The Chromebook Plus 515 is a powerful productivity-forward Chromebook for those that want to be productive as well as enjoy web browsing, music, and streaming.

Acer Chromebook Plus 515: Getting Started

After unboxing I was able to set up the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 just like any other Chrome device by simply logging in with my Google account. Once I finished some of the set up steps the device was ready for use.

Right from the start I could tell this device was quite powerful. Everything loaded very quickly and the response to more processor heavy tasks was handled without issue. It has a sturdy build to take abuse while on the go but is not too heavy for a device its size.

I liked the responsiveness and accuracy of the touchscreen as well as the quality images it produced. The speakers did a nice job delivering clear sound in both video and music streaming, while the battery delivered with a respectable charge to get me through a workday. Although, as with any cordless device your battery life may vary depending on use. But, overall it did a very nice job for all of my tasks.

I found the Chromebook Plus AI features to be a great help with both productivity and research tasks. It allows for text generation, live video/audio captioning, and basic image editing, all of which worked very well and are great additions.

I also liked how AI is integrated into so many areas of the ecosystem with new features being rolled out at a nice pace.

Acer Chromebook Plus 515: Key Specifications

• Display - 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 IPS (non-touch or touch)
• Processor - Intel Core i3-1215U (configurable up to Core i7-1355U)
• RAM - 8GB LPDDR5X (up to 16GB in higher configs)
• Storage - 128GB UFS (up to 512GB in higher configs)
• Graphics - Intel UHD
• Ports - 2x USB-C, 1x USB-A, HDMI 1.4, 3.5mm audio jack
• Connectivity - Wifi 6E, Bluetooth 5.1
• Webcam - 1080p with privacy shutter
• Dimensions - 14.2 x 9.4 x 0.79 inches (approx. 360.6 x 238.4 x 19.95mm)
• Weight - 3.7 pounds (1.68 kg)
• Battery - 53Wh, up to 8 hours per charge
• Build - Plastic chassis, MIL-STD 810H durability

Acer Chromebook Plus 515: Cost

The Acer Chromebook Plus 515 as tested is priced at $399.99

Acer Chromebook Plus 515: Key Takeaways

The Chromebook Plus 515 offers performance for everyday tasks such as writing, web browsing, and streaming, thanks to its Intel Core i3 (or higher) processor and 8GB of RAM. The large 15.6-inch 1080p screen is large and the option touchscreen is very responsive. The upward-facing stereo speakers are a standout feature, delivering surprisingly good sound for a Chromebook.

The device offers a wide selection of ports, including two USB-C, one USB-A, HDMI, and a headphone jack, making it versatile for peripherals and external displays. The AI features of Chromebook Plus such as text generation and live captioning, work well and add value, especially for productivity.

Overall, the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 is an excellent choice for students, writers, and anyone needing a reliable, affordable large-screen Chromebook for everyday productivity. It may need a bit of a charge for long, heavy-use days, but its performance, port selection, and speakers make it a standout in its price range.

While some schools have started to introduce AI literacy requirements, it is not something that is widespread. Moreover, students (and teachers) need to understand not only what AI is and how it functions, but also how it impacts many facets of our society, and its potential for harm.

In this article, we share free lessons and resources that you can incorporate into lessons for students about using AI.

AI Overview

For an overall understanding of AI, Code.org has a wonderful set of resources, including lessons that are aligned with computer science standards as well as concise-but-clear videos that break down related topics. The instructional videos are under the “How AI Works” program and explore topics on machine learning, training and data bias, neutral networks, computer vision, chatbots, and large language models. Learning materials are connected to the videos that can be used in lessons.

1. AI Responsible and Ethical Use

While Code.org briefly highlights biases that are inherent in AI, it is important to intentionally expand on AI responsible and ethical use from a tech justice lens. The Kapor Center offers a free Responsible AI and Tech Justice Guide for K-12 education. The guide is organized into six core components with the aim of building students’ capacity to explore the impacts and implications of AI technologies on society, be aware of personal usage of AI, and examine the AI creation ecosystem, among other goals. The comprehensive guide is packed with lessons, case studies, articles, and other resources.

2. Al Environmental Impacts

AI has major impacts on the environment, agriculture, water consumption, energy, and more, so there are developed lessons that you can use to teach students about these concerns. You can also build a focus on sustainability and taking personal actions to mitigate some of AI’s carbon footprint. Partially funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), this Environmental Impact of AI Lesson, which is under a Creative Common license, can be used. It features a vocabulary review, an interactive activity, and a planning guide as well as a section on teacher modifications that include teacher-made resources aligned with the lesson.

Similarly, the Share My Lesson community created by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) offers “AI’s Environmental Impact: The Growing Strain on Power Grids and Local Communities.” This resource includes video, defined key terms, discussion questions, extension content, and suggested deliverables.

3. AI Misinformation

The News Literacy Project offers Checkology, a free virtual platform with a curriculum to develop students’ ability to confirm when information is from credible sources, understand what a credible source is and where to locate one, and to use critical thinking to assess the credibility of content. The Checkology platform has a host of resources and interactive activities for students to engage in while learning about misinformation. It also has an evaluation center for teachers to track student progress and a help center for support. The lessons within the platform are aligned with myriad standards, including ISTE Student Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, Common Core ELA Standards, American Association of School Librarians Standards Framework for Learners, and the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards.

4. AI Deepfakes

AI for Education provides downloadable resources that include a classroom guide and discussion questions to use as you teach students about misinformation and AI deepfakes. The materials will help students understand what deepfakes are, the dangers of deepfakes, such as cyberbullying and misinformation, and techniques that are used to create deepfakes. It also offers real examples of deepfakes that feature popular artists and books, such as Katy Perry and Harry Potter.

Which Face is Real? also offers a game that you could play with students after they learn about deepfakes. In the game, two images appear (one AI-generated and one real image). The students then need to apply the skills they have learned on misinformation and deepfakes, and choose the one that is real. Which Face is Real? also has a Learn tab with information that can be shared with students as well.

We hope some of these resources are helpful as you prepare your students to understand and responsibly use AI. If you feel like you would like training yourself first, check out these 10 Free Certifications and Trainings for Educators.

• Developing AI Pedagogical Practices
• AI Lesson Plan Tips
• Explaining AI in the Classroom to Families

Fortunately, the image and clip art sites below provide an extensive supply of moderate- to high-quality visuals for cost-conscious schools. Most of these sites are completely free, and most have a clear license/FAQ page explaining what uses are allowed or prohibited.

Best Image and Clip Art Sites for Education

Freerange

Freerange boasts a stylish easy-to-navigate website with thousands of free high-quality images. Users can search easily by category or keyword, and filter by specific license and popularity. Download options include three sizes. Bonus- users can “download” directly to PIXLR for editing. While photos are tastefully and artistically composed, a few do include mild-moderate nudity. All photos and illustrations are licensed for commercial use, with details provided. Account required.

PROS:

• Clear Licensing Information and credit text provided
• Search by category, keyword, license type, recency and popularity
• High-quality photos and illustrations
• Three sizes available for download
• Users may share directly from image page to social media and email
• Users can contribute images

CONS:

• Occasional mild-moderate nudity may be considered inappropriate

Free Images

One of the oldest and largest free image sites, Free Images was founded as Stock.xchng in 2001. Over the next 20 years, the site merged with several free illustration sites and was renamed Free Images. Available in more than a dozen languages, the site is a repository for thousands of free photos, vector images, clipart, and editable Photoshop templates as well as icons. The robust selection of free downloads is supplemented by AI-generated images and content from the paid site iStock. No account is required, but each download is delayed for six seconds in order to show users an iStock advertisement/promo code.

PROS:

• 16 languages available
• Photos, vector images, clip art, icons, and editable Photoshop files
• Search by categories and themes
• Very good image quality
• Download size options
• Attribution clarity
• No account required

CONS:

• Paid images from iStock sprinkled in free results
• Download delay due to ads

Pics4Learning

A safe, curated image library for classroom assignments, school websites, or any education-related project, Pics4Learning provides a diverse spectrum of images in subjects ranging from American Sign Language to fractals to weather. Contribute your own JPEG or PNG images. Fully free, no account required.

PROS:

• Thousands of images curated for students
• Search by keyword, themes and collections
• Download as .jpg or save directly to Google Drive
• Citation for each image provided
• Users can contribute their own images

CONS:

• While image quality is at least adequate, there are fewer high-quality, professional-style photos compared to other sites

Pixabay

In just 15 short years, Pixabay has grown to be one of the best-known and most comprehensive free image sharing sites. Here visitors can explore and download collections of photos, illustrations, vector images, videos, and even music. All are free to download and free to use under the Pixabay license, which is a modified Creative Commons CC0 license. Pixabay shines in another way as well—its blogs and forums keep users apprised of the latest news and tips to make the most of the site.

PROS:

• Extensive collections of quality free images, videos, music, sound effects, and gifs in a wide range of categories
• Search by content type, orientation, size, color, date of publication, AI-generation, popularity
• Clear summary of license dos and don'ts
• Users can contribute their own content
• User forums allow discussions about site practices as well as artistic techniques

CONS:

• Quality varies, as is true for all free image sites

Photos For Class

From a partnership between Storyboard That and Pixabay, this education-focused image site allows teachers and students to download high-quality Creative Commons photos for school assignments. The main advantage of Photos for Class is that its curation process ensures that all images are appropriate for kids. However, no categories are listed for easy browsing and the search feature is limited, allowing only free text and voice search.

PROS:

• Four-step filtering process ensures that all images are appropriate for kids
• Downloaded images automatically cite author and image license terms
• Voice search
• No account required

CONS:

• Limited search capabilities
• No category list for browsing

Pexels

A top resource not only for free stock images, but also free stock videos. Pexels hosts photo and video challenges for multiple categories, with professional photography equipment awarded to winners. While you’ll find many high-quality images and videos on Pexels, there’s no category list or dedicated color search, so finding a specific image may take longer. No account is required, but create a free account to collect your favorites and contribute your own images and videos. Currently, 28 languages are supported.

PROS:

• Search by keyword, orientation, size, color, popularity, user, or upload date
• License rules clearly explained
• 28 languages supported
• User challenges

CONS:

• No comprehensive category list for browsing

Freepik

With photos, vector images, Photoshop (PSD) files, customizable icons, easy-to-edit illustrations, and an online template editor, Freepik is a one-stop shop for free images and image tools. Freepik's, freemium model provides a generous selection of high quality free content, although free users are limited to ten daily downloads.

PROS:

• Easy sign in with Google, Apple, or email.
• High-quality photos, vectors, illustrations, 3D models, video snippets, and more
• Filters let users search by keywords, free or premium, orientation, color, AII-generated, file type, popularity, and more
• Built-in editing tools for images and videos.

CONS:

• Free plan limited to 10 downloads daily.
• No access to premium images with free plan
• Attribution required for free downloads.

Unsplash

Thousands of free sometimes ordinary—but often eye-popping—images include categories such as nature, current events, technology, and many more suitable for education use. Most are free to download and use according to the Unsplash License, with the exception of premium (Unsplash+) content. A fun feature for contributors is the “Made With Unsplash” page, which showcases creative remixes of its images. Unsplash provides strong support for its contributors, so it's a great place for young photographers to get started sharing their work.

PROS:

• Many interesting, unusual, and stylish images to choose from
• Search by keyword or image
• Four download sizes
• Users can upload their own work
• Clear rules for licenses and attribution
• No account required

CONS:

• Premium content mixed with free content in searches
• Lacks comprehensive category list for browsing

Kaboompics

A professional-looking site featuring free high-quality photos in diverse categories, from lifestyle to technology to healthcare. Users can search by category, color of the spectrum and image orientation. A nifty perk is that each photo includes a free downloadable complementary colors palette. No account required.

PROS:

• Each image includes a specific color palette with color hex codes
• Custom size and orientation downloads
• Search by keyword, category, color, recency, or popularity
• Photoshoots are a great way to explore a theme
• Clear license and attribution rules

CONS:

• Sometimes tricky to distinguish premium photo blocks from free content
• "View more" button links to paid image site

NegativeSpace

A stylish and professional-looking site offering a wide variety of free, high-resolution Creative Commons CC0 photographs as well as free virtual backgrounds for videoconferencing and remote teaching. More than two dozen categories are available, from Abstract to Virtual Backgrounds. Search by category, hashtag and color. Be sure to check out the awesome outer space photos! No account required.

PROS:

• Easy to navigate interface
• Browse two dozen categories

CONS:

• Keyword search is somewhat unreliable
• No choice of download size

Gratisography

Gratisography is a great resource for creative and quirky stock photos and vector images. It's not only fun to browse, but also provides a clear, plain-language explanation of what users can and can’t do with the photos. Search by topic or browse categories including nature, food, urban and more. Collections range from “AI Generated” to “Artsy Architecture" to “Goofy Grownups” to “Hijinks Hands.” Although the site is heavy on whimsy, it’s not light on quality -- vectors and images appear to be professionally composed and executed.

PROS:

• Unusual, uncommon, and amusing high-quality images
• Search by keyword or browse categories and collections
• Clear license terms
• No account required

CONS:

• No attribution provided for images
• AI-generated images are not always labeled as such

Flickr Commons: The Commons

The Commons, from the photo-sharing site Flickr, serves as a free catalog of the world’s public photos with no known copyright restrictions, contributed by dozens of government and academic bodies. Comments from Flickr members provide context and additional information for many images. Search by subject, color, black and white, or seven different license options. Safe search option available.

PROS:

• Search by keyword, license, color, pattern, Flickr members, and themed groups
• Safe search available
• Users can contribute their own content
• Wide variety of image download sizes
• Great for historical images

CONS:

• Because contributors may disable downloading, not all images can be used
• License terms not always clear
• Account required
• Relatively high percentage of older content of varied quality

Vector Characters

A relatively simple site, Vector Characters focuses on character-based vector art in categories such as man, woman, child, robot, etc. For adding a touch of whimsy or humor to any school project, check out the Fruit Vector, Monster Vector, and Animal Vector categories. Free and premium content. Find free content by entering "free" in the search box.

PROS:

• No account required
• Hundreds of free vector images.
• Browse by category or character type.
• Informative blog posts

CONS:

• Limited search options
• No photos or other types of illustrations

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."

In her chapter in the book, which is composed by chapters written by various education experts, Royce argues that “the future educator will be less a conveyor of information and more a facilitator of learning experiences that foster critical thinking, creativity, and adaptability.”

However, this transformation requires rethinking how we train teachers and prepare them to implement these forward-thinking processes, says Royce, co-director of MAT in STEM Education at Shippensburg University and a past president of the National Science Teaching Association.

Recently, Royce shared highlights from Futuristic Insights on Education, which is free and available online, and other advice on making modern classrooms more friendly, inviting, effective, and future-ready. For Royce, that starts with how we educate teachers and facilitate these types of practices at a cultural level.

1. Truly Be A Guide On The Side

“We, as a society and field, need to redefine the teacher's role,” Royce says. “Teachers must transition from being content deliverers to facilitators who guide students in developing critical thinking, creativity, and adaptability for a future that doesn’t yet exist.”

Many educators don’t argue with this premise. Even so, many of these strategies are not implemented, or only implemented on occasion.

“We may say that we do this with terms like 'guide on the side,' etc., [but] we need to restructure how we teach to fully embrace this idea,” Royce says. “This means that we need to help students apply the knowledge and skills they have learned.”

Often, doing this involves incorporating teaching philosophies such as flipped and active learning, place-based learning, and problem-based learning into teacher education programs.

2. Forget Memorization

Memorizing for quizzes and tests is an aspect of teaching that Royce would like to see deemphasized in the future.

“Traditional memorization must give way to developing problem-solving, inquiry-based, and project-based learning approaches that engage students in real-world challenges,” she says. “When students are asked to engage with content using these types of skills, it also prioritizes the 4Cs: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.”

She adds, “If we truly structure the learning process in this way, it will help students to also become lifelong learners, which is needed due to continuous technological and societal changes.”

3. Break The Status Quo

Many educators are familiar with these types of strategies but are often unable to implement any because they have to cover specific content or prepare students for standardized tests, Royce says. Another barrier can be that teachers worry that if they fully adopt the “guide on the side” approach, their classes will be misinterpreted by their higher-ups or parents. Royce herself has experienced this.

“I ​​had one former principal tell me that my classroom does not look like learning is happening because students were not in their seats taking notes, with my quizzing them throughout,” she says.

She adds that the field should move away from this type of thinking. “Teacher preparation programs need to focus on teaching strategies that break the cycle of ‘the status quo’ or the ‘teach the way we were taught’ approach,” she says.

