DreamBox Reading is an effective tool for developing student reading skills,” the judges said. 

Edmentum EdOptions Academy
EdOptions Academy supports districts and schools by providing flexible, virtual human-centered instruction from state-certified educators, and high-quality technology and curriculum that, when combined, grant every student in grades 6-12 a front row seat to learning. The judges noted, “The EdOptions Academy course materials are cleanly designed, easy to navigate and use, with high quality media content.” 

Edmentum Edmentum Courseware
Edmentum Courseware offers more than 500 courses covering core, Advanced Placement, career and technical education, world language, and elective subjects to prepare students for their next step toward post-secondary education or the workforce. “Whether based on mastery of skills, learning interests or access to advanced course offering, this product is a one stop shop for school districts,” said the judges. 

Edmentum Exact Path
Exact Path makes academic recovery possible, helping schools and districts scale intervention plans with personalized instruction and immediate data insights. The judges said, “ExactPath by Edmentum is a really nice tool for taking assessment scores and standards from annual and quarterly summative assessment companies and projecting a unique learning path for students to improve their areas of deficiencies.” 

Edutek Solutions, LLC One to One Plus
One to One Plus is an asset management and help desk ticketing software developed specifically to meet the requirements of school districts. With its robust features, this platform empowers districts to oversee and track all their technological inventory within a unified system. “This product is a one stop resource for tech departments who are usually understaffed and overworked,” the judges said. 

Epson Epson BrightLink 770Fi Interactive Ultra Short Throw Lamp-Free Laser Display
Designed for ease of use in collaborative learning environments, Epson BrightLink displays simplify interactivity in the classroom by offering compatibility with frequently used software applications, including Office 365 and Google Workspace. The judges were impressed with the product as well as its great price point.

ExploreLearning Gizmos
ExploreLearning Gizmos are online simulations that excite curiosity and invite interaction with more than 500 Gizmos in our library covering topics and concepts in math and science for U.S. grades 3 -12. The judges noted, “Gizmos offer virtual labs where students can play, explore, and experience important and difficult-to-imagine concepts and theories.”

Forward Edge Edge•U Badges
Edge•U Badges is a powerful, instruction-focused professional learning system that adapts to the needs of educators. Said the judges: “Edge•U Badges recognizes and motivates student achievements. The platform's customizable digital badges provide a visually appealing and tangible way to acknowledge skills and accomplishments.”

Frontline Education Frontline Special Programs Management
Comprehensive case management tools for managing special education and other diverse learner programs that improve program compliance and support the best outcomes for students. “Frontline streamlines processes so that schools can focus on students,” the judges said. 

Frontline Education Frontline School Health Management
Frontline School Health Management helps districts keep students and staff safe with health checks, test results, vaccine tracking, case management, contact tracing, isolation and quarantine data, and statistics for more than 30 communicable diseases. The judges were impressed by the ways Frontline School Health Management is “consistently evolving to address needs of health services in schools.” 

FrontRow by Boxlight EzRoom with ELEVATE
ezRoom with ELEVATE helps with classroom management and emergency technology, integrating classroom audio, AV control, and school-wide communication. Our judges noted, “The new EZRoom Elevate product by FrontRow/Boxlight offers a unique school safety and security communication set that takes command of multiple senses in order to alert the entire building instantly.”

Gale, part of Cengage Group Gale In Context: Literature
Gale In Context: Literature is a resource for literature instruction and learning that helps high schoolers engage and thrive in English language arts (ELA). “The Gale In-Context: Literature Module provides rich digital print content and access to a vast library of literature at the high school level and beyond,” the judges said. “Some of the more impressive tools that are built into this digital platform include the ability to accommodate students with on-demand article translation into 40 different languages, searching capabilities by lexile range, and MLA and APA Citation tools integration.”

Gale, part of Cengage Group Gale In Context: For Educators
For Educators is an award-winning instructional tool developed by curriculum experts that merges current, relevant, standards-aligned content with rich lesson plans and essential teaching tools. “This lesson planning tool helps educators as they curate and develop personalized digital content for teaching,” the judges said. 

GAT Labs GAT+
GAT+ is a comprehensive management and security tool designed for schools using Google Workspace for Education. It integrates with Google Workspace, pulling live metadata through Google’s API and reporting deeply into user activity, email traffic, and document sharing. The judges were impressed with the solution. “They have a nice feature set and the pricing seems to be in line with competition,” they said. 

Gradient Learning Along
Along is a free, online teacher-student connection builder that helps quickly build the strong ties needed to create and maintain trust year-round. Along is built on the premise that authentic teacher-student connections positively impact students’ academic growth, well-being, and social development. The judges noted the tool, “supports building a culture of trust in a school community.” 

HoverCam Orbit Gigabit Wireless Document Camera
The HoverCam Orbit is the world's first plug-and-play, gigabit wireless USB & HDMI document camera. Judges noted, “This is an excellent camera with all of the features and ease of use for the end users you could ask for.” 

Impero Software Impero Classroom
Impero Classroom is a holistic, scalable classroom management solution designed by Impero Software, a leader in classroom management and student safety software. “A leader in classroom management, this product puts teachers in control of their classroom, which is so important to keep students on task,” Judges said. 

Incident IQ iiQ Facilities
iiQ Facilities is a building management software platform specifically designed for K-12 maintenance teams. This powerful but easy-to-use product allows maintenance staff to receive and prioritize help requests, manage work orders, record parts and labor, and schedule custom preventive maintenance tasks. Judges said, “This product ultimately focuses on teaching and learning which is a unique perspective for custodial services.”

IXL Learning Rosetta Stone for Schools
Rosetta Stone for Schools is a powerful K-12 learning platform designed to help students, particularly English language learners (ELLs), build fluency and confidence. One judge noted, “As a district leader in a district of 15K students and 37% EL students, Rosetta Stone is a staple for our educators. One of the strengths is its user-friendly interface.”

Lightspeed Systems Lightspeed Alert
Lightspeed Alert is an at-risk student identification solution that monitors and analyzes online activity for signs of self-harm, violence, and bullying. Through its notifications to school district officials, Lightspeed Alert empowers schools with proactive student safety measures and allows a focus on early intervention. “Lightspeed Alert is a critical asset for ensuring online student safety,” said the judges. 

Lincoln Learning Solutions Lincoln Content Bank
The Lincoln Content Bank is a secure LMS add-on tool that gives educators access to discover and add enterprise-level curriculum content to their courses. It integrates with any LTI 1.3 capable LMS and is currently supported in platforms such as Instructure Canvas, Schoology, and Agilix Buzz. “This is a comprehensive resource for educators,” said the judges. “The fact that it is secured in the AWS Cloud and is compatible with an SIS system is invaluable.”

Linewize Linewize Pulse
Linewize Pulse is a student wellbeing and cultural analytics platform that supports student mental health, provides actionable insights on wellbeing and gathers trend-level data on school culture through 60-second, weekly check-ins. Said the judges: “With student mental health issues on the rise, this product is an innovative, community-wide solution to address it.”

ManagedMethods Cloud Monitor
Cloud Monitor uses API integrations with popular cloud applications, such as Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, to monitor and control a district’s domains without the need for appliances, extensions, proxies, agents, or gateways. ”A cybersecurity tool necessary for all districts,” said the judges.

McGraw Hill McGraw Hill AR
McGraw Hill AR is a free, augmented reality app offering engaging, bite-sized experiences that promote deep, conceptual learning. The app leverages AR to gamify challenging concepts and make learning more engaging and fun. “Finally, a textbook company that has taken time to invest in this technology and bring real value and robust content for students to take their learning to a whole new level and dimension!” said the judges.

MobileMind MobileMind
MobileMind is a comprehensive professional development platform that facilitates district-scaled, sustainable, personalized learning while engaging educators in gamified, self-paced micro-courses. Said the judges: “This solution is valuable to districts for their PD, training needs, and compliance.”

MRU Introduction to Economics Unit Plan
The MRU Intro to Econ unit plan features interactive practices, real-world examples, and is teacher friendly. Teachers are provided with easy-to-understand lesson plans, Google Slides for teaching, activities for students, and answer keys. “I like this product a lot,” said one judge. “I watched some of the videos and liked the way they were presented. The descriptions and use of multimedia made the content even better.”

n2y Polaris
Polaris is an IEP online development and progress monitoring solution, designed to help service providers plan, write, execute, and report on IEPs for students pre-K through transition on the general education or extended learning standards. Said one judge: “Seeing many meetings over the years in my roles, I know that having a streamlined solution helps efficiency and productivity.”

NoRedInk Co. NoRedInk
NoRedInk includes diagnostic tools, instructional resources, targeted skills practice, and a range of scaffolded and unscaffolded writing activities, plus an online writing curriculum, interactive tutorials, models, and lessons. The judges noted that NoRedInk is a robust platform, adding, “NoRedInk has a user-friendly interface with a teacher dashboard to simplify tracking progress.”

Otus Otus
Otus provides an all-in-one platform of integrated tools to gather, visualize, and act on student growth data by integrating grading, assessments, progress monitoring, and data warehousing. “Otus simplifies tasks for educators, from grading to lesson planning,” said the judges. “The platform's assessment and analytics features provide valuable insights, allowing for data-driven decision-making.”

Paper Educational Support System
Paper is a personalized learning platform that offers a suite of academic support, independent practice tools, and career and college readiness support as well as 24/7 live help. Said the judges: “Paper is amazingly intuitive and an asset to any school district wanting to expand their homework help and after school academic programming!”

Pencil Learning Technologies Pencil Spaces
Pencil Spaces is a unified education delivery system to support active learning, with video calls, saved whiteboards for setup or review, breakout rooms, file uploads, and a unique web viewer. Said one judge: “I really like this tool. At least, it is worth a demo. At best, it might replace your IFP software and collaborative meeting/learning subscription.”

PowerSchool PowerSchool Naviance CCLR
PowerSchool Naviance CCLR is a college, career, and life readiness platform that helps students connect learning to life goals, discover their strengths and interests, build critical SEL skills, create actionable goals, and find their best-fit path after high school. “Naviance CCLR enables students to navigate the career world while gaining a better understanding of themselves,” said the judges.

Proximity Learning Live Virtual K-12 Education
Proximity Learning provides livestream virtual classes presented by certified teachers who synchronously connect with classes in brick-and-mortar schools daily. “This product appears to fill a need in education with the ongoing teacher shortage,” said the judge. “It appears to use a very solid approach with quality instructors.”

Realityworks Medical Terminology Class Kit
The Medical Terminology Class Kit includes a 17-lesson curriculum and provides enough components for a class of 20 students to complete hands-on activities simultaneously, giving the teacher enough resources for a typical class size. “I think this is a very unique product for specific curricular needs,” said one judge, adding that it seemed well thought out.

Samsung Electronics America WAC
The Samsung Interactive Display (WAC) is an interactive whiteboard that provides enhanced usability and specialized features, and is available in 65-, 75- and 86-inch clear UHD models, plus comes with simultaneous connectivity for up to 50 devices.Said the judges: “Not only does this offer stunning, vibrant displays of lifelike content for learning, but this product is amazingly versatile in accepting content from many curriculum companies.”

Scribbles Software ScribChoice
ScribChoice is a configurable online solution that allows districts to manage all school choice processes – from specialty programs to district transfers – all in one easy-to-use online system. “This solves a particular problem very well,” said the judges. “It not only creates the lottery system, in multiple languages, but also takes care of the document management of the enrollment process.”

Sergeant Laboratories AristotleK12
AristotleK12 is an all-in-one edtech solution that includes filtering, multilingual classroom management, student behavior analytics, asset utilization, and more, all suitable for district-wide use on Chromebooks, Windows, macOS, iOS, and Virtual Desktops. Said the judges: “This is a single pane of glass solution that will be of great value to anyone who has too wide a variety of devices to monitor student activity. Well done.”

Singleton Foundation for Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship Venture Valley Mobile and PC Game
Venture Valley is a free-to-play on mobile (iOS and Android) and PC (via Steam) game that provides financial education through competitive esports-style multiplayer play and a single-player campaign featuring 35 entertaining missions. “This a great solution and delivers a much needed curriculum in financial literacy in a gamified environment,” said the judges.

TeachTown enCORE
enCORE Middle and High School are two components of a full K-12 core curriculum that is standards-based and based on Applied Behavior Analysis, which provides students with moderate to severe disabilities access to the general education curriculum. “I really like the way this solution is put together,” said one judge. “They used a great combination of expert resources, research, testing, and data.”

Tutor.com and The Princeton Review High-Dosage Tutoring
High-Dosage Tutoring is an evidence-based solution that marries the core strengths of Tutor.com and The Princeton Review, and features standards-aligned curricula, formative and summative assessments, and proven instructional methodology honed over 25 million tutoring sessions. “With its flexible scheduling and data-driven insights, the program seamlessly integrates into academic programs,” said the judges.

Tutor.com and The Princeton Review On-Demand Tutoring by Tutor.com
Tutor.com’s LEO academic support platform offers streamlined access to On-Demand Tutoring, drop-off review services (also available on demand), and self-paced resources, including test prep from The Princeton Review. “The platform's skilled tutors and interactive tools create an engaging learning experience,” said the judges. “It is a valuable resource for leaders aiming to enhance student outcomes.”

Vivacity Tech PBC Student Repair Academy (SRA)
Vivacity Tech’s Student Repair Academy provides students with interactive training and core knowledge to help create your very own in-house repair center through a multicourse series featuring Chromebook repairs, hardware configuration, and troubleshooting tactics. Said one judge: “Whether I currently had a student technology repair team, or considering creating one, this would be a must-have.”

Vivacity Tech PBC Mobile Charging Station
Vivacity Tech’s Mobile Charging Station is a multi-functional surge protector tower that offers simultaneous device charging for up to 16 devices, four USB-A and four USB-C charging ports, and eight AC outlets. The judges called it visually pleasing and functional, with one adding, “If I were in the market for a charging station, this would be one to look at.”

Vivacity Tech PBC Guardian Work-In Case with Pouch
The Guardian Work-In Case with Pouch comes in two sizes – 11” and 14” – with a water-resistant polyester exterior and an interior with six anchor straps that fully secure the device to the case. “This is a great case if I needed to transport a laptop back and forth from school,” said the judges. The quality of the materials is high and provides great screen protection.”

Vivi Vivi
Vivi is the only all-in-one collaboration and communication suite designed exclusively for education. It combines wireless screen sharing, digital signage, announcements, and emergency alerts into a single solution that connects students, teachers, and school staff. Said the judges: “Where other casting systems fall short, Vivi really appears to have overcome those challenges.”