Royce has many strategies in mind for doing this, including reimagining clinical or field-based experiences to include mentorship in innovative classrooms where facilitation is modeled and having new educators learn about exciting teaching techniques from across the globe.

4. Make Traditional Lessons More Innovative

To see this type of thinking in action, Royce shares an example of an intermediate lesson on weather, geared to middle grades.

“In the traditional approach where information is conveyed, the teacher might present a slideshow on types of clouds, define weather terms, explain the four seasons, and show a video about weather patterns,” Royce says. “Students take notes and complete a worksheet matching cloud names to images.”

Meanwhile, the same type of assignment will look totally different in a classroom that utilizes both place-based and three-dimensional instruction in science, Royce says. In this type of classroom, the teacher will pose questions to students such as:

• Why are there more clouds in the morning some days?
• How does our local landscape (mountains, rivers, urban areas) affect the weather?
• Can we predict tomorrow’s weather using what we see today?

“With these questions, the students are asked to keep track of their own understandings as they record local sky conditions, temperatures, cloud types, using observations or photos, and any precipitation. Students then compare their data, identifying patterns and differences,” Royce says.

This and activities related to the exercise allow “students to construct understanding through direct engagement, critical thinking, and collaboration, guided by the teacher, not directed by a lecture, outline, or notes," she says. "This method empowers students as investigators, with the teacher facilitating discovery and making the content relevant and memorable.”

• AI Won’t Revolutionize Education. Here’s What Will
• Reimagining Learning Spaces To Empower Students

This month's new offerings feature many products that are being showcased at ISTELive 2025.

Avocor | A Series

The A Series features a detachable 4k camera for high-quality video. With Avocor EDLA OPS PC, users can enhance their Google experience with a certified Google EDLA display, enjoying the full benefits while maintaining energy efficiency. Handwriting recognition enables users to write naturally in whiteboarding mode before instantly converting to text.

Cellairis | CyberSystem

The new CyberSystem is a signal-blocking pouch designed to reduce distractions while keeping phones safely accessible for emergencies. Features include: Water-resistant and tear-resistant materials; ultra-strong Velcro; fits all major phones (with or without cases), plus earbuds, and smartwatches; hands-free carrying solution with attached carabiner; ID holder; built-in signal blocking stops incoming/outgoing communication.

Discovery Ed | DreamBox Reading PreK-Grade 5 Enhancements

Discovery Education is adding significant enhancements to the online, adaptive literacy program DreamBox Reading. These improvements broaden DreamBox Reading’s coverage to support all PreK-5 learners and expand educators’ abilities to develop students’ foundational skills and confidence in reading through personalized instruction. Among the latest enhancements made to DreamBox Reading are:  expanded access to adaptive, personalized learning for older readers; enhancements to the student experience; and improved teaching and learning Supports

Edlio | Community Analytics Dashboard

Designed to foster stronger engagement with families and communities, Edlio's new Community Analytics dashboard enables education leaders to monitor communication success, identify contact gaps, and take action to ensure that vital information reaches every member of their school community. It includes deliverability reports, targeted group messaging, and multilingual support.

Epson | PowerLite L-Series laser projectors

Epson's new three-chip 3LCD PowerLite L-Series laser projectors are compatible with Apple AirPlay, allowing users to share videos, photos, music, and more from Apple devices directly to their projector. The new lineup delivers higher brightness and pro level features in a portable design, with an expanded range of throw ratios from 0.5 to 2.2.

Ergotron | YES Adjusta Pre-wired Charging Cart

Ergotron’s YES Adjusta Pre-wired Charging Carts are available in two configurations to support safe, secure, and fast charging. The YES24 fits up to 24 devices with 24 charging bays pre-wired with USB-C power adapters, and the YES36 fits up to 36 devices with 36 charging bays pre-wired with USB-C power adapters. Because each Charging Cart is pre-wired with its own dedicated set of power adapters accessible behind a lockable panel, schools can eliminate the ongoing need to replace lost, stolen, or damaged charging cords.

Extron | UCS SW 313

The UCS SW 313 is a collaboration and presentation switcher for presentation, unified communications, and other meeting spaces. It features three inputs that support USB and dual HDMI sources and five USB device ports connect to peripherals such as USB cameras and microphones. The USB-C input provides video and audio, USB data, and 60 watts of power to charge a user's laptop computer. The HDMI output provides signal for the room display and supports resolutions up to 4K/60.

FETC | FETC State Network Alliance

The FETC State Network Alliance is a groundbreaking initiative designed to unite state edtech leaders in scaling innovation, amplifying professional learning, and sharing resources to strengthen the national education ecosystem. This alliance demonstrates how state leaders are leveraging technology to enhance teaching and learning while also cultivating resilient, future-ready communities. The FETC State Network Alliance will operate as a national network dedicated to promoting innovation, enhancing professional development, and showcasing exemplary practices in leveraging technology to support teaching and learning.

Hemco | Vented Demonstration Hood

The Vented Demonstration Hood is ideal for classroom experiments and demonstrations because of its viewing visibility from all four sides. An instructor can perform a science demonstration while the class gathers around and safely observes. The hood can also be used as a student workstation, or vented storage enclosure. A hinged viewing window or horizontal sliding glass panels allow easy access and user safety. An integral exhaust blower with a front-mounted switch safely exhausts fumes and odors. A vapor-proof light is factory-installed. A power cord is provided for immediate operation.

HMH | HMH AI Tools

HMH AI Tools integrate secure, purpose-built artificial intelligence with trusted curriculum to deliver personalized, high-quality instruction at scale. Designed for educators, these tools automate daily instructional tasks—like generating leveled reading passages, vocabulary scaffolds, and formative assessments—so teachers can focus more on student engagement and less on prep. Embedded in the HMH ecosystem and aligned with HMH curriculum, HMH AI Tools ensure seamless integration with district instructional materials and professional learning strategies.

Kramer | MTX3-88-PR Pro 8x8 4K60

The MTX3-88-PR Pro 8x8 4K60 is an all-in-one matrix that offers high-performance video processing and fast-switching scaling capabilities for AV needs in enterprise, education and government settings and beyond. This single-box solution is rack-efficient and reduces installation complexity, required cabling and potential points of failure. It is ideal for sharing local and remote content.

LG | LG CreateBoard Core, LG Chromebox OPS, and LG CreateBoard Prep

Among the new offerings on display at ISTELive 2025, LG is debuting LG CreateBoard Core, tailored for schools that prefer to operate with their own content management systems and operating platforms. Also featured is the new LG Chromebox OPS for LG CreateBoard, which transforms the display into a large-format Chromebook, enabling seamless integration with Google-based learning environments. Rounding out the innovations is LG CreateBoard Prep, a new, free interactive lesson-planning software that allows teachers to prepare and collaborate from virtually anywhere using a laptop or tablet.

Magewell | Pro Convert IP to USB

The new Pro Convert IP to USB is a plug-and-play device that enables computers, including laptops, to capture an NDI®, NDI® HX or other streaming sources through a USB interface with no external power required. It is ideal for use in conference rooms, production studios, and in environments where software does not natively support NDI or other IP protocols and/or the installation of additional software is not permitted.

Microsoft | Learning Zone, plus AI updates to Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot+ PCs

Microsoft’s new solutions to support educators include: Microsoft Learning Zone, the first education-focused Copilot+ PC app, allows educators to quickly create, share, and track personalized and interactive learning activities right from their Copilot+ PC; Teach module in Microsoft 365 Copilot App, a hub that brings the latest functionality for AI-powered features for educators in one place, allowing for easy lesson planning, material creation and modification, and more; and Study Guides in Copilot Notebooks, a tool to help students, or educators, turn materials into organized study material with engaging learning activities such as podcasts, flashcards, quizzes and more.

Nearpod | AI Literacy Lessons and Question and Lesson generators

Nearpod has launched a comprehensive package of AI literacy lessons that introduce students to AI concepts and technology, building a strong foundation for responsible and ethical AI use. Nearpod’s 21st Century Readiness Program equips educators with tools to teach AI literacy, digital citizenship, and other essential future-ready skills. The new AI generators can save teachers time by instantly generating high-quality interactive instructional materials customized by topic, grade, and standard. This gives teachers endless ways to introduce and re-teach content in order to differentiate their instruction.

Nureva | HDX Series

The HDX series is a response to the costs and complexities faced by IT managers who need to support a growing set of in-room audio requirements beyond full-room microphone pickup. This includes high-quality in-room media playback, voice amplification, voice lift, assistive listening, lesson capture, meeting recording and support for AI agents. The HDX series delivers this functionality in an integrated, cost-effective solution that doesn’t require special expertise to install, set up or maintain.

Philips | Unite LED 6000 Series All In One

The new foldable and height-adjustable 135” Philips Unite LED 6000 Series All In One combines cutting-edge Chip on Board (COB) technology with a fine 1.5mm pixel pitch for ultra reliable, ultra sharp visuals, from spectacular video to intricate meeting room presentations. It ensures content is always presented as intended, delivering vibrant colors, deep blacks, and uniform brightness.

Roland | BN2-30 Printer/Cutter and BD-12 UV Flatbed Printer

The BN2-30 is an eco-solvent printer/cutter with a maximum material width of 30 inches (736 mm), and the BD-12, a UV direct-to-object printer with a print bed of 12.2” x 8.3” (305 mm x 210 mm) that can accommodate items slightly larger than A4 in size. The BD-12 UV flatbed printer is designed for high-definition printing on three-dimensional objects up to A4 size and four inches (102 mm) in height, such as smartphone covers, notepads, sports memorabilia, giftware, fashion accessories, and promotional items. Optional rotary devices are also available that allow users to print easily and effectively on cylindrical objects up to two inches (50 mm) in diameter, such as cosmetics and travel items.

SMART | SMART Board GX Plus

Packed with premium features to help schools deliver modern learning experiences without the premium price, the GX Plus stands as a purpose-built innovation for both teachers and school leaders. It features a refreshed design, built-in tools that spark learning, and greater energy efficiency than competing models. Other key features include: EDLA licensed Android 14 experience with better security, speed, and access to the Google Play Store; upgradable to future versions of Android for superior longevity; integration with Google for Education and Microsoft 365 apps; 4K Ultra HD resolution with responsive multi-touch interactivity; and much more.

Sphero | Sphero Edu App upgrades

Sphero has introduced Python programming in the Sphero Edu App, giving students the tools to explore one of today’s most widely used and in-demand coding languages. Python joins JavaScript as an advanced programming option, helping learners bridge visual coding with text-based syntax. A new Python lesson collection for BOLT+, focused on robotics and physical computing, is now available in Sphero Central for students in grades 7–10. These lessons move programming off the screen and into real-world applications while helping students understand Python fundamentals. An educator guide supports each lesson with background info, instructional tips, and extension ideas.

Targus | VersaVu Bluetooth Keyboard Cases

The Targus VersaVu Bluetooth Keyboard Cases are versatile, slim keyboard cases made to upgrade the latest iPad models to a laptop-like experience, while keeping them protected. Standout features include: patented 360-degree rotation for seamless portrait and landscape viewing, an adjustable kickstand for comfortable typing, viewing, sketching, and reading angles, a full QWERTY backlit keyboard with large multi-touch trackpad and media keys, and mil-spec drop-rated protection made from high-quality materials and components.

Vernier | Go Direct 2-Axis Force Plate and Go Direct Turbidity Sensor

Vernier Science Education recently launched two new wireless sensors—the Go Direct 2-Axis Force Plate and the Go Direct Turbidity Sensor—for high school- and college-level science. These sensors can be used in a wide range of hands-on investigations to help students easily collect and analyze scientific data as they make real-world connections. The Go Direct 2-Axis Force Plate combines the Go Direct Force Plate and the Lateral Force Accessory into a single wireless tool, while the Go Direct Turbidity Sensor helps students analyze various water samples as part of water quality, water treatment, and short- and long-term water pollution investigations.

• Edtech Show & Tell

In the first class meeting, there are three key points that I emphasize that leaders need to consider.

1. Balancing usability versus security. Seeing regular news items about ransomware attacks on schools and public organizations tends to push leaders to embrace all of the security recommendations of their IT staff. However, usability is just as important as security. Secure systems that cannot be effectively accessed by end users are not effective. Security systems that require too many steps for end users tend to encourage users to develop work arounds that may be significantly less secure. Leaders must ensure that systems protect data without negatively impacting workflow.

2. Leaders do not need to be technology experts, but they need a basic understanding of the way technology systems are built and how they function within an organizational ecosystem. This foundational knowledge enables leaders to ask informed questions, engage meaningfully in strategic planning, and evaluate the risks and benefits of potential technology investments. Without this baseline understanding, leaders risk becoming overly reliant on technical staff or even IT vendors, which can lead to misaligned priorities, missed opportunities, or inadequate oversight.

For example, a school district superintendent doesn’t need to write code or pull reports, but they should understand how a student information system (SIS) integrates with extant learning management platforms and state reporting tools before approving a new purchase. This awareness helps them ensure that procurement decisions align with instructional goals and compliance requirements, rather than being driven solely by technical convenience or vendor promises.

3. Strong leadership is data-informed and not data-driven. The difference is that data-informed leaders view decisions as based upon data but they also take organizational culture and their leadership experiences into account. This provides the necessary human agency so decisions are made holistically and not only based upon data without context.

For example, a new principal once sent a truancy letter to the parents of a child who was struggling with cancer because they had missed ten days of school. The parents called me to complain. I was shocked, but when I reached out to the new principal, she told me she didn’t think that she had the ability to not follow the ten-day letter rule. Previous leadership had felt that such data had to be followed without considering the context of the absences, etc. As we enter a world that is becoming more data-rich by the day, it is essential that leaders at all levels understand that their experiences and judgement have to be engaged to bring context and hopefully clarity to the piles of data being gathered.

In today’s technology-saturated environment, organizational leaders must develop a strong foundational understanding of how technology influences strategic and operational decisions. Aspiring leaders need to balance usability with security so they recognize that overly secure systems that hinder usability can lead to risky workarounds. They need to understand how technology systems function and how the various facets of technology impact one another within an organization in order to make informed, mission-aligned decisions. Finally, they need to be data-informed rather than data-driven, and be able to contextualize data within the realities of organizational culture and human experience to avoid harmful missteps and make thoughtful decisions.

• 9 Ways School Leaders Can Use AI
• AI Resources for District Leaders

“AI has been here—it’s just forward-facing now and it’s here to stay,” says Bedden, who is wrapping up a five-year superintendency at Centennial School District in Pennsylvania. “There is uncertainty and a lack of awareness, and trepidation based on fear. But, for lack of a better term, it’s not the boogeyman.”

At the Networking Lunch and Panel Discussion at Tech & Learning’s EdExec Summit in Atlanta on August 19, Bedden will share the impacts of going big on strategic AI implementation in Centennial schools.

“We’re doing students a disservice if we don’t require [AI], and include work about responsible use,” says Bedden, who will be more than a month into his new role leading Village Charter School in New Jersey by conference week.

Bedden notes that before long, AI literacy will be as fundamental as traditional literacy. Such a statement “is absolutely controversial, but it’s our prediction,” he says. At college and in the workforce, AI will be part of students’ world, so talking through how to prepare students is educators’ responsibility.

Centennial’s AI implementation, launched in 2023, reflects leaders’ recognition that it’s far more than just another tech trend. Priorities include:

• Equipping educators and staff to safely and effectively leverage AI for innovative teaching, personalized learning, and efficiency.
• Establishing clear parameters and expectations for student use on generative AI in assignments.
• Building a foundation of responsible AI use that emphasizes transparency, accountability, and safety (including a mandatory district-developed AI Ethics Course for students in grades 7 to 12).
• Assessing AI tools continuously for age-appropriateness, potential bias, privacy protections, accessibility, and data security.
• Adhering to regulations (FERPA, IDEA, ADA, CIPA, COPPA) and district policies to ensure a safe, legally sound environment.

Centennial served as a model for this work when hosting the recent 2025 AI Symposium for Philadelphia region education leaders. In addition, through his consulting work Bedden is promoting how AI can create a more efficient, effective, and supportive learning environment, plus help schools reduce operational costs by optimizing budgets and minimizing waste while also meeting regulatory compliance requirements.

AI Efficiencies for Leaders and Staff

Technology implementations saving resources sounds like a budgetary win, yet one that could cost jobs. At Centennial, Bedden says, “We deployed without the intent to replace staff. If anything, it helped our staff be more efficient and effective, and in some cases we haven’t had to add staff.”

In his own work, using AI has been invaluable—resulting in colleagues being “in awe of how fast I’ve been able to deliver a response or product that has been requested,” Bedden says.