Writelike.org Frankenstories
Frankenstories is a fast-paced, online, multiplayer game that develops advanced writing skills. Moderated by their teacher, students can play as a whole class, in small groups, or even as individuals. “This is a great collaborative solution that will keep students engaged and help improve their creative writing skills,” said the judges.

YouScience Brightpath
YouScience Brightpath is an end-to-end platform that connects education with career applications designed to help students unlock their potential for future pathways. “Brightpath uses a series of brain games to help students discover their unique aptitudes and interests and helps guide them toward the right path,” said the judges. “This system is a great way to learn about ‘you.’”

HIGHER ED WINNERS

Acer Chromebook Plus 514 (CB514-3H/T)
The Chromebook Plus 514 (CB514-3H/T) is part of a new tier of products that combines advanced performance, features and durability standards with new productivity, creativity, and multimedia capabilities in ChromeOS to allow teachers and high-school students to do more in Chrome. “This is a well spec'd and thought out device,” said our judges. 

Anthology AI Design Assistant Blackboard Learn by Anthology
The AI Design Assistant is a generative AI feature in Anthology’s Learning Management System, Blackboard Learn. Judges wrote: “The AI Design Assistant provides a good 80/20 rule when using AI. The user can't click and submit, but it gives a good template to start with and modify to fit the needs and vision for the course.”

BenQ LK935 4K Laser Projector
BenQ’s LK935 4K UHD 5,500-lumen LK935 laser projector delivers the full richness, clarity, and accuracy of all content, whether projecting video or the multiple kinds of content such as text, video, video conferencing, images, graphs, and more simultaneously needed for engaged and stimulating learning. Judges said: “Depending on the price point, this is a reliable projector that fits the need for schools.”

Bloomberg Bloomberg for Education
Bloomberg for Education is an education technology solution that facilitates experiential learning of the financial markets. Educators and learners can access a range of educational resources such as CPD-accredited online certificate courses, interactive simulations, case studies and webinars that promote practical learning of the financial markets faster, easier and more successfully. 

Canva Canva
Canva for Campus unlocks everyone’s potential with the power of design and visual communication. A Canva for Campus subscription gives students, professors, staff and campus administrators access to Canva’s full suite of tools. Judges wrote: “Canva for Campus has improved the way students and educators approach design. This platform offers a user-friendly interface with many templates, empowering users to effortlessly create visually stunning presentations, posters, and graphics. I also use it daily in my role as a leader.” 

Chief Voyager Mobile Cart
Voyager is a compact mobile display solution to support flexible conferencing and collaboration. Judges noted: “Voyager includes large panel display stands that have camera and speaker mounts that integrate with most of the most popular conferencing platforms. One of this cart's most distinguishing features is its ability to rotate a large panel display from Landscape to Portrait orientations.”

ClearOne DIALOG UVHF Wireless Microphone
The ClearOne DIALOG UVHF is a flexible wireless microphone system that delivers robust reception and more available spectrum on-demand than any other product in its class. Judges said: “This is a comprehensive and flexible audio system for higher ed. The IT staff should have less to manage with these units. The ability to be used for in-person as well as virtual teaching in small or large spaces makes it a winner.”

ClearOne BMA 360D
ClearOne’s BMA 360D is a microphone array ceiling tile family that leverages standard IP networking infrastructure in an enterprise solution. Judges wrote: “This is a feature-rich and high-quality solution that is very compatible in the higher education classroom.”

Crestron Electronics, Inc. AirMedia Connect Adaptor
The Crestron AirMedia Connect Adaptor is a one-touch, plug-and-play wireless presentation and meeting solution. Judges said: “Users can instantly join virtual meeting participants using their device of choice while taking advantage of the high-quality audio and video in-room peripherals.”

Gale, part of Cengage Group Gale Digital Scholar Lab
Gale Digital Scholar Lab is a cloud-based research environment designed to transform the way scholars and students access and analyze Gale primary source materials—and their local collections—by offering solutions to some of the most common challenges facing researchers in the digital humanities today. Judges wrote: “The Gale Digital Scholar Lab is a phenomenal resource for bridging scholarly research materials and content that is normally reserved for undergraduate or graduate students to high school research projects. I wish this tool existed long ago in my early college research days!”

Kaplan All Access License
Kaplan’s All Access License enables universities to provide their students with school-wide access to free test prep for graduate admissions exams, licensure, credentials and workforce readiness programs. Judges said: “This product is an ideal solution for students unable to pay for test prep courses, limiting their ability to successfully move on to the next level of their career or education.”

MaivenPoint Examena
MaivenPoint Examena is an AI-powered, smart exam administrator that empowers proctors to maintain exam integrity at scale, gives administrators AI-powered instant quiz creation capabilities and improves accessibility and convenience for candidates. Judges wrote: “While this product has not been used in the US market, it has the potential at both the higher ed and K12 levels.”

MaivenPoint Vitae
MaivenPoint Vitae is a SaaS system designed to digitize course management and streamline administrative processes so that continuous higher education is easy and accessible. Judges said: “This product would be valuable for educational institutions looking to streamline their administrative processes.”

NetSupport NetSupport School  
NetSupport School provides a full classroom management and instruction tool to deliver meaningful lessons. With dedicated areas for instructors, students, and technicians, plus support for Windows, Mac, Chromebooks, Android and iOS, NetSupport School ensures maximum flexibility for users while allowing instructors to connect to students using different platforms. Judges wrote: “I would definitely add this to the list of tools to investigate.”

Planar Planar UltraRes L Series All-in-One LED display
The Planar UltraRes L Series All-in-One LED Display combines Planar’s best-in-class LCD features with award-winning direct view LED technology to deliver an all-in-one, easy-to-use display solution. Judges said: “The Planar UltraRes L Series All-in-One LED provides spectacular HD and 4K resolution over a very large area in classrooms, lecture halls, and auditoriums. With ever-increasing costs, the Planar UltraRes Series allows education facilities to implement a video-wall technology and elevate viewing experiences without breaking the bank.”

Samsung Electronics America WAC
The Samsung Interactive Display (WAC) is an  interactive whiteboard that provides enhanced usability and specialized features for teachers and students to seamlessly collaborate. Judges wrote: “Not only does this Interactive Panel by Samsung offer stunning, vibrant displays of life-like content for learning, but this product is amazingly versatile in accepting content from many curriculum companies as well as converting lessons that were created using other brands of displays and other interactive software platforms.”

Science Interactive Group Science Interactive
Science Interactive offers more than 450 hands-on and digital lab experiments, and ready-made kits delivered to students’ doorsteps or campus bookstores. Judges said: “I appreciate that this product has taken into account the challenges of teaching and learning science based content in a virtual environment. The complement of online instruction with quality hands-on lab activities will greatly enhance the learning experience of higher ed students.”

Turnitin Turnitin’s AI writing detection feature
Turnitin's AI writing detector is specialized for student writing and is highly proficient in distinguishing between AI and human-written content. Judges wrote: “This is a very pioneering area and many AI detectors are producing many false positives. Turnitin is working hard to make sure that when they get it wrong (not if), then it will be an "underprediction" more often than not. I applaud Turnitin's honesty and commitment to integrity when it comes to AI biases.”

YouScience Discovery
YouScience Discovery is an aptitude-based, online guidance platform that leverages data and artificial intelligence to help individuals identify their aptitudes, validate their skills, and get matched with educational and career pathways. Judges noted: “YouScience Discovery goes beyond traditional career assessments by delving into a person's natural abilities, interests, and aptitudes. The platform utilizes a series of engaging and scientifically validated exercises to identify an individual's unique strengths, providing a comprehensive view of their potential career paths.”

Winnick is more comfortable speaking than writing, so she used an AI-powered voice-to-speech transcription tool on Google Docs to capture her words. “I dictated it on the page, I took that, I ran it through an AI to remove my filler words and make me sound more professional,” says Winnick, Educational Technology Director at the Pocantico Hills Central School District in New York. “Then I would go back and edit it.”

Winnick received the Innovative Tech Director Award, one of Tech & Learning’s Innovative Leader Awards, during the recent Northeast Regional Leadership Summit in New Jersey. She was honored for her work promoting effective and responsible AI use in the classroom as well as her larger efforts to use edtech to promote innovation in education.

AI and Saving Teacher’s Time 

Throughout her career, Winnick says it has been a challenge to get teacher buy-in when it comes to various edtech tools. That changed for a time during the pandemic, except when things returned to normal, many teachers drifted away from technology again. That has not been the case with AI.

“This was actually the easiest buy-in I've ever gotten, because I'm like, ‘This is going save you time,’” she says.

For example, she has shared a fill-in-the-blanks AI prompt that teachers can use to create AI-assisted units in minutes, complete with lesson plans and detailed activities appropriate for various grade levels. Of course, teacher expertise is still needed to fine-tune these lesson plans and correct mistakes AI might make.

While this process is often called “curation” Winnick calls it DJing. “You might run the same thing through multiple AI, and be like, ‘Oh, I like that, I like that, and I like that,’” she says. “You're picking and choosing your own beats and making your own mixtape.”

As a bonus, when educators are incorporating AI with students, using the DJ analogy is also more fun than the term curation.

AI Tips For Students  

When using AI in an educational setting, student safety and being aware of bias are paramount. “I think that every user, students and teachers, need to understand bias and misinformation in AI before they can use it for good,” Winnick says. “They need to know that we're detectives. We need to analyze everything that the AI is outputting to make sure that there is no bias, there's no misinformation.”

Once this solid digital literacy/AI literacy foundation in place, there are many potential uses for AI. For example, Winnick likes to help students improve their writing skills by having them write prompts for AI art. When the prompt does not turn out the way they want it to, they realize instantly that they need to be more clear in their descriptions. It’s a form of instant writing feedback that also inherently inspires students, Winnick says.

Building An AI-Supportive Culture and More

While there are many concerns around cheating and AI, Winnick says educators can bypass many of these by focusing on the process over the final product. By assessing that process and being a part of it, educators can help students use AI to effectively enhance their projects and not just spit out answers to essay questions.

Winnick says effectively bringing AI into the classroom in your school is about far more than AI technology on its own. Administrators should empower teachers, and teachers should empower students to share their expertise and guide classroom experience, Winnick says.

Ultimately, she says you want to build “a culture with your teachers, that allows them to not be afraid to try new things.”

• 4 Lessons From California’s Teaching with AI Guidance
• 5 Key Policy Considerations for Regulating AI in Classrooms

“I really believe it's our job to help prepare students to advocate for themselves and to be able to solve the problems of our communities,” says the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction at Santa Maria Joint Union High School District in California. “I'm a high school administrator. So our students are going to take over the roles of running our community in the next 10 to 20 years.” 

Herrera recently received the Innovative Thought Leader Award during Tech & Learning’s Innovative Leader Summit at the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey. Recognized for her dedication to supporting student agency, she shares tips for doing just that. 

1. Boosting Student Agency by Fostering Student Voice and Choice 

Teaching students to find their passion and use their voice is an important part of an educator’s role, Herrera says. 

“We have been given this gift over the last couple of decades, where we don't have to hold the information anymore,” she says. Instead, students have access to more information than they can possibly process at their fingertips, and the role of an educator becomes helping students harness the power of that. 

“It's really given us the opportunity to allow them to explore and develop their own voice and their own passions,” she says. “And then really teaching them how to use those tools that are available to them, and those resources that are available to them to meet their needs.”

2. Creating An Inclusive Space

Before you can foster student voice and choice, you have to create a sense of belonging for students. “Step one, before you change all of your teaching practice, is to make sure that you have a really safe space where we encourage students to collaborate,” Herrera says. “We create a space where they're comfortable expressing their opinions and their ideas without judgment, but also a space where they're able to hear opposing views and ideas without passing judgment as well.” 

3.  Honor Different Types of Success  

Success doesn’t always look the same and too often educators in the school environment can forget that. 

“School was easy for me because like, I'm a natural student, I'm pretty compliant, I want to please the people around me, I can learn the game pretty quickly,” Herrera says. “I learned the ‘studenting’ game really was easy for me. But there were people around me who were much brighter than me, and probably could have solved much more important problems. But because they weren't ‘studenting’ correctly, they weren't playing the game of school, they never got to see themselves in this kind of successful, confident place.” 

Helping these types of students achieve success is critical, Herrera says. “Building students' success and allowing students to see success in their abilities and share their talents is really important in this space.” 

4. Provide Mentorship  

One strategy for helping students feel supported enough to succeed while pursuing their passions is to offer mentorship. Having an adult at the school you can go to outside of class for help with personal issues or life skills, such as crafting an email, can be so helpful to students, Herrera says. 

As students demonstrate learning in different ways, helping connect students with community mentors can also be helpful. “If I was going to try to make some kind of change around fire safety, I might have an additional mentor who was a local fireman, who I was able to kind of talk to about their specific content knowledge,” Herrera says. 

In addition to helping with a specific project, these types of mentorships can encourage students to start networking with community professionals. 

5. Don’t Sacrifice Rigor for Choice 

A mistake Herrera frequently sees when educators try to implement more student choice is that they confuse choice with abandoning curriculum requirements. For instance, she’ll sometimes see instructors offer multiple pathways to success but not all those pathways are rigorous enough. 

“Some of these choice boards would have two really good, rigorous options, and then six that were like not even related to what they were supposed to be doing,” she says. “We are still a standards-based education system. You have to teach those standards, [but] the way you get there can be very different.” 

6. Don’t Be Afraid to Let Students Struggle  

Not all struggle is bad, but it's easy for well-meaning instructors to forget that when watching students try and fail to grasp material at first. 

“Struggle is really productive in their learning cycle,” she says. “So if we take away all of that struggle, we've really taken away the whole learning experience.” 

Instead of giving away the answers, she suggests educators ask the students if they need more time, more language, or more information. If they need more time, let them work on it longer, if they need more language, explain the question in a different way, and if they need more information, provide them with new resources by perhaps suggesting reading a passage in the textbook or talking with another student about the problem. 

“That's a big struggle teachers have,” she says. “We want to help students be successful so badly, we actually pull the learning experience away from them by bailing them out too early.” 

• Enhancing Education: The Power of Active Learning Classrooms
• Rethinking Learning Spaces: 4 Strategies for Student-Centered Learning

For his efforts to help educators at all levels lead classroom discussion on climate change, Cohen was awarded Best Example of Professional Development in Higher Education, one of Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Awards, at the recent Northeast Regional Leadership Summit in New Jersey.