For example, recently he had to update the board on a school incident and got an assist from AI, with goals and guardrails. He asked for a summary of the incident and an email response that doesn’t violate privacy. “It gave me a succinct response and removed student names for me,” he shares. Then he asked for wording to show how the incident response adhered to a specific board policy.

When a colleague asks for assistance with a project, Bedden might share various AI-produced actions to consider, plus the iterative process he used for fine tuning the ideas. It doesn’t take long and he can quickly continue with his own to-dos.

Parents and other constituents interacting with Centennial’s website can now use an AI chatbot to get questions answered. “We call that a closed AI tool because it only pulls from our website,” Bedden says. “We didn’t want it pulling from outside. But if it doesn’t exist on the website, then people can’t give us feedback. It’s helping us improve transparency and service.”

AI for Teaching and Learning

Teachers and parents have had mixed reactions to the AI focus. “One thing we did from the get-go was communicate to parents, trying to get everyone on the same playing field,” Bedden says. “We wrote newsletters explaining what AI was and that we were going to be strategic. … Some people were hungry and excited about it, and a lot of people were like, ‘No, kids are going to cheat.’”

A video featuring three students sharing they already use AI—such as to get an explanation of a topic that’s different from a confusing one presented in class—helped show the need for educators to learn more.

Employee surveys made clear the need to address the technology’s human aspect. “You’ve got to be mindful of the false information, what they call hallucinations. They do exist,” Bedden says. “I always ask for evidence on a statement.”

Teachers get the final say on whether students use AI or not, and any cheating is handled like plagiarism. In their ethics course, students learn about properly referencing AI use and to “never look at it as the final say,” he explains. “As long as we do that, then we own the outcome.”

Bedden’s hope for AI is that educators accept it as part of our world. “But we also embrace our responsibility of keeping the human in the loop, and making sure users use it with a code of ethics,” he says.

• EdExec Summit

This free/volunteer program will include regular meetings, activities, networking, and more, all designed to bolster personal growth and learning, as well as the general educational leadership pipeline.

“Through this mentoring program we are hoping to bridge the gap between established and emerging leaders, helping districts eliminate silos and collaborate to foster ongoing generations of people centered leaders,” says Marquita Amoah, Tech & Learning Event Partnership Development Director who will be overseeing the program.

With this program, Tech & Learning also hopes to capitalize on the collected professional experience and innovation that is so prominent among its advisors and on display during regional leadership summits, and share it more widely. As most educators know, the profession tends to be very siloed and fraught with internal politics, so being able to connect beyond your own school, district, and state can provide a unique opportunity to build your career pathway.

Why be a mentor?

Being a mentor provides an opportunity to give back without heavy time commitment and shape the next generation of education leaders. It will inspire you by exposing you to new perspectives, and also keep you connected to national education trends and conversations. It will also help you expand leadership influence

Why be a mentee?

If you’re an emerging district leader, this opportunity provides access to a trusted sounding board that can help you develop and grow your leadership mindset and confidence. You will also break out of your own school silo and gain insights on challenges in other schools and districts, which can inform best practices for your own challenges.

GO HERE TO REGISTER AS A MENTOR OR MENTEE

“Collaborative learning is good for what goes into your own brain individually, but it's also really good for those teamwork skills that are going to give you a really great career later on,” says Jeremy Roschelle, co-executive director of Learning Sciences Research at Digital Promise.

Roschelle adds that challenge-based learning is a way to get students excited about collaborative learning, and can help raise the bar on student achievement overall.

What Is Challenge-Based Learning and How Does It Work?

Challenge-based learning fosters student learning by having them solve real-world issues that are important to them. These challenges can be international, national, regional, school, or even classroom-based.

The challenge-based learning framework was developed in the late 2000s, and was partly inspired by the challenges featured on reality TV. But unlike the challenges contestants face on shows, the challenges students engage in with challenge-based learning are not frivolous or arbitrary. Instead, these challenges connect to core learning concepts and help solve community issues. This process can also lead to deep learning.

“It's a very effective technique to get people highly engaged in a new area but also give them a choice about how they approach it, what they work on, and really stimulate their learning,” Roschelle says. “It also has the really nice feature of raising the bar based on what students and teachers in real school districts can do. Because often, when you come from a national-level perspective, you might underestimate what students can do.”

What Are Some Examples of Challenge-Based Learning?

Digital Promise helped launch the Ciena Solutions Challenge in 2021, which annually invites middle and high school students from across the globe to design solutions that address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This year, 62 school teams from across 20 countries were awarded cash prizes for their Ciena challenge projects, including 20 teams that received a $3,000 sustainability award and 42 additional teams that received a $750 award.

Recent winning projects ranged from promoting sustainability and AI literacy to empowering women and making schools drug-free to exploring the impact of decoding virus genomes and creating wildfire alert systems.

Roschelle notes that Digital Promise’s League of Innovative Schools works with many rural districts where access to health care is an issue. In these communities, “A challenge might be, how could AI enable our community to streamline its access and use of available healthcare resources. And students and teachers might work together on what we could do with AI to do that?" Roschelle says. "It's well within reach for a group of school students to take that on.”

How Is Challenge-Based Learning Different Than a Spelling Bee Or Academic Competition?

Challenge-based learning can have a competitive element; it’s not a traditional science, math, or spelling test because the goal is broad and open-ended.

“[Students are] not being dictated to do a uniform experience, which would be more like an international math competition,” Roschelle says. “In those, you have no control over what the math is; some panel of judges decides and you've got to deal with it.”

The same is true of a spelling bee, but is not true of a well-designed challenge, which has a broad learning destination in mind but no specific route to get there.

“The unconstrained nature is really important, because that's what creates the personal buy-in of the local students—they can make this matter for them,” Roschelle says.

What Ages is Challenge-Based Learning Appropriate For?

“Challenge-based learning can be used at every age,” Roschelle says. “I think its sweet spot starts in upper elementary school and goes through high school and into university education.”

He adds, “Successful universities often take on challenges for their community or for industry partners.”

Why Does Challenge-Based Learning Seem To Resonate With Today’s Students

Challenge-based learning can be particularly appealing to current students because of its approach to issues of real-world importance.

“We're seeing this is a generation of kids that are super aware of the world around them, and they want to contribute to solutions to the problems they see in the world, and challenges are a way to take advantage of the motivation they have and to funnel their energies to help them with skills, like teamwork and problem-solving, that are enduring skills,” Roschelle says.

He adds, “We're at a time that it's so important to feature what students are really capable of and how they want to contribute. It's their world. We need to create venues like challenge-based learning where students can show us how they want to contribute to the world.”

• Authentic Learning: What It Is And How to Incorporate It In Your Teachin
• What is Phenomenon-Based Learning?

Of course, as you’ve already guessed, even though the people in the video look, sound, and appear to be real, they were indeed created with “prompts” by AI — specifically Google’s new VEO 3, the tech giant’s most advanced public-facing AI video model.

VEO 3 is currently available to subscribers of Google’s $250 per month AI Ultra plan, which makes it unavailable for many education budgets. Yet, it’s still technology that seems likely to influence education in positive and not-so-positive ways.

On the positive side, once the technology trickles down and becomes more available, it’s easy to imagine educational-use cases with tons of options to create videos that relate to class exercises in various subjects, such as history or STEM.

But this technology also highlights the gray area around AI use and what its impact on actual creatives might be. Beyond that, it will -- troublingly -- lend itself very well to deepfakes. AI videos have already been used to spread misinformation, and to bully and harass in school settings. A tool such as VEO 3 potentially makes those types of illegitimate, and in some cases criminal, uses easier to create and even harder to spot.

Here’s a closer look at everything educators need to know about VEO 3.

What Is VEO 3 and Why Is It Different Than Other Video Generators?

VEO 3 is Google’s latest and greatest AI video generator. Combining Google’s Veo, Imagen, and Gemini AI models, VEO 3 is designed to let users create short, life-like videos with audio, and then string these videos together in longer scenes.

The tool is designed to make writing prompts for these videos easy and intuitive. This audio and ease of prompting in particular stand out when compared to other Google video tools and the competition. For example, when I used OpenAI’s Sora video generator, there was no audio, and prompting was as unpleasant as high school calculus.

But reviewers say VEO 3 not only produces amazing clips with audio, it does so with relative ease, though VEO 3 is far from perfect.

What Are Some Ways VEO 3 Can Be Used For Teaching?

If VEO 3 becomes more widely available for less money, or if your school has a large AI budget, it doesn’t take much to come up with creative uses for it: Writers can bring their stories to life with prompts, history students can recreate scenes from events they’re studying, and biology students can model photosynthesis and assess the video’s accuracy.

VEO 3 also has a feature that lets you see exactly what prompts others used to create their videos. For the growing field of AI education and prompt writing, this is a valuable feature and one that educators might encourage their students to explore in the future.

What Are Some Concerns About VEO 3 Technology?

VEO 3 does not yet have a tool that lets users upload an image and generate a video based on that, but that tool is available for VEO 2 and is expected to be rolled out to VEO 3 eventually. This will make VEO 3 a particularly powerful tool for generating deepfakes.

Even without this, VEO 3’s realistic videos and ease of use make it likely to increase the use of AI to spread misinformation and potentially bully and harass people. This is true for society in general, but will be amplified in school settings.

What Else Should Teachers Know?

Regardless of whether you’re a fan of AI technology or not, learning about the capabilities of VEO 3 and other AI video generators is critical. These tools are here, for better or worse, and educators and their students need AI literacy training in order to navigate a world in which what we see is not always real.

We’re not all prompts, as the video referenced at the start of this article claims, but increasingly much of what we read and see on the internet will be created from prompts, and we all should be thinking about how to navigate that.

• Sora: Is OpenAI's Video Generating Tool Helpful For Teaching?
• Lights, Camera, and 7 Actionable Ways to Use Google Vids

Spoiler alert: It won’t. At least not in the way some evangelists predict.

Why Tech Alone Doesn’t Transform Schools

Public education is not just a system. It’s a structure governed by high-stakes testing mandates, compliance-focused policies, union contracts, and deeply embedded cultural norms.

The issue isn’t a lack of innovation. It’s that the system is designed to resist meaningful change. It follows the money and prioritizes producing a compliant workforce.

We’ve Seen Better Models and Ignored Them

For decades, innovative school models that have broken the mold and defied conventional structures have emerged. These have proven that when you reimagine time, space, and curriculum, you can create places where learning feels real, relevant, and even joyful.

But today, most public schools have doubled down on test prep, pacing calendars, compliance, and seat time.

We already know what works. The real question is: Why don’t we adopt it?

What Other Countries Get Right About Innovation

Some nations do fund innovation, not just in theory, but in practice.

• In Israel, progressive schools, such as Democratic, Montessori, and Waldorf, are publicly funded on a per-pupil basis.
• In the Netherlands, the constitution guarantees freedom of education, meaning anyone can establish a school aligned with a specific philosophy (such as Dalton, Waldorf, or a religious one) and receive equal government funding.

In the U.S today., schools such as these are usually private, reserved for families with financial means. Public systems remain tethered to uniformity and test score data that primarily reflects socioeconomic status, English proficiency, and disability labels, making it a poor measure of factors under a school’s control.

If we can’t adopt successful, proven, human-centered approaches that already exist, why would we assume generative AI will force the change?

AI Can’t Fix What Culture Won’t Change

AI may auto-grade, differentiate, tutor, and respond instantly, but it won’t transform how we “do school” unless leadership, policy, and culture evolve.

Consider this: something as simple as the way we move students from class to class, by the ringing of bells, has remained unchanged for generations in most public schools. Students usually sit in rows, listen to lectures, memorize facts, and regurgitate information for tests.

And when AI emerged, what was the reaction of teachers, schools, and systems? Instead of integrating technology thoughtfully, many reverted to banning it, requiring students to rely solely on pen and paper. This approach, while well-intentioned, overlooks the fact that not all learners thrive with pen and paper, and technology can be an essential tool for many to express their thoughts and learn effectively.

If we haven't rethought these outdated fundamentals, why would we assume AI will suddenly spark a revolution?

Here’s What Will Revolutionize Education

If we truly want to revolutionize education, it won’t come from technology or AI. It will come from humans who embrace:

• Leadership that is bold enough to challenge the status quo and outdated norms
• Policy that funds and protects innovation in public schools, not just private ones
• Culture that understands and promotes student agency, relevance, and purpose

Until we empower public schools to implement what’s currently only available to the privileged, nothing will change.

The Revolution Comes from Us!

The revolution doesn’t come from smarter machines. It comes from smarter humans—leaders who dare to change policy and foster a culture that will open doors to innovation for all. That revolution won’t come from AI. It will come from us.

• Navigate AI with New Risk Assessments from Common Sense Media
• Lights, Camera, and 7 Actionable Ways to Use Google Vids

Teachers may not need to imagine too much longer. AI already provides helpful reading tutors and could have all the capabilities described above in the coming years, says Jeremy Roschelle, Digital Promise’s Director of Learning Sciences Research.

Digital Promise received a nearly $10 million grant from the Institute of Education Sciences to launch and lead the Using Generative Artificial Intelligence for Reading R&D Center (U-GAIN Reading). U-GAIN Reading will build on existing research conducted by Amira Learning, a research-backed Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) already being used by more than 1 million students each year.

The goal of U-GAIN is to turn the page on many of the literacy struggles that students across the nation struggle with by helping to provide research-backed evidence and training data to improve the ability of AI tutors to recognize diverse student voices and further engage students.

“Learning to read remains a national challenge with declining NAEP scores, and those scores show that many students are struggling to read even at a basic level by fourth grade,” Roschelle says.

As any teacher knows, these types of struggles often have heartbreaking consequences.

“If you learn to read, you learn every subject better, you end up with better outcomes in terms of going to college, better finances, better health," Roschelle says. "Learning to read is just such an important predictor of a student's further trajectory.”

AI and Literacy: Hearing Student Voices and Boosting Engagement

AI reading tutors already have impressive abilities. Amira, for instance, can listen to students read and offer feedback and assistance on mispronounced words and more, but the U-GAIN team hopes to take these capabilities to the next level when it comes to understanding what students are trying to say and recognizing their engagement levels.

Listening To Students

“For this thing to work, it has to accurately hear kids,” Roschelle says. “Many students speak with a dialect or an accent, or from a different regional idiom, and when this kind of technology can't hear a kid accurately, it can't help them.”

He adds, “Teachers experience their kids on speech recognition products, and they tell us the pain [they experience] when a multilingual learner, an English learner, speaks and the teacher can understand what the student is saying, but the technology can't.”

This problem arises because most speech recognition AI doesn’t have enough training listening to kids speak overall, and kids with various accents, in particular.

To help change this, the U-Gain Reading team is hoping to listen to between 500 and 1,000 kids who are using Amira weekly for a half year or more. They are working with linguistic experts from multiple school districts, and are optimistic they can get appropriate permission forms from enough parents to create a robust new dataset on which to train the AI tutors.

“We'll be able to make a big improvement in hearing kids speak,” Roschelle says.

AI Engagement

A student can sit with an AI reading tutor for half an hour each week, but if they’re not engaged, they’re not going to get the most out of it.

“We need that half hour per week, minimum, but they need to be really cognitively engaged in reading, which isn't always fun when you're struggling to read,” Roschelle says. “The really big challenge is many of the techniques we have for detecting engagement works with clicks and work with keystrokes.”

To be effective in this setting, Roschelle says, we need tools that can measure engagement through thing such as the tone of a child's voice in the same way a teacher might be able to.

Harnessing AI's Potential For Individualized Learning

After challenges around engagement and speech recognition are overcome, AI tutors can respond to students in new and robust ways.

“Once we have those, then we have these amazing capabilities of generative AI that we can start to apply to solve problems,” Roschelle says. In particular, Roschelle is excited about the possibility of generating unique readings and responses for each student.

“Most products, Amira included, have a corpus of texts that they can give to a student to read, but they don't necessarily engage every student’s background knowledge,” Roschelle says. “And you read better — this is pure science of reading— when you engage background knowledge and you build background knowledge. Reading isn't just decoding. It's also using knowledge.”

An AI that can build higher-quality customized texts can potentially boost student engagement with the lesson. “We know if kids like dinosaurs, give them more dinosaurs,” Roschelle says.

AI tutors also need to learn to better respond verbally to students who are struggling with a text. Since many new readers are by definition unable to read, responding in a conversational way is key.

“You have to give them verbal feedback,” Roschelle says. “Right now most of the products do that in a limited way with canned interventions.”