Cohen’s work on climate change at Rutgers meshes with New Jersey’s proactive climate change stance. “New Jersey has the strongest climate change standards in the U.S. right now,” Cohen says. In fact, it’s the first state to introduce climate-change education into all of its K-12 curricula. 

The state developed an interdisciplinary approach to problem-based learning when the need arose for every subject area being able to support climate instruction across their content, Cohen says. This allowed for novel approaches and collaborative efforts for teachers in different disciplines to create integrated units for students, which can serve as a model for other education institutions. 

Using Driving Questions To Teach Climate Change 

Cohen has the benefit of working with a state climatologist group at Rutgers, using some of the resources they have and sharing their data, which is used to develop driving questions. For example, one recent question concerned annual water level rises in the Garden State. The state sees twice the average annual sea level rise.

“It’s a phenomenon that's thought-provoking, especially for a state with such a large coastline in such a large industry with tourism and fisheries and with people living so close to the coast,” Cohen says. 

Researchers and educators are curious why New Jersey has an annual sea level rise of 40 centimeters compared to its neighbor New York, which has an annual rise of 30 centimeters. “Having that driving question gets people interested and excited about looking at data and explaining why this is actually happening,” Cohen says. 

Climate Change PD and Discussion with Teachers 

Cohen recently welcomed K-12 teachers to a conference during which they were paired with university faculty. The teams collaborated and devised best practices for teaching climate change at the K-12 level and at the college level. They also explored data analysis about historic redlining and climate disparities. 

All of this work prepared them to go back to the communities they serve with new insights. “Framing the problem in multiple ways for people helps all learners,” Cohen says. 

Introducing climate change discussions into PD poses a different challenge. When working with educators, Cohen makes them comfortable by creating a safe environment so they can raise their concerns, making sure they feel free to be open, and ask questions. “People are individual experts in their own content areas, but for this one global, real challenge, we don't have a solution that will work currently,” he says. This is how creative thinking comes into play. 

Thoughts about climate change can be stressful, and cause anxiety for educators and students. “For some of our workshops, we bring in social workers,” Cohen says. The main focus is to provide the necessary resources for educators so they are empowered and comfortable to work with students. 

Inspiring Students

Enlisting students’ support or galvanizing them is not difficult as studies show climate change is important to them. “Thinking about it from students’ standpoint, these kids are inheriting a world that is changed by climate,” Cohen says. The younger generations are the most active when it comes to raising awareness about this issue and demanding changes to resolve it. 

Cohen recounts an experience working with high schoolers in which there was discussion about purchasing a first vehicle that has less of an impact on greenhouse emissions as a way to mitigate the effects of climate change. They talked about choices the people can make as consumers and the conversations had real-world impact. Afterward, one student decided his first car should not be an SUV. 

“We have to encourage kids to be individually, community, and nationally focused,” Cohen says. 

• How to Teach Climate Change Without Scaring Students
• Climate Change Data Tool Provides New Learning Opportunities

Dr. Laurie Fiorenza, Assistant Superintendent for Student Learning at Oak Park and River Forest High School (OPRFHS) in Illinois, recently was recognized for using her podcast to highlight the great work of her district’s teachers with a Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award for Innovative Superintendent during the recent Midwest Regional Live Summit.  

Podcast Praise is Music to a Teacher’s Ear 

Podcasts on every imaginable topic abound, offering listeners a way to learn something new, connect with others, or discover unexpected joys that would otherwise fly under the radar. Fiorenza’s program does all three. 

“I was hearing from our teachers that they felt disconnected from teachers in other departments, especially after the pandemic,” says Fiorenza. “I was thinking of ways to connect them without creating meetings or something that would drain them of time and energy. I thought a podcast would allow teachers to simply talk to me about the unique things they are doing throughout our building. I could then share the podcast with everyone, including our community members.” 

Fiorenza sent an email request to the staff, explaining the program and asking for anyone doing really unique things to participate and share their stories with others. She soon had a robust roster of volunteers.

“Teachers like to talk about their actions and how they impact kids,” says Fiorenza. “I wanted to celebrate their passion, creativity, and ingenuity.”

District Support Helps Pro-Teacher Podcast of Positivity 

“The leaders I work with understand the importance of celebrating and honoring our teachers and staff who work directly with our students daily, supporting their learning and growth,” says Fiorenza. 

Leaders were encouraging, however Fiorenza still added a layer of review to make sure no school policies or boundaries were inadvertently crossed. 

“After each podcast is recorded and prepared, I partner with the Director of Communication,” Fiorenza says. “She reviews and helps me get the podcast on various social media platforms. This additional person listening to the podcast is a means to ensure there are no concerns or issues with the content.”

In an age when parents pore over online reviews and comments, district-shopping for the best fit for their families, such an organic and authentic representation of the school offerings can be an impactful tool. Although this was not Fiorenza’s goal, she has noted an increase in connection with the greater school community.

“Parents always comment about how much they enjoy learning about all that is happening in our district,” she says. “I believe it helps parents confirm what the data, our website, and community input indicate: OPRFHS is an outstanding school with dedicated, passionate, and highly qualified educators.”

The Nuts and Bolts of Creating a Podcast 

Once Fiorenza realized this would be an ongoing program, she needed an appropriate space to record.  

“Oak Park and River Forest High School has a makerspace with a media room and a special sound booth,” she says. “We have dedicated resources toward enhancing the makerspace, and specifically the media room, over the past several years. This included purchasing higher-quality recording equipment, microphones, and even technology to support the production process from start to finish.”

The district worked these items into the budget. Since the space was designed for student use, the investment in high-quality equipment and technology was essential and has since been well used and appreciated.

“The studio is used daily by individuals, groups, and classes to create podcasts, write and record music, and learn about audio and media technology,” she says.

Being seen and celebrated is a powerful antidote to some of the more challenging aspects of today’s climate. The response from fellow teachers, parents and even students has been overwhelmingly positive.

“I think it is imperative to showcase the work of our educators,” says Fiorenza. “This celebrates and honors their work and dedication and provides community members an inside look at all public education has to offer our students. Hear It From A Huskie is not about self-promotion, but about seeing, hearing, and valuing all the teachers making an impact.” 

5 Steps to Create a School Podcast 

1. Prepare for the podcast. Determine a quiet place to record. This will ensure background noise is eliminated as much as possible. Find a person, preferably with audio experience, who can record the podcast so you can focus on the conversation with the staff member.
2. Solicit participation among your staff. Encourage those you know who are doing amazing things in the classroom.
3. Set up 5-minute sessions. Identify three questions you want the participant to discuss during your conversation. Send the questions to the participant in advance so they can be prepared to talk with you.
4. Record the discussion. Try recording audio-only interviews if subjects are uncomfortable with video.
5. Celebrate on social media. Honor your amazing staff by sharing the podcast on social media platforms (Facebook, YouTube, etc.). Send internal employees an email to share the podcast and encourage others to participate.

• Innovative Leader Award
• Regional Live Summit

“Ramon was a first grader and I was really sparked by the challenge of helping Ramon learn how to read,” she says. “That just  opened my eyes into the things that I wanted to spend my time doing.” 

Today she is the Chief Technology Officer for the Community Consolidated School District 15 in Illinois and recently won the Innovative CTO award, one of Tech & Learning's Innovative Leader Awards, at the recent Midwest Regional Live Summit. She speaks with us about her evolution as a technology-focused educator, woman in edtech, and the potential of data to transform education.   