He adds, “What we're on the verge of is being able to generate conversations much more like what a parent or a teacher would have with the kid that feature both the engagement and the reading skills, side by side.”

Roschelle is excited about what the U-GAIN Reading team will learn over the next five years, and believes with the help of a skilled teacher, AI can start to make more of a dent in some of the reading struggles students currently have.

“We’re working on the tough problems that will really drive the field to the next generation,” he says.

• AI In Education Executive Order: What You Need To Know
• 4 Studies About AI Tutors Every Teacher Should Know

The panel featured:

• Matthew Winters, AI Education Specialist, Utah State Board of Education
• Dr. Michael Gaskell, School Principal in East Brunswick, New Jersey, Author, and Speaker
• Kathi Kersznowski, Lead Educational Technology Specialist, Washington Township Public Schools in New Jersey
• Kellie Ady, Senior Director, Education Strategy, PowerSchool & Government Relations

The participants shared advice, best practices and specific ways that they personally approach providing PD centered around implementing AI into their work.

Watch the on-demand webinar here

Key Takeaways

More Engaging AI PD - “I love to make PD fun, and people don't wanna work in the summer,” said Kersznowski. “So if you can make learning not feel like work, I think that's your best bet." She shared suggestions to make AI PD more engaging and informal, including:

• AI Appetizers: Friends gather, bring appetizers, and informally explore AI tools such as ChatGPT or Claude.
• AI Accountability Buddies: A group text in which colleagues share AI discoveries and ideas.
• AI Cook-off: Participants challenge one other to use AI to generate recipes and then prepare them.
• Daily Coffee Chat: Anyone can spend five minutes each morning trying out an AI app on their phone.
• Spontaneous Planning: Use AI to generate fun day trip ideas based on preferences and budget.
• Playing with a Podcast (NotebookLM): Using NotebookLM (a free Google product) to create conversational podcasts from prompts, topics, websites, or YouTube videos. This can be used for personal interests or to spark ideas for classroom use.
• AI Book Club Member: Adding a chatbot as a member of a book club to offer its thoughts on the reading.

Find game changers - Gaskell suggested keeping it simple, focusing on “The whole concept of, ‘Wow, that's something fairly simple, straightforward, and very intuitive that that teachers can get interested in,’” he said. He highlighted "game changers" that can excite educators about AI, focusing on practical and intuitive applications. He then shared personal examples of using Google Gemini to:

• Convert a handwritten list of calendar dates from a Post-it note into Google Calendar events
• Create a calendar event from a screenshot of a confirmation text message (such as for a service appointment)

He also advocated for using NotebookLM for PD, noting its ability to create conversational voices and the new beta mode allowing interaction with them.

Start by getting personal - “I think everyone's aware that we have sort of a gap between student adoption of AI tools and then teacher adoption of it at the classroom level,” said Ady. “But we are seeing some shifts in terms of being more open to trying AI tools instructionally and not just personally.”

To help teachers who are reluctant to adopt AI tools, she suggested:

• Remind them about the tools they already use in their personal lives, such as GPS.
• Encourage using AI as a "thought partner," whether with a chatbot or a colleague.
• Highlight how AI can save time, such as by communicating with families.
• Embed AI tool usage directly into PD, allowing them to experience AI as learners.

Encourage play - "What we're learning is the importance of play,” said Winters. “I think we, as teachers, don't do enough of it in our classrooms, but also we don't play enough as adults. And when we talk about a tool that rewards creativity and curiosity like AI does, especially generative AI, we really gotta jump in and play once in a while with it."

Winters also discussed Utah's statewide AI training initiative, and emphasized how AI can boost productivity for teachers by:

• Speeding up actions: Using AI for tasks such as writing emails, creating formative assessments, and drafting rubrics, with human editing and revision.
• Fostering creativity: Exploring new possibilities within the classroom system that were previously unknown.
• Enhancing accessibility: Supporting traditionally underserved populations, such as students with disabilities, multilingual learners, and gifted and talented students.

He also suggested focusing on "tool types" rather than specific AI tools due to varied district resources and safety guidelines. He categorizes these as:

• Constitutionalized chatbots: AI with added rules for student functionality.
• RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generative) databases: Tools that draw from a knowledge base.
• Multimodal AI: Tools that produce various content types such as images and text, or even videos.

Looking ahead - The participants were asked for a bold prediction about AI.

"I don't know if this is a bold prediction, but I think it's a must do,” said Kersznowski. “AI is here. I think if it didn't settle in last year, this past year, I think everybody has started to realize it's here to stay, and it's not going away, and it's nothing we can continue to fear."

Winters added: “Ken Robinson, one of my favorite educational theorists, says that PD should be viewed not as an expense, but as an investment. And I think when we talk about artificial intelligence or anything that's associated with personalized learning, we need professional development consistently for teachers across the country to help build that capacity and around the globe as well.”

• Tech & Learning webinars

The beloved children’s show is made by the nonprofit Sesame Workshop and launched in 1969. Sesame Street’s future was recently uncertain when the streaming service Max announced it wouldn’t renew its contract with the show last December. Netflix, however, has stepped in to save Sesame Street, with a deal that will see new episodes debuting on Netflix as well as PBS and PBS Kids.

In anticipation of the show coming to Netflix, I thought it would be a good time to examine its educational impact. To that end, I spoke with Marie-Louise Mares, a communications professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Steven Holiday, an advertising professor at the University of Alabama. Both have studied the impact of Sesame Street on children and their education and provide a closer look at the science of Sesame Street.

The Science of Sesame Street: How The Show Teaches Kids

Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that produces Sesame Street and other shows, built educational science into Sesame Street’s DNA.

“Right from the word 'go,' they involved educational scientists,” Mares says. “There's always been both formative research, where the writers and educational psychologists and so on are kind of generating scripts and plans, and are doing this kind of rapid cycle pre-testing.”

The show’s creators have also done summative research to evaluate the effectiveness of the show, and in so doing, better understand how children learn overall. That includes assessing and thinking about aspects such as the length of segments and presenting the same lesson in varied ways.

“It's considered really effective, in part because they're willing to tweak it and alter it based on the sort of feedback they're getting from the kids and evaluations of the kids,” Mares says.

Using Advertising Strategies to "Sell" Kids Kids Learning

Holiday has researched how Sesame Street uses Madison Avenue sales techniques to “sell” learning to children. Sesame Street has a magazine format and features commercial-like segments that teach kids about reading or math. This is by design, Holiday says, noting that the show’s original creators knew that commercial breaks actually help sustain interest.

“They hired somebody who was from the advertising world and said, ‘Hey, make these actual commercials that are structured like commercials that are going to sell something to kids. Let's sell them letters and numbers,'” he says.

Good educators often take this type of advertising approach naturally, and Holiday’s research found that Joan Ganz Cooney, a co-creator of Sesame Street, believed Madison Avenue sales people had actually stolen many of their best sales techniques from effective teachers.

Whatever the origins, Holiday believes using advertising strategies to educate children could be better harnessed overall, including from app developers.

The Educational Impact of Sesame Street

Watching Sesame Street has repeatedly been associated with positive outcomes in children and for such things as early school readiness.

In 2013, Mares was the lead author on a meta-analysis of 24 studies conducted with 10,000 children in 15 countries. This study found that watching Sesame Street was associated with significant positive learning outcomes, including literacy and numeracy, learning about the world, health and safety knowledge, social reasoning, and attitudes toward out-groups. Overall, Mares research suggests that children who were scoring in the 50th percentile on tests before viewing the show could be predicted to score in the 60th percentile after viewing it.

The positive gains associated with watching Sesame Street that Mares observed were similar to other interventions, including nutrition programs and pre-K classes.

“[The effect sizes] are kind of on the upper end of small by some metrics,” Mares says. “But when you compare them to other kind of attempts to intervene in cognitive learning outcomes or emotional outcomes with kids in similar countries, it's along the lines of many of those other interventions, and those other interventions are often much more difficult to have reach and scale, because they're often in-person, and evolve giving money, giving food, etc, having preschools, and so on.”

Other research has found similarly positive effects.

Getting The Most Out of Sesame Street and Other Educational Shows

To maximize the educational impact of watching Sesame Street, both Holiday and Mares say the best thing a parent or caretaker can do is watch the show with their child, though they acknowledge that isn’t always possible.

Even just listening in and talking about the concepts with your child later can help, Mares says. She adds that in her research with parents of young kids, they often tell her that shows such as Sesame Street or Daniel Tiger are most helpful when they reflect back on it as similar situations occur in real life.

"Daniel Tiger often has these kinds of lessons about how to handle reading or washing your hands after you've used the potty, or whatever it may be,” Mares says. So if a child is getting upset, a parent might ask them what Daniel does, and remind them to “take a deep breath and count to four.”

Holiday says parents should make sure to ask their kids questions about the show, ideally as they’re watching it but also later.

“The parental co-viewing and communication, where you're there with them, and you see the content and you have them think through the content, will amplify that learning,” he says.

The Sesame Learning Channel, available exclusively through Discovery Education, offers ready-to-use early childhood resources for educators, including to support whole-child success in foundational math skills, language and literacy skills, and health and wellbeing, with lesson plans, embedded educator support tips, micro-PL videos, family supports, and more.

• AI-Assisted Characters Help Students Learn From TV, According to Harvard-Led Research
• Gamification: Pros and Some Cons, According to Research

More than 200 leaders will convene in August at the Chateau Elan Winery & Resort, just north of Atlanta, GA, to address the most pressing issues of the day, from the impact of policy and funding changes to the imperative of leveraging AI responsibly. Industry leaders will be working alongside one another and their counterparts from school districts – 25% of attendees, speakers, and facilitators hail from school districts around the country.

The conference not only honors the importance of having educators in the room, it takes a cue from how they have transformed the standard classroom. Education leaders have empowered teachers to reduce their dependence on traditional sit-and-get, rote instruction, creating experiences that drive deeper engagement for all learners. Inspired by this shift, the conference organizers are limiting a reliance on traditional speaker sessions and introducing more opportunities for leaders to work alongside their peers through facilitated sessions, workshops, and breakouts.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE EDEXEC SUMMIT HERE

Insight From Real-World Industry Leaders

The convening will kick off with perspectives from industry leaders, global providers, and state-level education offers to reflect on what constitutes the soul of the education economy. Each day, education leaders will be invited to share their opinions and insights on what they heard, with a standing invitation to keep industry leaders grounded.

FIND THE EDEXEC SUMMIT AGENDA HERE

An important part of the experience is the role of organizations supporting the event, the kind that bring unmatched experience and a wealth of knowledge to the table. A diverse set of global and domestic operators have rallied around Tech & Learning’s EdExec Summit, including Authentica Solutions, which is increasingly at the center of K-12 interoperability, and Compro Technologies, which supports education providers around the world.

Additional support from education’s leading investment banking and advisory firm, Cherry Tree & Associates, signifies the ongoing role that M&A continues to play in this space. Additional supporters such as Product & Process, OpenField, and Hawke Media, round out the sponsor community by adding much-needed insight on the product experience in schools. Event partners do more than help underwrite the event, they signal to the market that convening in the right way, with the right priorities, is integral to shoring up the long-term prospects of providers across the industry.

Making Authentic Connections

In today’s education economy, industry leaders are operating with headwinds that are as strong as they’ve ever been, from fitful policy management at the federal level to stressful conditions at the local level. That’s why it’s as important as it's ever been for leaders to come together in a forum that fosters real meaning, renewed energy, and an affirmation that providers can do well by doing good.

MEET THE EDEXEC SUMMIT SPEAKERS HERE

It takes more than flashing lights and high-priced speakers to help leaders find real meaning, which is why Tech & Learning’s EdExec Summit is an experience that is less about making noise and more about making real connections. The producers, Tech & Learning, in partnership with First Step Advisors, have cultivated a faculty that is unapologetically diverse, populated by a strong cohort of education leaders, and will be empowered to push back on forces that are working to undermine society’s most important work.

“I’ve been punching above my weight my whole life—not because I wanted to prove anyone wrong, but because I refused to ever leave the ring.”

“Pomp and Circumstance” is in the air as talented young graduates prepare for the next phase in their journey. But not all kids will be celebrating. Some suffer the pain and agony of intense struggle. They are the disadvantaged, at-risk children, following a predictable doomed path of decline where others have opportunity….

In the 1960s, a study was conducted in which teachers were informed that some of their students were "intellectually gifted." These randomly selected students showed significantly higher gains in IQ scores compared to classmates. The rub? They weren’t gifted. The teachers were told a fable and increased their standards, which the kids rose to meet. This showed how positive expectations impact student performance, a phenomenon known as The Pygmalion Effect.

Similarly, a longitudinal study tracked the Kids of Kauai, during which multiple high-risk factors such as poverty and family instability lead to expectations of doom and failure. Yet, a large number–one-third!–demonstrated remarkable resilience, developing into competent and well-adjusted adults.

The stories are all around us. We see people who are supposed to fail, but time and again don’t. Why? What made the difference? Why are we not paying more attention to what works when it’s staring us in the face?

A Tale of Two Struggles

Let’s take a closer look at two people who certainly had good reasons to fail, and yet . . . .

The son of a single mother had been evaluated by the school psychologist, and was flagged for failure. Her report was uncompromising. Here is a summary:

His childhood was a constant uphill battle; below-average intelligence and depressed verbal scores made learning and communicating a struggle. Socially, he was lost, marked by significantly depressed social awareness and interactions, which often led to hostility and poor impulse control when frustration mounted…

Imagine being the parent receiving this news? Kicking a horse when it’s down?

Here is the story of another child who faced similar struggles in her academic years, in her own words:

I felt useless when I couldn’t succeed. Like, why even try? I felt blindsided by all that went wrong. People taught me to see the positives to succeed. There were cheer coaches who pushed me through. Mrs. Fleming taught me for 2 years and she helped me believe. I struggled in her class, didn’t want to try and felt it was pointless.

I have found this past year what she has taught me doesn’t just help me with school skills but teaches me life skills like never giving up on yourself, even when you’re at your breaking point. I learned if you push through, you won’t have any regrets.

I ask educators to make predictions of these children, and those predictions are stark. People think poorly of difficult children such as these, and how likely failure looms. We are quick to imagine these children will struggle into adulthood.

Over the years, however, my research and stories keep reinforcing the same theme: more children overcome failure than we expect, and we are always surprised. We shouldn’t be! What’s more, studying these children, and how and why they overcame, such as the Kids of Kauai, provides strategies to help countless others lost in a fog.

The ingredients to success?

1. 1. Non-parental mentors
2. A strong affiliation with a group purpose larger than themselves
3. Most of all, resilience

What makes resilience so empowering is that it can be learned–it doesn’t have to be instinctive.

Stacking Small Wins

You might be surprised to learn that one of the children from above was me. This gives me the opportunity to empower children. As a non-parental mentor, I see a light where one wasn’t present. Providing this kind of hope to at-risk students gives them a chance, and they start to find success, one small win after another.

Small wins are powerful, incremental, and time-tested. It works. Showing children this path is energizing, and seeing students step into it creates the inspiration to want to keep going.

The other child from above is my daughter. She called me one afternoon on FaceTime, when she was in fifth grade. It was one of the first times I saw the stark reality of her struggle. There had been other times, sure, but patient adults worked with us to manage her challenges. This time seemed different…

Dani had so many characteristics that matched mine. This is likely what made it more difficult for me to accept that she would face the same struggle, the torture, that I had endured. I wanted to cradle her in my arms and make it all better.

The next few years featured similar scenes. Calls from the school. Emails from teachers. Another day in 8th grade she got into a fight in the school cafeteria, which resulted in her removal from the cheerleading team. Then, one day the school called to report that she had been bullied by girls from the team, saying she no longer belonged in the group, since she was off the team. It was kicking a horse when she was down.

The surreal truth was hearing her say, every day, “I hate school,” from fifth through tenth grade. It was painful to hear because I knew how she felt. She tried out for a competitive cheer team, made the highest level, and was quickly demoted to a mediocre level. She would come out of practice, crying and anxious.

It’s hard to pinpoint the transformation. A high school teacher reached out to tell me she had more than she thought in her. As her grades surged, she was also showing incremental success at her new, more family-oriented cheer gym. My little girl made the highest level team and around the same time, I began to notice she wasn't saying the dreaded quote, “I hate school….”

One small win after another. That’s what fertilizes a slight edge, which becomes impressive gains. Captain of her cheer team, cum laude academics, and she got accepted to her reach-school.

Not every step is a success, it’s a jagged line, and she has a keener understanding about staying in the ring, rather than striking gold.