Technology Sparking Creativity  

After being inspired by meeting and tutoring Ramon, Warden obtained her master's in teaching and started teaching in Chicago Public Schools as a seventh- and eighth-grade social studies teacher. This was in the early days of classroom internet and Warden became fascinated with the potential of technology. She applied for a grant to bring internet to the school she taught at and used the new technology to foster student creativity. 

“I had my students build websites around mythology and connected science to that,” she says. “It was a really fun project and that set me into a whole path of supporting schools getting online, and helping teachers to see how to integrate technology into what they were doing. And then as technology continued to evolve, so did I as an educator and technology manager.”  

A Space for Women in Edtech  

While Warden encountered discrimination and sexism during her career as a woman in edtech, she also encountered supportive mentors and opportunities. “Education is a unique space for women to enter into the tech field,” she says. 

In the past, young women have been taught that girls are bad at science and math, and while that perception is changing overall, Warden believes the change is happening more rapidly in edtech. “In education, I've seen women being able to have entry points,” she says. “I'm finding that in education, those kinds of opportunities, and intersections happen more often than not.” 

However, that doesn't mean there are no barriers or obstacles for women in edtech to overcome. Warden says one of the highlights of her career has been modeling female success in tech, all while not “shying away from the boys’ clubs.” 

The Potential for Data Use 

 Warden is excited about the future of technology to help students in many areas including the potential of data to better inform teacher and district leader decisions. But she acknowledges it’s easy to get lost in mountains of data. “Many teachers are not spreadsheet users,” she says. So district leaders should provide data in an easily accessible format and encourage teachers to use data in small ways that can have a significant impact. 

For example, In her previous district, she had teachers compare their MAP scores to local assessment benchmarks and drill down into areas in which their students were struggling. She says it was an easy way to help teachers use data to figure out what they would teach next and why certain students were not performing. Teachers can then expand their use of data as time goes on. 

“I think small steps are always good steps,” she says. 

• Trends To Watch Beyond AI and Other Tips From A Retiring Edtech Leader
• 4 Tips For New Edtech Professionals

Castro was honored with the Innovative CTE & STEM Director, one of Tech & Learning's Innovative Leader Awards, at the recent Regional Live Summit in New Jersey. She was recognized in part for her teaching with robots pedagogy. 

Here are some of Castro’s top tips for teaching with robots.  

1. Teaching With Robots: Make Sure Robots Are Developmentally Appropriate

Castro majored in early childhood education after becoming fascinated with the developing mind while spending time babysitting her young nephew. Consequently, making sure all teaching tools are developmentally appropriate is near and dear to her heart. Too often school districts don’t pay attention to grade level and their students’ cognitive skills when they deploy robots to classrooms, she says. 

“Just giving this teacher this robot because it looks like it would be good for kindergarten or pre-K, but not really looking at how the robot works, and if the kids would be ready for something like that. That's, to me, the biggest mistake that we all make,” Castro says.

2. Get Creative With Robot Curriculum  

While many robotics kits advertise accompanying curriculum, Castro says these don’t often pass the bar of what she would consider a true curriculum. 

“Some robot curriculum comes in, it's just solutions to task. It's just a task card with a solution,” she says. “That doesn't really give anybody the opportunity to think outside the box, right? So in a time when there's so much standardized testing, all these high stakes assessments that require a right and wrong answer, we're losing the creativity.” 

To avoid this, Castro designs her own curricula that emphasizes student voice and choice. For example, in one recent English-themed robotics lesson, she had students use the robots to drive to specific words in a vocabulary exercise. Because students were encouraged to be active as part of the lesson, they ended up expanding its scope. “I only wanted them to drive the robot to each word, but they recorded their voices and the robot would actually read the sentence as it drove to the different spots,” she says. 

3. Learn From Students 

Castro says one of the best parts of teaching with robotics is how students do the unexpected with the tools and will get more from one than most teachers. 

“I just had to know the basics,” she says. “How to turn it on and off, and basic troubleshooting. I’d show them how to use it appropriately and safely, and then just let it go and they taught me so much more. I didn't know our robot could do all the things that it could do, but they figured it out.” 

This ties to her overall philosophy that teachers should be lifelong learners. “As an educator, we're supposed to be constantly growing and learning,” she says. “Every year is different, but I could use lessons that I've learned working with these students or these adults, and apply it here because I have all of this experience, and I've learned from all of the things I've done. It’s so important to be reflective.” 

• Best Robots for Schools
• Inspired by Visits to India, Two Brothers Started Trashbots to Make Robotics More Accessible

“I started as a classroom teacher helping with technology integration and eventually managed our district website and email server,” says Pileiro, who is retiring from his longtime position as Supervisor of Technology and Data for the Linwood Board of Education in New Jersey.  

After being drawn deeper and deeper into the tech side of teaching, Pileiro went back to school and received his Master’s in Instructional Technology from Stockton University. Ultimately, he worked his way up the ranks and became a recognized edtech leader. Pileiro recently was honored with the Innovative EdTech Leader Award, one of Tech & Learning's innovative leadership awards, during a regional live summit in New Jersey. 

Pileiro discusses how the roles of educational technology leaders have evolved over time, how districts might best recruit new edtech leadership talent, and recent trends in technology that don’t involve the letters “a” and “i” in close proximity.

The Evolving Role of Edtech Directors 

Being an edtech director today is a very different position than it was in the past, with tremendous changes especially coming in the last few years. “There is a lot more technology and online programming in the classroom,” Pileiro says. “You need to wear more hats than in the past. You are not just a technology person, but need to have a knowledge of cybersecurity, data privacy, technology integration, as well as the soft skills of empathy and patience.” 

But that’s not all it takes to successfully navigate the increasingly complex position. “You also need to build a set of resources and a network of people you can rely on for help,” Pileiro says. “It’s a very dynamic role.” 

Recruiting Advice for Edtech Leadership 

If a district is looking to fill a position similar to his, Pileiro recommends drawing talent from the education sector before looking to industry. 

“The first place I would look would be other school districts,” he says. “Many have great young talent as well as early career talent. I firmly believe having someone with experience working in a school district would be beneficial.”  

Trends Beyond AI 

For the last year, education headlines have been dominated by two letters: AI. Obviously, as important as the rise of generative AI has been, it’s not the only new development in edtech. 

“I’m seeing the move to the cloud being very big, both in the classroom and in the enterprise,” he says. 

Another trend is data that drives not only decisions but helps identify network and cybersecurity issues. "Data literacy is extremely important,” he adds. 

Ongoing Challenges in Edtech 

During his career in edtech leadership, Pileiro’s biggest challenges have been trying to balance competing priorities and managing a variety of roles and responsibilities. “To overcome these obstacles I tried to be as organized as possible, set controls and expectations as well as continually update my knowledge to be as up-to-date as possible,” he says. 

Those in the field today face a similar set of competing priorities as well as new complications. 

“An ever-present challenge is vetting and selecting the right solutions for your district. Whether it be infrastructure or edtech, finding the right solution is important,” Pileiro says. “As school technology leaders we need to continually learn and make wise decisions because we have the responsibility to spend our stakeholders money wisely.” 

• 4 Tips For New Edtech Professionals
• 5 Steps to Developing an Unbeatable IT Leadership Team

“She told me, ‘You'd make a very good teacher,’” Paul recalls. 

Paul decided to combine her passion for technology and her new passion for education and pursue a career in edtech. She has worked in the field since the early 1990s and is currently the Director of Technology for Township of Union Public Schools in New Jersey. She recently was honored with the Innovative Tech Director Award at Tech & Learning's Innovative Leader Awards during a Regional Leadership Summit in New Jersey.

As a woman of color in a white male-dominated field, Paul has had to overcome obstacles because of racism and sexism in addition to the standard challenges faced by technology directors, including limited funding for technology access for all. She's also had to conquer the many issues all school IT departments face, such as cybersecurity threats. 

Paul offers advice for those starting their careers in edtech.

1. Tips for New Edtech Professionals: Find a Mentor 

Paul advises those entering the edtech profession to look for someone who they believe will provide mentorship. 

Paul never had a mentor herself, but feels connecting with one early in her career would have made things easier. “There was many a tough time that I've had to deal with a difficult technology issue, and I had to deal with it on my own,” she says. Not being able to call someone on the phone and brainstorm technical solutions can be overwhelming. Finding someone who can be relied upon to provide guidance and counsel is invaluable.

2. Get Involved With Professional Organizations  

“Joining organizations is very helpful,” says Paul, who has been a member of ISTE and other education professional organizations since the 1990s. These give her access to presentations, white papers, discussions, videos, and best practices for handling the myriad situations and challenges modern edtech leaders face. 

“All those things add a lot to your plate, but also encourages you and gives you some guidance on how to move forward,” she says. “Any new person who wants to get into this field – they should not handle it by themselves. It's a little bit more overwhelming than it was when I was just connecting printers or fixing PCs.” 

3. Get Creative To Get Funding 

Funding, or a lack thereof, is something every edtech leader will likely have to deal with during their career. “Because of financial constraints, you're not able to impact as many kids as you wish you could,” Paul says. 

To overcome this in her own career, Paul says she had to look beyond the district’s budget by asking, “'Is there alternative financing that I can look at?' For example, grants or donations or that type of thing.” 

Getting creative in this way can help bring more access to technology to more students, even when school budgets are tight, which, let’s face it, is pretty much always. 

4. Model Success for Students 

If you are a woman or minority working in education IT, your success can help encourage students to follow your path, and potentially even let them know that there is a future for them in a lucrative STEM field. 

Paul has not lost sight of that in her career and it is one of the things that has motivated her through difficult periods. “I'm not giving up because I see that it's important for female students and minority students to see me as a model of working in the field of IT,” she says. 

• A Data-Driven Approach to Personalized PD in “The Faculty Room”
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Bobby D. LaFleur, Chief Technology Officer at Spring ISD in Houston, Texas, and a recent Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award winner for Innovative Chief Technology Officer, discusses how he builds and supports his own IT leadership team. 

Using EQ to Develop Great IT Leaders 

The first step in building a great IT leadership team is to develop great leaders. This could mean mining for natural talent and finding those with skills to offer, but who might not be the first to raise their voice or take charge.

“When I talk or think about leaders, I am talking or thinking about the technology department as a whole,” says LaFleur. “I see everyone having leadership skills and qualities. They just need to be nurtured.”

While LaFleur’s position as IT leader might seem he would focus more on the nuts and bolts of computer systems than people, he would disagree. 

“I see my job as both a creator of leaders and ensuring customers are satisfied with the services provided,” he says. “Emotional intelligence encompasses a considerable number of skills that I use every day. The skills that are vital for me are empathy, respectful listening, accountability, and honesty.”

LaFleur focused on observing and learning from other leaders to improve his own toolkit, but he quickly decided what he was seeing might not be the most effective way to truly take charge. He felt his responsibilities went beyond just being a manager of people and tasks — that relationship management was key.

“I am constantly communicating with people and trying to ensure they are mentally healthy by making them laugh and smile,” he says. “I try to speak or say hello to everyone I am in contact with to show them that they are important by acknowledging them. Doing this makes it easier for them to open up, and I can learn about them on a personal level. As a leader, I wanted to succeed, but I didn't want to do it alone. I wanted to bring others with me.”

Building From Within 

LaFleur believes a true leader values their team's opinions and success. This has led to a somewhat unconventional method of pulling together a team. 

“When I was the Director of Application Support and needed to bring on a new team member, the interview committee would consist of other directors,” says LaFleur. “The choices didn't always work out. I had to pivot and let my team have an opinion in choosing their team members.”

That shift helped the team thrive and always go above and beyond expectations. 

“In allowing them to select their team members, they chose individuals they could be friends with and care about,” says LaFleur. “I sit back and marvel at how they collaborate and work as a team even when the situation isn't in their job function.”

5 Steps to Developing an Unbeatable IT Leadership Team 

For anyone looking to develop a long-term, successful IT team, LaFleur suggests: 

1. Set a Leadership Example — Staying in control, even in challenging situations, ensures a team knows their leader believes in them and their abilities to do the job.
2. Empower — Empowering leaders to make choices and take calculated risks can help them build confidence and gain experience.
3. Mentor — Creating opportunities for leaders to make decisions and take ownership creates a positive environment for people to be their best.
4. Provide Feedback — Create an entrepreneurial and empowered environment and then support the team’s efforts with thoughtful feedback in a collaborative way.
5. Encourage — Being an encourager helps individual team members think outside of the box when finding solutions to a problem.

Growing the Next Generation of IT Leaders 

Internships are a significant part of career research, so one day each year, LaFleur’s technology department presents to the students in conjunction with the Career and Technical Education (CTE) department. 

“We discuss various career opportunities they may explore within the technology field,” says LaFleur. “This program allows CTE students to apply for our summer internship program to experience paid on-the-job training. The summer jobs are lower-level jobs that fall within the Technical Services team.”

This opportunity offers more than just lip service. In fact, of LaFleur’s current staff, ten members came through this program. They now participate in the presentation and explain to current students how the internship, job exposure, and discussions with staff members during their time in the program helped in choosing an academic and career path to secure a position within the department.

“After their high school and college careers, they joined our technology team and now represent the three different technology teams,” says LaFleur. “Every summer, we have three or four CTE students in our program.”

• Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award
• How to Develop a Diverse School IT Staff

Dr. Leanna Mullen of Egg Harbor Township School District, a recent Innovative Leader Award winner for “Best Example of Professional Development,” discusses her innovative PD program and how it engages teachers and enhances the overall classroom experience. 

Using Data to Personalize PD 

Since Mullen, a student data coordinator and Rtl data coach, started at Egg Harbor Township (EHT) Schools 10 years ago, she has served in many capacities, including acting as a bridge between the IT department and curriculum administrators.

“I support universal screening data collection and provide in-depth data analysis at the individual student level and large scale, district-wide projects,” says Mullen. “I’m a member of our district’s Professional Development Committee and the primary professional development facilitator for all things edtech.”

This natural interest in data analysis helped Mullen create The Faculty Room, a unique spin on the traditional PD program.

The Professional Development Committee created an annual needs assessment survey and at the end of last school year, they expanded it to ask teachers about their preferred learning modalities and delivery of PD content, says Mullen. “Do they like large group auditorium style keynotes? Do they prefer intimate PLC conversations? Do they like curated video content?”