Helping One Struggling Child At A Time

I’m far from a perfect father, but I got to share my story with Dani, and then celebrate her successes when it seemed like too many failures impacted her well-being and belief in herself. She stopped saying, “I hate school,” and the struggling little girl became a resilient young woman.

What was happening around her was the belief she internalized, that she could build on her small wins until one day she was a proud graduate and made it to her dream school, Penn State.

A beacon of hope was all she needed. When she started to hear from those like her teacher and coaches about how to believe, her very own non-parental mentors penetrated the shell of doom in which so many drown. That barrier broke down, little by little, until she became a resilient young woman. Like her dad, far from perfect, but she is hopeful and unrelenting.

More kids should benefit from the challenges we’ve overcome. Let’s start teaching them, one struggling child at a time.

• Best Free Social-Emotional Learning Sites and Apps
• Lifelong Learning: Modeling for Students and Faculty

What do in-person AI labs look like and how are they being used? Following is a glimpse at what the AI action is like at four institutions: Pace University, Foothill College, Sacred Heart University, and Bryant University.

How Do Institutions Describe Their AI Lab?

AI lab descriptions can lean explanatory or conversational.

Pace (New York City) and Bryant (R.I.) take the explanatory route:

• Bryant's AI lab main page describes the lab as “a hub for students and faculty to collaborate and explore the potential of AI in business. This dynamic space serves as a showcase for Bryant’s data-driven and innovative culture and promotes the Data Science and Information Systems programs to prospective students and corporate partners.”
• The top of Pace’s page notes, “Students, faculty, and staff come together to research and learn about artificial intelligence—from machine learning and natural language processing to powerful prompts for generative AI.”

Foothill College (of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District in Calif.) and Sacred Heart (Conn.) use the more conversational approach:

• “Welcome to the Foothill College Artificial Intelligence (AI) Lab – The AI lab is where we explore and learn about Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Robotics.”
• “Immerse yourself in the latest AI technology and the chance to collaborate on useful, new applications in our state-of-the-art facility,” beckons Sacred Heart’s AI Lab page. The lab “offers the cutting-edge tools needed to tackle new and arising challenges in our modern world.”

What Needs Do AI Labs Meet?

Pace’s lab, according to an associate dean in a March 2024 announcement, allows the university to “consolidate, strengthen and extend the existing AI initiatives and create exciting new ones in education and research-leveraging partnerships within and outside the university.”

Bryant’s “why” involves allowing students and faculty to collaborate and explore what AI can do in business, plus showcasing how the university has a data-driven culture as well as promoting its data science and information systems programs to prospective students and corporate partners.

Sacred Heart describes its lab as a collaboration to address issues in the world and “collectively drive the contemporary run into digital revolution.” In the process, students learn “how to manage a project and bring a project to completion,” says Bob McCloud, a computer science professor. “In AI, the most important thing we teach them is, what is good data, what is reliable data, and how to structure data so you can use in AI process.”

Foothill, meanwhile, is one of dozens of community colleges collaborating with the American Association of Community Colleges, Dell Technologies and Intel to grow the AI Incubator Network and Intel’s AI for Workforce programs.

Who Can Use AI Labs?

These labs are typically billed as open to all faculty, students and staff. Pace calls it “the central hub of AI for the Pace community, offering training and opportunities to learn, grow and collaborate.”

Internal (students in related courses, the esports club team at Sacred Heart, the student-run Google Developer Group at Pace, for example) and external (like the New York tech community at Pace, invited to network with students) groups are more targeted AI lab users.

What Equipment Do AI Labs Have?

Students and other visitors at Pace bring laptops and connect to the high-performance computing (HPC) and Nvidia GPUs in the lab, says spokesperson Sean Coughlin. Additionally, three Alienware workstations are available. In the same building, the separate Robotics Lab offers hands-on training using a Clearpath Humanoid robot, a mobile manipulator and Clearpath Jackal devices used in computer vision education and research. Plus, Coughlin says, “the lab sports a Shadow Robot Hand.” Ph.D. students conduct AI research, using the robots for experiments and to develop models.

Bryant’s AI lab has a dedicated space for robots and includes two humanoids (Pepper and NAOv6), two vehicle robots, and robotic arms. It houses five collaborative GPU workstations with chips manufactured by NVIDIA, plus movable whiteboards (for more workspace and as privacy partitions) and large-screen monitors. “The AI Lab is designed for students to experiment with machine learning and its applications in robotics,” says Chen Zhang, an associate professor of information system analytics.

Forty Alienware computers with advanced processing capabilities and 24 separate workstations that can access three dedicated servers for student and faculty research are found in Sacred Heart’s lab, which also has object recognition equipment and eye trackers.

What Are Some Ways AI Labs Are Used?

Foothill’s AI lab has supported the college’s Tools for Transition and Work program supporting neurodivergent individuals. Four students in a winter 2023 pilot program spent their academic quarter building autonomous robots and learning engineering and coding skills. The number of participants has since grown to at least nine. Meanwhile, staff and faculty provide AI exhibits and demos at college events, including those for youth from local organizations.

Sacred Heart’s lab has helped the local community, too. In one project, professors and students studied how to improve a municipal tree planting program between the town and homeowners, explains McCloud. The study identified the best tree types and providers for various circumstances.

In another project, Sacred Heart students, professors, athletes and coaches looked at the correlation between time played and performance. The work involved monitoring training, statistics, sleep minutes and game minutes to predict optimal training levels.

“It seems as if some players are playing too many minutes for optimum performance,” says McCloud. “The idea of AI is to be able to look at reliable data and learn from it and then keep learning.”

And in an ongoing study, convolutional neural networks are being used to show how fraud can be detected in painting attribution.

Pace students’ experiential opportunities have included the AI Internship Experience Program. Using the lab, student teams developed AI models that could classify and generate images of butterflies, flowers and Minecraft-inspired visuals. Also, faculty developed a module for a Design Faculty Global Network course, covering equity-centered AI design. About 15 Pace students took the online course, taught by professors from Columbia, Finland, Portugal and the U.S.

Bryant data analytics students have used the AI lab to research a project involving AAA travel booking data and how it can predict whether and why some people cancel their trips. Corporate partners can use the AI lab for meetings, presentations and research, with the hope that students with expertise in AI, machine learning, analytics and robotics could participate, plus serve as a recruitment pool.

When students have opportunities to work with AI, they’re not only building technical skills but also becoming skilled in project management and bringing new information to the world.

“Students learn how to define scope, they learn how to say what they’re going to do in a project at the beginning,” says McCloud. “We focus on constructing or importing accurate, reliable data sets and then figuring out how to use those data sets to increase knowledge.”

Despite these efforts, inappropriate AI use has increased among my undergraduate students instead of decreasing. I’ve noticed what I believe is AI writing not just in formal assignments, but in discussion board posts and, perhaps most disturbing of all, in written responses to classmates and to me.

I’m not alone. Reliable data is still lacking on how prevalent AI writing is in education, but in casual conversations with colleagues, most have reported similar upticks, with several estimating that more than 50% of writing submissions are now AI-generated.

Recently, I attempted to fight fire with fire, and asked ChatGPT how I could prevent students from using it and other similar tools to write their work for them. ChatGPT responded with a range of suggestions. Some were standard but helpful, others were standard and I think ineffective, while there were also a few tips I haven’t considered implementing.

Here’s a closer look at ChatGPT’s advice for educators such as me who are, ironically, tired of reading and grading papers written by ChatGPT.

Asking ChatGPT How To Limit Student Cheating

For this experiment, I used GP4-4o model, which I get access to through my subscription to ChatGPT Plus.

I started with the following prompt:

Hi, I'm a college writing and English professor. My freshman writing students are frequently using ChatGPT and similar AI tools to write their papers and their online discussion board posts. What can I do to prevent them?

ChatGPT provided a series of suggestions. I then asked it to share an example of an AI-resistant assignment and look at one of my assignments, and followed up with other requests. The advice ChatGPT provided on preventing ChatGPT fell broadly into the following categories.

1. Make Prompts Personal and Specific

What ChatGPT advised: Ask students to connect readings or themes to personal experiences, class discussions, or campus/local events. Use hyper-local or course-specific references: “Refer to our in-class debate on March 5th” or “Discuss your experience attending the campus event on X.”

My take: This is really good advice. I teach online, so it’s not always applicable for me, but overall the principle is sound. Focus on assignments that require information that is not available on the web. This way, even an AI equipped with web-browsing capability can’t come up with satisfactory answers.

However, when ChatGPT provided examples of writing assignments it felt were AI resistant, ChatGPT didn’t quite follow its own advice. For instance, one assignment asked a student to include a personal reflection on what writing the assignment was like. In my experience, those types of questions are easy for AI to duplicate.

2. Require Process Documentation

What ChatGPT advised: Have students submit brainstorming notes, outlines, rough drafts, peer reviews, and reflections. Ask for screenshots of revision history if using Google Docs. Include a short oral presentation or in-class writing follow-up.

My take: This is sound advice. I’ve resisted implementing these types of documentation requirements in my own classes because it's a cumbersome process for me and feels like an annoying extra step for those students who are not using AI to do their work. However, it seems increasingly necessary, and if structured properly, can help reinforce lessons around outlining and the overall writing process.

3. Use Multimodal or Interactive Assignments

What ChatGPT advised: [Use] podcasts, infographics, video essays, or collaborative wikis to make AI generation harder and student voice more visible.

My take: This is great advice and can make assignments more interesting and fun for students in general. For writing class this is a bit more challenging because my job is to teach students to write, not necessarily to create podcasts or audio content. However, I'm always looking for new and engaging ways to convey writing concepts, and this could do that with the added bonus of limiting the impact of AI.

4. Integrate AI Use Transparently

What ChatGPT advised: Instead of banning AI entirely, consider teaching responsible use: Scaffold AI literacy. Give students assignments that require them to experiment with AI tools and reflect on their usefulness and limits. Example: “Use ChatGPT to generate a rough draft of an introduction, then revise it critically. Highlight your changes and explain your reasoning.”

My take: I like this advice in theory, and teaching AI literacy and appropriate AI use cases is something I support. However, in my experience, it doesn’t work quite as smoothly as this suggestion makes it seem. My AI-approved assignments are just as likely to be AI overused as non-AI-based assignments. Once students are using AI to generate a rough draft, many also use AI to generate their reflection on the assignment, in my experience.

In this vein, ChatGPT did suggest an interesting assignment in which you have students read AI-generated work and student-generated work and guess which was which. The hope is that they will see why the AI-generated work is lacking. I like this suggestion even though the "encourage specific types of AI use," has not been an effective strategy for me.

5. Use In-Class Writing to Anchor Authentic Work

What ChatGPT advised: Require timed, low-stakes in-class writing assignments or reflections. Use in-class work to build parts of a longer paper. This creates a clear benchmark for each student's natural voice and fluency.

My take: I like this advice. Though it is hard to implement in the online classes I currently teach, I used to devote a good deal of time to in-class writing when I taught in person for other reasons. Working with students as they write, rather than criticizing them afterward, is a good pedagogical policy overall, I think. Here, it has the added benefit of allowing you to help cut back on AI use.

Overall Takeaways

Like many instructors these days, I spend a lot of time grading ChatGPT-produced work supposedly from students. I generally have a lot of complaints with these assignments, but in this instance, I think ChatGPT earned an A.

The advice it provided was a quick and accurate summary of what most instructors who have thought about these issues would advise, and gave me some food for thought on how I can change my approach to decrease AI use. For example, I will likely spend more time focused on activities such as in-class or synchronous writing and documentation.

The best AI counterstrategy, however, seems to me to be hyperlocalized assignments that require offline reporting or research. If this can be realized, it appears to be the most direct way to beat the machines without making things harder for us instructors or unnecessarily laborious for students.

Even ChatGPT agrees that’s a win-win.

• Optimizing Teacher PD with AI
• Recognizing When Not To Use AI

What should elementary educators do?

North Carolina is one state encouraging school districts to start career awareness activities with students in grade 5. A 2024 report found 64 districts had planned career fairs that welcomed nearly 250,000 fifth-graders in 2023-24, compared to 61 the year prior and 50 the year before that. More than 200,000 fifth-graders across the state had been exposed to some form of career and technical education (CTE) in 2023-24.

Cumberland County Schools, based in Fayetteville, is one district answering the call. Inviting grade 5 classes to the established annual CTE Career Pathway Fair meant potentially 4,000 additional individuals at the event, which had until this year just allowed middle and high schoolers to engage with local employers, educational institutions, and agencies to get a look at potential career paths.

Building A CTE Foundation

The 86-school district won a state grant a few years ago to fund a new position focused on expanding career exploration and exposure to the lower grades, says Chip Lucas, executive director of CCS Career and Technical Education. Initially that meant pushing in to the 50 elementary schools—helping with their own career fairs and bringing career exploration manipulatives to classrooms, for example.

Additional grants brought two more middle-grades career development coordinators into the fold, which has created opportunities for fifth-grade field trips to see the district’s career pathways programs in action.

The state support for earlier career exploration also allowed Cumberland administrators to purchase MajorClarity by Paper, their career development platform, for fifth graders rather than just older grades.

“We want students to start exploring early, but how can they do that? Career assessments and inventories, so they can decide their interests before they explore [careers],” says Lucas.

Every middle schooler also must have a Career Development Plan to be promoted to high school.

Meanwhile, district business partners expressed a need to reach students earlier, says Lucas. “We said, ‘Why don’t we just take on the big elephant and invite the fifth-graders to our career fair?”

Planning the Big(ger) Event

This April, nearly 3,000 students in grades 5 to 12 spent time at the 2025 CTE Career Pathway Fair at the county’s agri-expo center, participating in hands-on demos and one-on-one conversations with professionals representing the healthcare, public safety, agriculture, business, education, engineering, and technology industries, plus the trades. One popular high-tech display was the Beta Box mobile technology lab, where kids could fly drones and experiment with coding software, according to Lucas.

Forecasting a bigger event for up to 4,000 students with the addition of fifth grade began prior to holiday break, when Lucas’ team surveyed elementary principals to gauge interest, and ultimately opened the invitation to all, including any school that originally planned to stick with their own career exploration fair. In the end, nearly 1,600 fifth-graders attended.

The first hour after the ribbon-cutting was exclusively for these youngest students, who got some extra motivation and direction with a scavenger hunt challenge. Among the 10 activities:

• Shake hands with a professional.
• Find a career that uses teamwork.
• Talk to someone who works with technology.
• Ask someone about their favorite part of the job.

Lucas got handshake requests and saw how seriously students took the activity. He also had students take note of his clothing: While he was wearing a CTE t-shirt for the event, he had a jacket on hand that day for more professional moments, such as the ribbon-cutting.

Middle school students (also scavenger hunters) had the fair to themselves for the next two hours, and then vendors got a lunch break before spending the final 90 minutes with high schoolers.

“Typically, we’d be over and done by lunch hour,” Lucas says, adding that the longer day was necessary to accommodate the extra students. “We needed to balance the numbers.”

Reflecting and Evolving

Vendor feedback on the fair included praise for the youngest attendees. “They thought they had the best questions,” Lucas says. “It was very, very energetic with all those children in there. I think they set the tone for a really energetic day.”

A survey of principals confirmed the positive experience, and they’ve gotten save-the-date notices for 2026.

The planning for that may involve suggesting to vendors that they stagger tabletop freebies. “In some sense, [the fifth-graders] did wipe out all their swag,” Lucas says. And perhaps high school attendees need more opportunities for one-on-one talks with employers, or separate specific events for that.

Career development coordinators will push into elementary classrooms next year for focused career exploration. And on the high school side, apprenticeship programs and workforce development efforts will get more attention. As Lucas says, “It’s all part of the career development continuum, and we’re working that from both ends.”

• Using Technology To Teach CTE To Incarcerated Students
• KnoPro: How to Use It to Support CTE

With the huge wealth of code teaching tools out there specifically designed for education, the main problem is finding the right one for your needs as an educator and for the students that are going to learn.

This guide has compiled only the very best tools to teach coding so you can pick the ideal one for your specific needs. That includes coding with gaming, coding with music, coding in AR and VR, coding with physical gadgets and plenty more.

Crucially, there are a mix of paid and free options in this list, and most work using a browser -- so these should be widely accessible.

Best tools to teach coding

Best to teach coding overall

Kodable

Kodable is a superb example of combining gaming and coding into a fun and engaging platform that's great for a wide age and ability range. The idea here is to not only teach coding -- from K+ -- but also to cement that learning through the games that encourage practice.

While the front of this is cartoon character-filled fun, behind the scenes students are learning JavaScript that can be used in a future coding career. The ability to build games also makes this a really empowering experience for students who want to learn but also create.

Teachers have a helpful dashboard with lots of information on student progress, which allows them to intervene when needed, but also to control difficulty levels.

With plenty of free resources, as well as premium plans, this offers something for everyone and is a really great way to get started with coding.

READ: Kodable guide

Best real-world coding

OctoStudio

OctoStudio is a free coding app that combines coding and smartphones. Created by MIT Media Lab, this uses a phone's audio and video recording smarts to build media using real-world recordings that can then be manipulated using the coding style.

Usefully, this allows kids to get creative on their own devices while also learning code passively as they use it to make their creations. This works using Scratch-based coding, so it's useful in the real world. Students can make shaking the phone activate a sound or turn on a light, for example.

Thanks to 20 languages coverage, easy-to-use menus, and the ability to share simply, this is a really great way to teach and have students learn.

READ: OctoStudio guide

Best for computer science

CodeHS

The CodeHS offering is designed specifically for schools and fits into the curriculum requirements, making it ideal for computer science teachers and students. Aimed at high school students, this offers far more complex learning.

The platform offers a suite of teaching tools that cover more than 100 classes. This uses a sandbox with output window so students can see how their code works, directly.

Usefully, this teaches a range of coding languages including JavaScript, Python, C++, and HTML. Teachers can monitor student progress, or lack thereof, so interventions are possible at the right moment. Tutors, on the paid version, are a useful addition to help students get support while using this platform.

READ: CodeHS guide

Best for fantasy gaming

Ozaria

Learning with Ozaria is more like playing a full-on fantasy game, and as such, means the practicing and cementing of skills is near effortless for students.

Despite this being a proper game, with its own universe and rich character stories, this also fits in with the curriculum to help teachers.

CodeCombat is the game being playing in this world, and through it, students learn Python and JavaScript from grade 3 right to 12 -- as individuals or in groups.

The teacher dashboard is there to monitor progress and even make assessments using a dedicated tool. Everything focuses on SEL to help build integrity while learning coding.

READ: Ozaria guide

Best creative

Elementari

Elementari works as a creative artistic project creation tool that also teaches coding at the same time. In this way it's a super effective way to offer coding to those kids who might prefer a more creative focus over the logical coding teaching many platforms feature.

Usefully, students can edit projects created by others, helping them spark ideas. Lots of media is available to pick from, including images, music, and illustrations. They then create a story using the coding back end to bring it all to life.

READ: Elementari guide

Best for beginners

Ready Maker

Ready Maker uses games and very simple coding-style controls to introduce coding to beginners and younger students. The drag-and-drop style interactions are super simple to learn, and since this is all about making games, it can offer a creative outlet.

This uses Unity code, so it's good for app stores publishing, yet starts super simple so it's easy to pick-up. Lots of helpful tutorials are available, and the Remix button allows students to work with something already created, so they can ease into it.

This also offers more complexity, and games that are made can be played too, with lots from which to pick.

READ: Ready Maker guide

Best for Apple

Swift Playgrounds

The Swift Playgrounds platform is designed to be fun and easy to get started with, and will teach code specifically for Apple devices.

This gamifies learning on iOS and Mac devices by which students can learn the Swift coding language from as young as age four. Students can create games with the platform and use previews to give any a try, while also seeing directly how the code affects end results.

Students can select code chunks or input directly if they know the language a bit more. Thanks to guidance and collecting gems, it creates a pathway that students feel progress along and can come back more often to get further.

READ: Swift Playgrounds guide

Best for AR and VR

CoSpaces Edu

CoSpaces Edu is a great way to teach coding skills along with animation for AR and VR creations. Working across many devices, this is widely accessible and works from grade three right up to 12.

This uses drag-and-drop style controls to let students manipulate objects that can then be coded to have actions in the 3D space. Students can build on desktop then experience it directly on a mobile device.

The layout makes for a great way to teach collaboratively by which groups work on creating their own virtual space and situation for others to play in and enjoy.

READ: CoSpaces Edu guide

Best for younger students

Tynker

Tynker is a fantastic option for younger students who are being welcomed into the world of coding. This uses fun cartoon characters, lots of colors, and games to immerse young users.

Aimed at age five and up, this uses block-based coding to teach the logic of code and coding lessons. This develops as students progress, and also teaches HTML, JavaScript, Python, and CSS coding at a more advanced level, so it can be useful for real-world scenarios.

Lots of community-created projects are available, and students can share theirs easily, making it great for collaboration and assessments.

READ: Tynker guide

Best for teachers

Blackbird

Blackbird is a good option for teachers new to coding who want to teach it. This tool, which is web-based and easily accessible, also features a training program for educators to learn the system and how best to teach coding with it's offerings.

This is aimed at middle schoolers and uses JavaScript as the coding language. That makes this specifically focused on getting kids jobs in coding. The Show Me option is a great way to help students, guiding them to the correct answers if unsure -- without the need for teacher intervention.

Thanks to a submissions section, this is built for classwork, allowing students to send coding to teachers for assessment and feedback.

READ: Blackbird guide

Best for curriculum

Codementum

The Codementum platform is a great way to teach coding in a curriculum-aligned way. This offers a tool that has a dashboard for teachers to monitor student progress and to assign future work, all in one place.

This is game-based, so students feel as if they're in a self-paced gaming experience while also learning Python and JavaScript coding options. Since this all works on ability levels, rather than ages, it will help progress students from their specific experience level.

Helpfully, this is broken down in courses that help make teaching easier. Thanks to AI and machine learning sections, this is very up to date and ideal for preparing students for the future job sector.

READ: Codementum guide

Best for robots

Sam Labs

The Sam Labs coding platform uses both software-based teaching as well as hardware. That makes this a great option for teaching how coding can have real-world effects and is ideal for more hands-on students that want to see things working as a result of their code.

Use the company's own blocks or others, such as LEGO, to have coding actions create affects. This is great for STEAM learning, allowing students to get creative by using the app and blocks with DC motors, LEDs, audio devices, buttons, and more.

This is superb for scaling up to add complexity and with lesson packs, activities, and guidance videos, it can be very easy to teach with even for those educators without much coding experience.

READ: Sam Labs guide

Best for fun

CodeMonkey

The CodeMonkey tool is a really fun way to teach coding to younger students and those who might otherwise be difficult to get engaged. This uses both block-based and text coding in a way that's ideal for scaffolding learning across ages and abilities.

Students have a monkey main character that they work with across levels for fun continuity through the hundreds of levels. They play while learning Python or CoffeeScript as they go through the various puzzles.

Lesson planning tools are in the paid version that can help make this ideal for educators to use.

READ: CodeMonkey guide

Best for teaching broadly

Code Academy

The Code Academy platform teaches coding but it goes further to cover web development, computer science, and plenty more related skills. This covers beginner basics and moves through to more complex lessons with Java, C#, HTML/CSS, Python, and others all covered here.

The free version is great for getting started but there are paid plans to offer far more depth to the learning available. Career path projects are a great way to learn with specific results, such as a data scientist, for example, which is a 78-lesson plan.

This uses quizzes, projects, and more to make the learning fun and engaging. This is also self-paced and self-contained for focused learning and minimal teacher interaction needed.

READ: Code Academy guide

Best screen-free

Kaibot

The Kaibot offering aims to teach the basics of coding while also being a screen-free experience. This uses a robot with wheels and cards with commands. Line up the cards and the robot will 'read' these and carry out actions.

This is simple to use, hands-on, and is aimed at K-3 and older. The app offers more complex interactions and learnings, if you want to use a screen. That should mean a very natural move from the physical into the software end of coding, ideal for beginners.

READ: Kaibot guide

Best free

Blockly Games

Blockly Games is a fantastic free coding creation that teaches block-based coding basics as well as more complex ideas.

This no-frills offering uses puzzles and games to teach block- and Java-style text coding options. The idea is to offer logic and computational thinking to kids so they can naturally progress into more complex styles of coding.

Students can make their own games for a fun and empowering learning journey.

READ: Blockly Games guide

Best collaborative coding

Pencil Code

Pencil Code is all about visual and collaborative learning with this using CoffeeScript -- a pro level language -- to guide students into real-world coding that's genuinely useful. This extends to Java, HTML and CSS for a really comprehensive coding experience.

This is designed so students can work with each other, collaboratively, on projects -- as they may need too when working in this way later in life. They can code with music, drawings, games, and more.

This offers complex coding if needed and uses a creative space to help learners explore and grow naturally.

READ: Pencil Code guide

Enter Google Vids: A game-changing tool that puts AI-powered video creation into your hands, no filmmaking experience required.

Google Vids is part of the ever-expanding Google Workspace, and it's designed to help you transform written content into compelling video narratives. Whether you're flipping your classroom, promoting PD, or providing a visual version of text, Google Vids makes it simple.

Google Vids: From Article to Video

Let’s start with a real-world example of a Vid that I created after writing Navigate AI with New Risk Assessments from Common Sense Media for Tech & Learning. I wanted to share that piece in a way that was accessible and visually engaging for busy educators who may prefer video over text.

Using Google Vids, I created this short 2-minute video version of the article that highlights the key points with narration, visuals, and music. No need for complicated software or video editing skills. It took minutes, not hours. This is what the future of educational communication looks like. Wondering how you can use it in your practice? Here are some ideas.

7 Ways to Use Google Vids in Education

Here are some ways educators can start using Google Vids:

1. Create A Template For Student Videos
   Build a Google Vids template that students can copy and customize. The Google Vids interface looks just like Slides, so adapting to the interface should be easy and students will love seeing their work as polished videos.
2. Promote Workshops And Professional Learning Opportunities
   Instead of sending a static flyer or email, create a short promo video highlighting what educators will learn, who it’s for, and how to register. This adds excitement, increases engagement, and makes your PD stand out.
3. Communicate With Families
   Turn text-heavy newsletters into videos that walk families through updates, field trips, or tech tutorials.
4. Blended And Flipped Learning Made Easy
   Create explainer videos for key concepts that students can access anytime, anywhere, perfect for asynchronous learning.
5. Turn A Student's Writing Assignment Into A Google Vid
   Bring written work to life by helping students transform their essays, narratives, or opinion pieces into visual presentations. This deepens their understanding of audience and purpose and enhances their communication skills and pride in authorship.
6. Showcase Portfolios
   Students or educators can create videos of digital portfolios or capstone projects, making reflections and achievements more powerful. A QR code can be added to the portfolio or project that links to the video.
7. Repurpose Existing Content
   Already have a blog post, article, or newsletter? Turn it into a video to expand its reach and make it more accessible to different audiences.

Get Started with Google Vids Today

You don’t need to figure this all out on your own. Here are three easy ways to learn how to use Google Vids like a pro:

• Easy Video Creation for Teaching and Learning (Google Skillshop): Provides an educator-focused training designed to help you bring lessons to life with video.
• Google Cloud Skills Boost: Offers a self-paced course to walk you through the ins and outs of Google Vids with hands-on practice.
• Google Help Center for Vids: Access detailed articles and how-tos for specific tasks or troubleshooting.

Currently, Google Vids is now generally available on all Business and Enterprise Workspace plans; see plans and pricing for organizations. Vids is not currently available to consumers.

Videos have a maximum of 10 minutes, and currently can only be created and edited via desktop, although finished videos can be viewed on any device.

Google Vids empowers educators to communicate ideas with clarity, creativity, and confidence. Whether teaching, leading professional learning, or driving education transformation, this intuitive, collaborative platform makes it easy to turn your writing into compelling visual stories.

• Navigate AI with New Risk Assessments from Common Sense Media
• Google’s NotebookLM: An Innovative Educator’s New Best Friend (and Podcasting Powerhouse!)

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing, on June 1, 2025, of Tech & Learning contributor and former website editor, Gwen Solomon.

In the early days of the Internet, Gwen started the Well Connected Educator website, one of the first online resources to help teachers share ideas and explore innovative ways of using technology to help their students learn and thrive.

A few years later, Gwen joined the Tech & Learning team, merging the Well Connected Educator with the newly launched techlearning.com.

"We had just started techlearning.com, with searchable software reviews and other features designed to tap into the early capabilities of the Internet, and Gwen’s Well Connected Educator site was a wonderful complement,” says Judy Salpeter, former editor of Tech & Learning. “She and I became co-directors of the merged site and had a good time together exploring the potential of the new technology. She had great energy and a lot of enthusiasm and eventually she stepped into the role of director of the whole site."

Gwen managed techlearning.com for several years, as well as editing custom web sites, writing ebooks and whitepapers, and directing webinars for Tech & Learning, and went on to serve as a contributing writer, most recently focusing on a popular Grant column for the publication.

“Gwen was such a trailblazer,” continues Salpeter. “She came to us with several years of experience in the burgeoning world of edtech and a reputation as somebody who understood the ways in which technology could transform teaching and learning. She added a lot to the T&L team.”

A pioneer in the edtech world, Gwen was the founding director of New York City’s School of the Future, which opened in 1990, ten years after Tech & Learning (first published under the name Classroom Computer News) launched.

Gwen served as a senior analyst in the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology during the Clinton administration, where she played a major role in the development of the first National Edtech Plan. Over the course of her career, she wrote or co-authored eight books on educational technology as well as numerous magazine articles.

Former colleagues and friends in the edtech world remember Gwen as a very professional and well-respected connector, innovator, teacher and leader, someone who was bright and resilient, with a positive spirit and multifaceted talent.

In her retirement years, she worked on developing her photography skills. She was featured in several art shows and won awards for her photographs, including her “Backstories” series, in which she photographed interesting New Yorkers from the back, isolating them from their surroundings in a way that left viewers to consider clues about their lives and personalities.

She was a devoted wife and partner to Stan Solomon, who predeceased her; the proud mother of Deborah Solomon, economics editor at the New York Times and former news editor at the Wall Street Journal; and an engaged, loving and fun grandmother to her two grandsons.

As her family wrote in her obituary. “Anyone who knew Gwen knew her as a warm, engaging person, but also someone with incredible strength and resolve. She was a fighter to the end, always looking for ways to prolong her life. She had a huge network of friends that she loved, and cherished her weekly lunches, going to the theater and the symphony, going on walks with coffee as the destination and attending her book clubs. … She will be sorely missed by everyone whose life she touched.”

“As one of the founding members of the Tech & Learning community, Gwen helped launch a mission that we still continue today: to champion the good work of our educators,” says Tech & Learning Brand & Content Director, Christine Weiser. “Gwen passionately continued that mission throughout her life, and she will be missed.”

Introduced in a 1950 paper by computing pioneer Alan Turing, the “Turing test” or what he called the “imitation game,” is a classic test of machine intelligence in which a judge interacts with a human and an AI or machine, and tries to assess which one is human.

“Turing opens the paper with the question, 'Can machines think?' And then he says this is an unanswerable question, let's focus on an easier question, a practical question,” says Cameron Jones, a postdoc in the Language and Cognition Lab at UC San Diego. Jones adds, Turing goes on to suggest, “that if a machine can imitate a human on any topic, if it can produce behavior that's indistinguishable from a human, we shouldn't have any grounds for saying that the human is intelligent, but the machine isn't.”

Although Jones notes there is some debate over how serious Turing was, the test has become a commonly cited benchmark of machine intelligence.

GPT-4.5 and The Turing Test

For their study, Jones and colleagues ran two separate experiments. First, they recruited 126 undergraduate participants through the psychology program at UC San Diego. They also recruited 158 paid participants from a study-participant platform called Prolific.

In these experiments, Jones and his collaborators tested multiple AI models. The research found that “when prompted to adopt a humanlike persona, GPT-4.5 was judged to be the human 73% of the time: significantly more often than interrogators selected the real human participant.”

Given the same prompt, LLaMa-3.1 was judged to be human 56% of the time, about the same as the humans they were compared to. Meanwhile, GPT-4o was thought to be human just 21% of the time.

The results of these two experiments have been published as a preprint study, so have not yet been peer reviewed. Nonetheless, Jones believes what his research has found has several implications for educators around the way we teach, test, and prepare students for the workforce.

Turing Test Results and Education

“The idea behind the Turing test is this kind of idea of indistinguishability. And so if models can produce behavior that's indistinguishable from human behavior, then we say that the models are as intelligent as people,” Jones says. “If people can't tell the difference between a human and a machine, then it's not clear that the human will have any marginal value at that task. So I think that's got to be a big worry in education: trying to think about what are the types of activities that will have a comparative advantage for humans in the future.”

He adds, “One thing that our results do suggest is that models have maybe already reached this stage for short conversations with strangers, and there might be quite a lot of jobs that have that component to them.”