Mullen and her team discovered a large percentage of staff were looking for individualized learning and autonomy while maintaining content hyper-focused on EHT. The solution was simple from a mechanics standpoint as The Faculty Room is simply a Google Classroom.

“We are a Google for Education district, so the LMS made sense for us,” says Mullen. “We created a Faculty Room for each one of our nine buildings (some with more than 200 staff), and assigned all the teaching staff as students.” 

Since starting this virtual classroom concept, the committee has been able to make announcements, add reading and video materials, and provide teachers and admin the opportunity to directly connect via the private commenting feature.

The New Demand for On-Demand 

Flexibility through on-demand or asynchronous content can help educators who struggle with tight schedules. For those with family obligations or other personal considerations where travel to attend courses presents challenges, this type of mode can be a game changer, as well as a leveler in terms of accessibility.

“To introduce some of our new processes this school year, our team has created a number of short, 3-5 minute videos (titled “Independent Learning”) on specific topics that could be described as ‘EHT-centric’,” says Mullen. “We categorized them based on upcoming events and due dates (e.g. “Everything I need to know for September”).  

During their opening PD days, Mullen added Faculty Room time right into educators’ PD schedules. This included some required reading and video content, as well as optional “extra credit” materials for those wanting to take their learning further. 

“To ensure they understood the information presented, we outlined a list of action steps to mark complete as they finished,” Mullen says. “This gave staff the opportunity to get acclimated in the LMS while providing the flexibility to complete the assignments when it worked best for them. It also provided a layer of accountability that we weren’t able to capture before.

Staff has told the committee that the on-demand design of the Faculty Room is a convenient way to learn. They don’t have to search through old emails or an infinite number of Google files to locate directions or resource hyperlinks. Plus, it saves them a lot of time when they can review just what they need when they need it. 

“We are working on an Innovation and AI series now and we’ll continue to create content based district initiatives and staff requests,” says Mullen

Since the initial roll out, Mullen’s team has produced more content related to the district’s Equity Committee and a detailed review of the New Jersey Student Growth Objectives (SGOs).

“Office Hours” for Every Schedule 

Mullen created "Office Hours" to provide an extended opportunity for personalized PD.

“I have done a lot of research on andragogy [teaching adult learners] and educator self-efficacy,” says Mullen. “Everything around professional learning and teacher confidence indicates the ability to ask questions and feeling supported is key to their success. In short, it comes down to personalization and relationships.”

To answer this need, the virtual and in-person ‘Faculty Room Office Hours’ were offered as an extension of the asynchronous PD. Appointment slots use Google Calendar, so any of the 1,300+ faculty can reserve a 15-minute one-on-one meeting for support. The two to three “Office Hours” days offered each month get completely booked. 

“Staff has been incredibly receptive,” says Mullen. “I’ve met with teachers, counselors, secretaries, and even building principals.”

Support Matters 

This initiative did not carry any monetary cost — making it a potential solution for any district. However, creating The Faculty Room required a lot of upfront time to implement to add staff to Classrooms, record video content, and schedule assignments. 

“Our district recognizes the value it has brought to our staff,” says Mullen. “Our Supervisor of Literacy, Nanci Barr, our Director of Career and Technology, Dr. Carmelita Graham, and our Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Lily Moss, all offered their time to support the project.” Day-to-day maintenance is handled by the administrative team, and the central administration and Board of Education has also been supportive. 

“They know we are always striving for the best when it comes to supporting our students and staff -- and will do whatever it takes to support that,” says Mullen. ”Together, we divide and conquer!”

• Meet the 2022-23 Winners of Tech & Learning's Innovative Leader Awards
• Innovative Leader Award

Encouraging the use of an active learning classroom is a focus of John Kerrigan, Director of Curriculum & Instruction at Middletown Township Public Schools in New Jersey and recent recipient of a Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award for Innovative Curriculum Director. Kerrigan has an active learning classroom in his district and believes the concept can be an inspiration to others.  

What Is An Active Learning Classroom?  

The active learning classroom model that Kerrigan uses is a concept developed by Rutgers University. It features an alternative classroom arrangement with wall-to-wall whiteboards, collaborative seating, and the teacher's desk in the middle of the room. Students can also use personal whiteboards and laptops in the room to research and collaborate.

“This type of classroom promotes a ‘guide on the side’ approach to teaching and learning, making the instructor one with the students rather than the sole dispenser of information in front of the room,” says Kerrigan. “I have been using these spaces with a flipped classroom model to really leverage deep mathematical discourse and learning in person that I can support. We took this room layout and brought it to our secondary math spaces, employing a variety of seat types, movable desks and tables, personal and wall-to-wall whiteboards, etc.”

While it may seem that a classroom “reno” project would only be possible in the land of deep pocket districts or schools able to take a hit to the budget, the design philosophy is based on proven results and studies that have shown the benefits of this type of collaborative learning. It can also be accomplished through innovative budgeting, grants, and professional development, or even appealing directly to companies who specialize in educational supplies.

“Our district supported this initiative to help increase students' achievement in mathematics,” says Kerrigan. “We have also applied for grants through various local resources and classroom furniture/school supply companies to offset costs.”

It Adds Up to More than just a Pretty Place 

These impressive spaces, combined with the technology-enhanced flipped classroom model, have led to significant gains in both scores and engagement. 

“We have purposefully arranged for these spaces to be used by all grades 6-12 mathematics courses, including inclusion and Advanced Placement courses,” says Kerrigan. “We have seen consistent increases in the percentage of students earning a three or higher on AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, and AP Statistics exams. We have also seen a positive trend in the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment (NJSLA) scores over the past two years since we have resumed testing.”

Reimagining the classroom also allows for additional attention to be paid to equity concerns and ensuring accessibility for students. 

“We continue to decrease the opportunity gap by allowing all learners to use this space to participate in personalized learning activities,” Kerrigan says. “These spaces have also led teachers to buy into the ‘Building Thinking Classrooms’ model, which is currently popular in mathematics education.”

Welcome Visitors, Welcome Results 

History buffs might have heard stories of early America and the pineapple. Across the pond, the fragile nature and long delivery route made it such a status symbol that English gentry would rent the fruit as a table centerpiece to impress guests. George Washington became quite a fan while visiting Barbados. Being much closer to the growing region, presenting the fruit in colonial America was used as a sign of hospitality, displaying it outside the front door as a symbol that the host had returned from a journey and would again be welcoming guests. 

This bit of historical trivia and tradition has lent itself to a new school symbol in Kerrigan’s district that also supports active learning.

“We are big advocates of teacher leadership and learning from classroom experts,” says Kerrigan. “The ‘Pineapple Chart’ method involves teachers willing to have visitors in their room place a pineapple outside their door. It is a symbol of hospitality. Then, each participating teacher shares a time range for an interesting part of their class (bell ringer, activity, technology implementation, active learning, etc.). Teachers can sign up to attend and watch for a short amount of time (pending coverage). This allows teachers to learn from their peers in the moment in the authentic live classroom environment.”

The district also offers job-embedded PD and open EdCamp-style PD sessions during which teachers propose topics and those interested participate in discussions. Encouraging connection and next-level educational enhancement continues in and out of the active learning classroom. 

“We have seen more interest in STEM and taking risks in these spaces' classrooms,” says Kerrigan. “In my conversations with teachers and students, they have said these spaces make them feel comfortable and more connected to their teachers.”

• Active Learning: 5 Tips for Implementing the Approach
• Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award