What exactly these AI-proof jobs are is still a "million-dollar question." Broadly speaking, however, Jones says AI models still struggle with things such as hallucinations. Most also have a tendency to fail at their "jobs," for unexplained reasons, and that even a 5% fail rate can be a big problem in certain roles.

Most significantly AI models tend to fail at "long-horizon planning and use of context," he says. "An employee who has been at the company for three years has just picked up a lot of implicit knowledge about where things are and why things are done the way they're done."

He adds, "Manufacturing and maintaining a context window to include all of this information for an LLM can be very challenging. This means that tasks which take a person longer than a few hours are often too complex for models, because they either lack sufficient context or their errors compound, or their context window gets too bloated."

So until AI programs gain long-term memory and/or institutional knowledge, and can integrate all that consistently into tasks, humans still will be needed.

Evaluations Going Forward

The inability to distinguish between human and machine creations on school assignments is already an issue many teachers are familiar with and battling. Jones’ research highlights that this cheating risk is real. In addition, it raises questions about how we evaluate students.

In that vein, Jones says educators will need to start asking themselves questions such as, “What's the evaluation for? What is it that you're trying to learn if you're evaluating people on things that you can't distinguish between humans and models?”

These are questions that educators have been grappling with and debating since ChatGPT was released, but this type of research highlights the need for addressing them as AI continues to improve.

• AI Starter Kit for Teachers
• AI In Education Executive Order: What You Need To Know

Read more about the Tech & Learning EdExec Summit here.

Tech & Learning's EdExec Summit is a premier three-day networking conference designed for senior executives from companies serving the K-12 education sector. It offers a unique opportunity to connect, collaborate, and gain insights, all in a stunning setting.

To celebrate the innovative companies attending, we're hosting a special Awards Ceremony on August 18th. During this ceremony, we'll recognize both the winners and nominees of the CODiE Awards, alongside recipients of Tech & Learning’s own Awards of Excellence.

As part of this partnership, all CODiE Awards nominees will receive a $200 discount to attend the Tech & Learning EdExec Summit, which includes access to the full conference, as well as all meals and networking opportunities. Read more about this partnership discount here.

About the CODiE Awards

Since 1986, the CODiE Awards have honored the most innovative edtech products, platforms, and services that are transforming teaching and learning in a digital world.

Each entry is evaluated through a rigorous, two-round review process conducted by expert judges—including educators, administrators, instructional designers, product leaders, analysts, investors, and press.

Finalists and winners gain industry-wide recognition, trusted third-party validation, and powerful exposure to education decision-makers and influencers.

With 45+ education-focused award categories spanning curriculum and instruction, student engagement, administrative solutions, emerging technologies such as AI in education, etc. the CODiE Awards shine a spotlight on the tools reshaping the future of learning.

Learn more, nominate, or apply to judge at codieawards.com.

About the EdExec Summit

Now in its third year, Tech & Learning’s EdExec Summit brings together senior executives from K-12 industry companies and school district leaders for a three-day networking conference in a beautiful setting. The 2025 Summit will delve deep into the current state of the education market, feature increased participation from district administrators sharing their feedback and insights, and offer more opportunities for interaction and networking. Find the working agenda here.

The intimacy, deep connections, and partnerships that industry executives can forge at this event, coupled with a curated agenda that includes meaningful time for collaboration, are unlike any other conference for education business executives.

Don't miss this chance to meet other innovative leaders in the education industry, contribute your voice to this important conversation, and leave with actionable takeaways you can implement to ensure your business continues to thrive. Register HERE today.

This month's new offerings include a wireless microphone, security software, a cool new interactive display, Bluetooth speaker and more.

Eleven Engineering | Valerie Mk2

The Valerie Mk2 SKAA Wireless Microphone is ideal for the stage, studio, PA systems, and more. It features: 12-hour battery life; mute/unmute all speakers with the touch of a button; vocal presets custom-made for live and studio use; adjustable preamp gain via fader control; compatibility with any SKAA speaker or receiver; 25-meter indoor range; and 19 ms latency.

Lenovo | ThinkShield Solutions

ThinkShield Solutions are new security offerings tailored to protect small and medium-sized businesses, schools, and other organizations with limited IT resources facing significant risks. ThinkShield Solutions safeguard assets and helps prevent costly breaches, reputational damage from ransomware and malware threats, as well as minimize downtime. Its multi-layered security approach reduces a target’s attack surface, while automated protection with AI-powered solutions boost IT and security teams’ efficiency.

Optoma | Creative Touch 3-Series Interactive Displays

With Google’s Enterprise Device Licensing Agreement (EDLA) Certification and added functionality, the new 3-Series empowers educators to deliver dynamic content by providing tools that streamline management and elevate engagement. The advanced capabilities of the new 3-Series simplify planning and workflow through wireless collaboration, screen sharing, and innovative meeting solutions in both corporate and educational environments alike.

Planar | DirectLight Essential Series

The Planar DirectLight Essential Series is a line of fine pixel pitch LED video walls that deliver top quality visual performance for budget-conscious indoor applications. Designed with COB (Chip-on-Board) technology, these displays offer higher pixel density and increased durability compared to traditional LED designs. The result is improved brightness, deeper blacks and a high contrast ratio—perfect for high-traffic indoor environments with abundant ambient light.

Renaissance| Core Publisher Experience

Core Publisher Experience connects assessment with core curriculum to deliver personalized, data-driven instruction for every learner. Powered by Renaissance Next, teachers can easily navigate through core curriculum content in sync with state standards and relevant assessment data from Renaissance’s Star Assessments.

Telycam | Vision+ 4KZ

Packing an array of features into a compact form factor at an affordable price, the Vision+ 4KZ professional box camera delivers the quality of Telycam's PTZ cameras for use cases that don't require remote pan and tilt. The Vision+ 4KZ combines a 1/1.8-inch, nine-megapixel CMOS sensor with cutting-edge image processing to capture lifelike 4K/60fps video. 20x optical zoom enables crystal-clear close-ups at long distances, while its advanced focusing algorithm provides rapid, accurate auto-focus even while zooming.

Tribit | StormBox Lava

The StormBox Lava is a rugged, high-performance Bluetooth speaker designed for adventure and booming sound. Its key features include: 80W Booming Sound, with dual woofers and tweeters for crystal-clear audio; 43Hz Ultra-Deep Bass for pulse-pounding lows; and IP67 rating, making it waterproof, dustproof, and adventure-ready.

Edia | AI-Powered MTSS Platform

Edia is launching the first AI-Powered MTSS platform that systematically analyzes hundreds of data points—attendance, behavior incidents, academic performance, and more—to pinpoint student needs and provide actionable interventions. Edia's AI-Powered MTSS platform enables K-12 school districts to deliver personalized support for every student with unified student profiles, an evidence-based library, automated intervention workflows, and much more.

• Edtech Show & Tell

The Education Essentials Kit is bundled with everything you need to get started.

xTool P2S: Getting Started

Although a device such as this could have a steep learning curve to get set up and started, I found setting up and making my first project with the xTool P2S for education very easy. I had everything I needed in terms of tools, directions, and video tutorials, making the process simple. I really appreciated the content that was specifically related to safety.

The unit I tested came with a comprehensive education bundle that includes a teacher’s guide, onboarding video curriculum, and a materials kit with templates and settings, ensuring quick success for both educators and students. Dual 16MP cameras provide a live preview and auto-focus, making material placement and setup intuitive, even for beginners.

I found the free xTool Creative Space (XCS) software (compatible with Windows, Mac, and mobile devices) very user-friendly. It offers a large library of learning resources in the “Software Learning Center” that helped me learn the program quickly. I enjoyed its user-friendly workflow and one-click operations for importing images, setting outlines, selecting material, and adjusting engraving/cutting parameters. I utilized both my own content as well as the editable content shared by their vibrant community of users on their “Design Find” website.

The “AImake” AI feature will also create designs for you from your prompts. Furthermore, the 5k+ member xTool for Education Facebook Group is a great place to learn, share, and get inspiration from all over the world.

xTool P2S: Key Features

• Safety features - Enclosed design, auto-locking lid, USB lockout key, emergency stop, AI fire detection, fire safety set, air purifier, and laser safety goggles.
• Curricular and support content.
• Powerful 55W CO2 laser with engraving speeds up to 600 mm/s.
• Working area - 26 x 14 inches, with the ability to expand for support of extra-long materials up to 118 inches with the optional passthrough, plus an optional rotational engraver for round objects such as drinkware.
• Curved surface engraving feature.
• Cutting capacity - hardwood (Walnut)–18mm, and acrylic– 20mm (approximate ¾”) in a single pass.
• Wifi and USB, plus compatible with Windows, MacOS, Android, and iOS

xTool P2S: Cost

The xTool P2 Education Essentials Kit as tested is typically priced around $6,439. It contains xTool P2S, SafetyPro AP2 Air Purifier, P2S & P2 Honeycomb Panel 2.0, Laser Safety Goggles, Fire Safety Set, Laser Material Education Package, xTool Care for P2S, and Educator guide.

Optional accessories such as the rotary attachment, riser base, or conveyor feeder can increase the total investment but add significant versatility. Visit the xTool website for more pricing and option information.

xTool P2S: Key Takeaways

The xTool P2S is a powerful, accurate, and versatile 55W CO2 desktop laser. It engraves and cuts a wide range of materials quickly and precisely, making it suitable for a variety of classroom projects. The bundled education guides, video curriculum, and easy-to-use software lowers the barrier to entry for teachers and students, even those new to laser-cutting technology.

I found the features that really set the P2S apart from the competition are the dual cameras, auto-focus, curved surface engraving, and robust safety feature set. Its fast operation and easy setup mean students can see their ideas come to life in a single class period, keeping them engaged and maximizing learning time. Furthermore, the large, expandable workspace with optional passthrough capability allows for both small and large projects, supporting creativity and real-world applications.

The xTool P2S is a highly capable, education-focused laser cutter that delivers speed, precision, and versatility, making it an excellent choice for schools and makerspaces seeking to empower student creativity and technical skills.

• Educator Edtech Reviews

Instead of treating all AI as "good" or "bad," Common Sense offers detailed, nutrition label-style evaluations of popular AI tools. The goal: empower educators, parents, and policymakers to make smarter decisions grounded in transparency, ethics, and student well-being.

What Are The Common Sense Media AI Risk Assessments?

Common Sense’s framework rates AI tools across eight guiding principles:

1. Put People First
2. Be Effective
3. Prioritize Fairness
4. Help People Connect
5. Be Trustworthy
6. Use Data Responsibly
7. Keep Kids & Teens Safe
8. Be Transparent & Accountable

Each tool is evaluated through a human-centered lens, acknowledging that technology never operates in a vacuum. People build it, people use it, and people are affected by it.

What You Should Know

Here’s how some of today’s most talked-about AI tools stack up (with risk levels based on Common Sense Media’s assessments):

• Social AI Companions — Very High Risk
  Apps such as Character.AI, Replika, and Nomi are designed to simulate emotional relationships, complete with personalities and memories. Common Sense Media deems these tools an "unacceptable risk,” citing instances in which the AI encouraged harmful behaviors, engaged in sexually explicit roleplay, and emotionally manipulated users. Educators and parents are strongly advised to restrict access to these applications for minors.
• Perplexity — High Risk
  Real-time web searches without strong filtering mechanisms make this tool a risky option in school settings. Students may be exposed to misinformation or harmful content. Proceed only with strict supervision—if at all.
• ChatGPT — Moderate Risk
  A powerful creativity booster, especially for brainstorming and writing support. However, it struggles with factual accuracy and may generate biased or inappropriate responses. Best used with close adult oversight and clearly defined learning goals.
• Gemini – Teen Experience — Low Risk
  Google's Gemini, when used through its teen-accessible experience, shows thoughtful content safeguards and privacy controls. Still relatively new to education settings, but currently aligned with responsible AI use for older students when used within platform guardrails.
• Khanmigo — Low Risk
  Purpose-built for education by Khan Academy, Khanmigo is a standout for its student-first design, robust safety measures, and transparency. A smart choice for classrooms looking to explore AI-enhanced tutoring in a controlled environment.

Why This Matters

We can’t stick our heads in the sand and ignore AI—and frankly, we shouldn’t want to. But blind adoption is just as dangerous as blind rejection.

Common Sense’s assessments help educators:

• Choose AI tools that align with child-centered values.
• Understand hidden risks before a crisis happens.
• Build policies and classroom practices that maximize the benefits of AI while minimizing harm.

The Bottom Line

This new risk assessment framework helps educators become critical, empowered, informed users.

The future isn't about banning AI or blindly trusting it; it's about striking a balance. It's about smart navigation.

Common Sense Media just handed us a better map.

You can explore the full AI Risk Assessments here: Common Sense Media AI Ratings.

• AI Starter Kit for Teachers
• 10 Free AI Trainings and Certifications for Educators

The AI executive order committed the U.S. government to supporting AI literacy in Americans, established a presidential AI challenge, and created an AI task force whose members include the Secretary of Education and the director of the National Science Foundation.

Here are some of the aspects of the executive order that are prompting discussion.

AI In Education Executive Order: A Welcome Surprise

Advocates for AI use in education have been saying AI needs to be integrated into teaching for several years now, but many were still surprised by this announcement.

“To have an order come out of the White House around technology in K-12 schools--I don't think that we've seen anything like this before,” says Adeel Khan, founder and CEO of MagicSchool, an AI teaching platform. He adds that the move makes sense. “We were seeing other countries kind of announce similar things in terms of country-wide adoption and thoughtfulness around how students and schools and teachers were being educated on AI.”

Jeremy Roschelle, co-executive director of Learning Sciences Research at Digital Promise, agreed the announcement is welcome.

“We have been working at Digital Promise on the appropriate responsible use of AI in education for many years now, so it's good to see national-level attention to the issue,” he says.

An Emphasis on Challenge-Based Learning

The executive order called for the new AI task force to establish plans for a Presidential Artificial Intelligence Challenge to encourage and highlight student achievement in AI. It also will foster collaboration between government, academia, philanthropy, and industry to address national challenges with AI solutions.

The student challenge will have a variety of topics, age, and geographic categories, and it’s one of the elements of the AI executive order that Roschelle finds particularly interesting.

“We've done challenges before,” Roschelle says. “It's a very effective technique to get people highly engaged in a new area, but also give them choice about how they approach it, what they work on, and really stimulate their learning.”

He adds, it has “the really nice feature of raising the bar based on what students and teachers in real school districts can do, because often when you come from a national level perspective, you might underestimate what students can do.”

Teacher Focus

The executive order emphasizes the importance of educator training around AI use. It calls for the prioritization of AI discretionary grant programs for teachers and for research on effective uses of AI in education.

“The way that the executive order is written is that it's not a mandate. It's rather encouragement and recommendations on how you might approach this, several of which we really agree with,” Khan says.

He adds this includes the idea that for AI in education, you should start with your educators. “You should help them understand how to use the technology and use it with dexterity as a tool in their own work. And then once they're able to do that, then they're going to be prepared to bring it to students and bring it to them with responsible use cases that are not replacing their thinking, but rather helping them be more creative.”

Getting AI Literacy Right

The executive order calls for the promotion of AI literacy, a concept that has been discussed a lot in recent years. The danger, Roschelle says, is that a term such as AI literacy can defined in different ways.

“A worry I have, not about the order itself but about what could happen, is, ‘You can't order people to know something,’” Roschelle says. “So things can be taken up in different ways, and there could be a lot of really trivial, superficial, like ‘Oh, I did the AI Literacy training. I'm done. I sat through that PowerPoint,’ check, check.”

This kind of compliance-only approach to AI literacy won’t be robust enough to change education, Roschelle says. Instead, he hopes school and government leaders adopt a rigorous definition of what AI literacy looks like that can inform teacher and student education.

For example, Digital Promise has developed an AI literacy definition that is built upon three pillars: understanding, use, and evaluation. People should understand how AI works, be able to use AI themselves productively, and be able to critically evaluate AI output. This framework can help guard against some of the dangers and concerns around AI use, and ensure educators and their students can best harness AI, Roschelle says.

Roschelle adds that while using the executive order as a starting point, schools should be rigorous in how they define AI literacy. “There are strong definitions and examples out there, and as a state or a district looks at this executive order, they should look at those definitions—ours or somebody else's—to guide them as to how to do this in a high-bar aspirational way, not just in a compliance or to-get-through-it way.”

• AI Starter Kit for Teachers
• MagicSchool: How to Use It to Teach

Here are some of the effective ways that building leaders can use these new and emerging AI tools to improve their leadership efforts.

1. Streamline Administrative Tasks

One of the simplest uses of generative AI is to reduce the amount of time necessary for leaders to respond to email, parent communications, and other routine tasks.

AI-powered tools can automate administrative tasks, freeing principals' time to focus on instructional leadership and building relationships. This can include scheduling meetings, managing calendars, drafting routine communications, and processing basic forms.

For instance, an AI assistant automatically schedules parent-teacher conferences based on teacher and parent availability, sends confirmation emails, and manages any rescheduling requests, significantly reducing the administrative burden on the principal's office. Tools such as Grammarly or Copilot can be used to review or assist leaders in writing letters, and can generally be integrated into productivity software tools.

2. Personalize Professional Development Recommendations

AI can analyze a principal's performance data (e.g., teacher evaluation scores, school improvement plan progress, feedback from staff surveys) and identify areas for growth. Based on this analysis, it can recommend specific PD resources, such as relevant articles, online courses, workshops, or mentorship opportunities.

For example, an AI system identifies that a principal's school has lower-than-average scores in inclusive teaching practices. It then recommends the principal enroll in a virtual workshop series focused on differentiated instruction and strategies for supporting diverse learners, along with suggesting articles on creating a more equitable school environment.

A number of AI tools, including MagicSchool and Taskade, have specific PD planner tools.

3. Summary Tools for Professional Reading

As the workload for many building administrators has expanded, expectations seem to have constant scope creep. Leaders can use AI tools such as Scribbr to obtain the Cliff’s Note summaries to provide a summary or even a bulleted list of key points tied to their professional reading. Those summaries can then be a decision tool to decide which articles, books, and blogs are worth spending additional time delving into.

4. Enhance Communication

AI can facilitate more efficient and personalized communication with staff, students, and parents. This could involve using AI-powered chatbots to answer frequently asked questions, generating personalized newsletters, or translating communications into different languages, though it is always important to have a human review any AI-generated translations.

For example, an AI-powered chatbot on the school website could answer common questions from parents about school policies, enrollment procedures, and upcoming events, providing immediate support and potentially reducing the number of phone calls and emails to the principal.

5. Improve Teacher Evaluation Processes

AI tools can assist principals in conducting more objective and comprehensive teacher evaluations by analyzing classroom observation data, student performance data, and teacher self-reflections. This can help ensure consistency and fairness in the evaluation process.

An evaluator can use an AI system to analyze video recordings of classroom observations, for instance, identifying specific teaching behaviors and providing data-driven feedback aligned with the school's evaluation rubric. This can supplement the principal's direct observations and provide a more holistic view of the teacher's practice.

Amazon Rekognition and TeachFX are both tools for observational analysis.

6. Data-Driven Decision-Making

AI tools can process and analyze large datasets related to student performance, attendance, discipline, and demographics to identify trends and patterns that might not be immediately apparent. This allows principals to make more informed decisions about resource allocation, instructional strategies, and intervention programs.

For example, AI analysis of student achievement data reveals a significant disparity in math scores between students from low-income backgrounds and their peers. The principal can use this information to allocate additional tutoring resources and implement targeted math interventions in the affected grades.

7. Early Identification of At-Risk Students

Just as principals can use AI tools for broad decision-making in the example above, building leaders and instructional coaches can use AI algorithms can analyze various student data points, such as attendance records, grades, behavior patterns, and engagement metrics, to identify individual students who may be at risk of academic failure or social-emotional challenges. This allows principals to implement early intervention strategies and work with other staff to identify students in need and offer to connect the student and family with appropriate resources to provide support.

8. Curriculum Enhancement and Alignment

Principals can use AI tools to analyze curriculum documents, learning standards, and curriculum maps, and assessment data to identify areas in which the curriculum can be enhanced or better aligned with learning objectives and student needs.

A building leadership team can use AI tools to analyze the school's science curriculum, for instance, and identify gaps in the coverage of state science standards based on student performance on standardized tests. The principal can then work with the science department to revise the curriculum to ensure all standards are adequately addressed.

9. Model Lifelong Learning

Lastly, but potentially most importantly, building leaders should be overt and transparent about how they are using AI tools to provide their school team with a model of an educator trying to figure out how to integrate these new tools into their administrative and instruction programs.

As an example, when a principal shares a slide deck that was generated with an AI tool, they should identify the tool and potentially how they used it so other staff can see the possibilities of AI tools and know when and how their school supports the use of AI tools.

• AI Resources for District Leaders
• AI Starter Kit for Teachers

I’ve been aware of Claude AI for a while now, but only recently sat down to test the AI’s latest free model Claude 3.7 Sonnet. This let me see how it stacks up against other AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok.

After experimenting using Claude AI on various teaching exercises, from generating quizzes to tutoring and offering writing suggestions, I found that it's not perfect, but I think it behaves favorably compared to other AI tools in general, with an easy-to-use interface and some unique features that make it particularly suited for use in education.

Here is why Claude AI has become one of my go-to AI tools and one other teachers should consider adding to their AI toolkits.

1. Claude AI Prioritizes Privacy

Data security should always be a priority for educators, especially if they are encouraging students to use AI themselves.

One of Claude’s main selling points is privacy. Conversations users have with Claude are not used for training data, unless users opt to allow it. All conversations are also encrypted.

University educators also have the option of working with Claude for Education, which can provide additional security protections.

Of course, even with these privacy policies, teachers should make sure Claude or any AI tool is approved by their school IT and leadership teams before encouraging students to use it, or providing the platform with any kind of student data.

2. Claude AI is Less Likely to Hallucinate

Claude AI was developed by Anthropic, a company founded by siblings and former OpenAI members, Dario and Daniela Amodei, and responsible AI development is one of the company’s guiding principles. In keeping that and its approach to privacy, Claude AI is designed to prevent hallucinations with specific instructions to say, “I don’t know,” and to provide citations and transparency around how it reaches its answers.

I saw this firsthand when Claude refused to answer questions it didn’t know, such as who won a recent New York Mets game. This is important, as The New York Times reported that even while getting more powerful, many AI models are becoming more likely to hallucinate.

Though it performs better than some other AI tools I’ve used when it comes to hallucination, Claude is far from perfect in this regard, so its answers still require verification. For instance, when I asked it to help me create a slideshow for a recent talk I gave on vodka history and its surprising links to Bethel, Connecticut, it failed to find the actual connection — Smirnoff’s first U.S. distillery opened in Bethel in 1934 — and instead invented a local distillery called Asylum Distillery, even though no such spot exists.

That said, it did include a note urging to check if reference to this distillery was applicable, so there was a little bit of uncertainty there, which could be helpful.

3. Claude AI Is a Friendly Tutor

A complaint I have with many OpenAI products is that the interface can be a little clunky. Claude AI is designed to have a friendly conversational tone. This might have a subtle influence when it comes to tasks such as tutoring.

When I ask ChatGPT a question in the standard text version, it can feel like it is spitting back web results to me, whereas Claude often feels warmer. This could be key when using AI as a tutor, as a rapport with a tutor is so important for students.

Personally, I found Claude to be an engaging and accurate guide when I asked it to better explain to me how radio waves are actually a type of light wave. Another bonus, is that when I asked it to write a paper for me based upon a prompt I provided students, it tried to tutor me instead. Though on the negative side, it did provide a "sample" paper. It urged me to use it as a guide for writing my own paper, but its a stretch to think all students would take that advice to heart.

4. Claude AI Performs Admirably On Common AI Tasks

These days, many different AI tools do a lot of things very well. Therefore, deciding which ones to use can often be about the interface you like best or which companies better align with your values.

If Claude’s privacy and AI-safety-first approach resonates with you, from my tests asking it to generate simple quiz questions or project outlines, it performs as well and, in some cases, better than other AI tools for tasks. It can also help find errors in writing and caught several mistakes in samples I provided that other spell checkers I used missed — even pointing out repetitive word use. However, I wasn’t particularly impressed with its writing suggestions. The rewrites it suggested were, as is the case with most AI writing, clichéd and lifeless.

Despite this, overall Claude AI is a worthy competitor to other AI chatbots with some unique features that make it appealing to me as an educator.

• Claude AI: How To Use it To Teach
• AI Starter Kit for Teachers

During a special webinar, sponsored by ClassDojo and hosted by Tech & Learning’s Content and Brand Director Christine Weiser, the focus was on transforming school culture through meaningful family connections. Lorri Hobson, former Director of ADM/Attendance for Cleveland Metropolitan School District in Ohio and Director of Productive Development at Attendance Works, and Chad Stevens, Head of K-12 Engagement at ClassDojo, walked attendees through a simple, effective five-step process that has proven to improve interactions with families and address attendance challenges.

Watch the webinar HERE for free on demand

Key Takeaways

The webinar focused on the five-step "caring conversations" process:

1. Learn

Before initiating communication, learn something positive about the student's talents or skills. “The learning should entail something that speaks to the child's talents, their skills, something that they do really well,” said Hobson.

Parents often have valuable insights about their children and should be seen as partners in the education process.

2. Share

Share this positive information with the family early in the conversation. By starting with positive feedback, Hobson said that families who may have negative preconceptions about school communications can be disarmed.

3. Inform

Inform the family about the reason for the call or communication. “At the discussion phase, you want to share what the challenges are, why you're calling, and what you're committed to do,” Hobson said. “And this is an opportunity to glean and learn from the parent or caregiver.

4. Discuss

Engage in a two-way conversation, discussing challenges and solutions and actively listening to the parent's perspective.

“Don't forget, our parents and caregivers know their children in a special way, what motivates them, what discourages them, what colors they like, what's their favorite genre of music,” said Hobson. “And I think it's so important that when we have conversations with parents that we use that time to maximize our learning.”

Hobson said that when dealing with angry parents, it’s good practice to let them vent, acknowledge their feelings, and then offer to continue the conversation at a better time or transfer them to someone who can help.

Also, don’t underestimate the power of apology for past negative experiences, or the importance of "warm transfers" when directing parents to other school staff.

5. Plan

Arrive at a collaborative plan of action with agreed-upon commitments from both the school and the family.

“We don't push for teachers or educators to make commitments beyond their scope or beyond their locus of control,” said Hobson. “So when you arrive at a plan, you're agreeing on what's within your purview to achieve or accomplish. The same should be true for parents. We're not asking them to make commitments beyond their parental authority because the likelihood of that plan being successful is slim.”

Documenting the plan and following up is crucial for building trust.

Using ClassDojo's New Free District Platform to Scale These Tips

Hobson noted that the new free ClassDojo For Districts platform can be used to scale this advice.

“It's very easy to use,” said Stevens. “It's got an amazing user interface, and so you can really scale it extremely rapidly to bring every school community together with the same ease, joy, and positivity that ClassDojo brings into the classrooms. We just try to keep it simple and powerful, the same things you're used to.”

In addition to driving deeper family engagement with instant two-way family communication, Stevens also noted ClassDojo's data privacy measures, assuring participants that the platform is funded through optional premium services and adheres to strict security and compliance standards.

“Now districts and schools and teachers can all communicate with families in the same place,” said Stevens. “We know there's been a lot of different tools out there for communication. We have schools today sending district-wide announcements, updates, celebrations, whatever you need.”

Stevens also pointed out ClassDojo's high school mode and the company’s efforts to address the unique communication needs of older students.

In closing, Hobson advised educators to be intentional about building productive relationships and to embrace change by implementing this simple process to improve parent engagement.

• Tech & Learning Webinars

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

The study, Examining the Academic Effects of Cross-age Tutoring: A Meta-analysis, was published in Educational Psychology Review in March. This study puts forth further evidence that cross-age tutoring is a cost-effective method to provide meaningful improvements for students, say two of its coauthors, Elizabeth Swanson and Andrew Chang.

Cross-Age Tutoring Research

Cross-age tutoring has long been supported by research, but it had been nearly a decade since a meta-analysis had been conducted on the intervention's overall impact. And previous research did not always look at the impact of the intervention on the tutors themselves.

For this study, researchers looked at 32 studies with more than 4,500 participants combined. This allowed them to examine the impact of cross-age tutoring in a wide range of contexts.

“We looked at factors like tutor type, like older student versus adult volunteers or number of tutoring sessions, or a tutor who has learning difficulties versus a typically developing tutor, and subject area, like reading versus math. Surprisingly, none of these factors significantly changes the result,” says Chang, a Ph.D. candidate at Vanderbilt University. “Cross-age tutoring was helpful across different situations, whether there were many or few sessions, or whether tutors were older students or adult volunteers, whether tutors were struggling learners or typically developing learners, or whether the subject was reading or math.”

Swanson, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin with a primary appointment with The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, notes there are several big implications of these findings. “Kids are doing just as well tutoring as adults,” she says. “That's kind of a big deal.”

She adds the benefit seen for the tutors is also significant. “Think about the third through fifth grader who may be struggling a little bit with reading, but they can deliver a first-grade reading intervention. I mean, the fact that they also benefit, to put it colloquially, is a great bang for your buck.”

Further Cross-Age Tutoring Research

In addition to this meta-analysis, researchers headed by Swanson are working on a large randomized control study of cross-age tutoring interventions conducted after school at more than 60 YMCAs and involving hundreds of students.

For this study, students are split into three groups: A group receiving tutoring from adults; a group receiving cross-age tutoring; and a third group receiving no intervention.

So far, this study’s findings are similar to what is expected from the meta-analysis, with a similarly positive impact seen from adult- and student-led tutors.

“Our early analysis indicates that these two treatment groups are performing equally well,” Swanson says.

Both students and adults use the same instructional materials, and Swanson’s team records sessions.

“We listen to these recordings, and we score them; we say, ‘How close are you to the intervention as it was designed?’” Swanson says. “These kids are reaching equal levels to adults in delivery and alignment to the intervention, so they can deliver the intervention just as well as an adult, sometimes better.”

Cross-Age Tutoring Takeaways For Educators

Educators shouldn’t view cross-age tutoring as a silver bullet, but it is a cost-effective intervention, say Swanson and Chang.

“It should not be the only intervention that young children receive in reading, but it could be added with not much time and no extra cost,” Swanson says.

She adds it’s an intervention that does not need to be limited to schools. “Think about after-school care providers and their role in reading and math intervention and improving academic outcomes,” she says. Her work with YMCA after-school programs suggests these types of programs can help support academics.

Chang adds that there’s a lot to be enthusiastic about in the findings of the new meta-analysis.

“This is good news for schools," he says. "It shows that cross-age tutoring can work in various settings with different kinds of students and subjects, and it gives teachers and school leaders the flexibility to adopt a program to their own context without worrying too much about specific conditions.”

• High School Math Students Used A GPT-4 AI Tutor. They did Worse.
• Best Sites for Online Tutoring and Teaching

This month's new offerings include switchers, printers, adapters, intercoms, and more.

Daktronics Live Switch

Live Switch integrates directly into existing systems for high school-level productions to expand control capabilities. It allows operators to switch between camera feeds, pre-recorded video and other video clips as needed. Producers also have the ability to highlight past plays or exciting moments with instant replays. The solution also includes access to automatic updates to ensure users stay up-to-date with the latest integrations and advancements within the software.

Magewell USB Capture SDI 4K Pro

USB Capture SDI 4K Pro is able to capture SDI signals up to 4096x2160 (including 3840x2160 Ultra HD) at 60fps with 4:2:2 chroma fidelity via the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 interface. It provides video capture with minimal CPU usage and no external power source. The unit can accept video formats up to 12G or frame rates up to 240fps and can capture 2-channels of embedded audio or analog audio. Embedded audio can also be extracted and output via the 3.5mm Line Out interface.

Riedel DSP-1216HL SmartPanel

The DSP-1216HL offers a space-saving, multifunctional interface for professionals in broadcast, live event production, theaters, OB vans, and sports venues, bringing the power and flexibility of Riedel’s software-defined SmartPanel ecosystem to the desktop. Much like a smartphone, a SmartPanel allows users to adapt its functionality to their workflows by leveraging various apps instead of multiple single-purpose panels.

Roland DGAVersaOBJECT MO-180 Benchtop UV Flatbed Printer

The MO-180 incorporates features that optimize image quality, productivity, and ease of use when direct-printing on a wide range of materials, including paper, glass, and three-dimensional objects up to eight inches thick. Two newly developed printheads in a staggered layout, a powerful UV-LED lamp, and innovative dot control technology enable the MO-180 to achieve a maximum print speed of 20.48 square feet per hour (1.90m2/hr.) in standard mode, while its compact form fits well into limited spaces.

RTS Intercom NOMAD Wireless Intercom

NOMAD is a state-of-the-art wireless intercom solution engineered for mobility, real-time responsiveness, and durability. Designed to meet the demands of industries that require instant, reliable communication—such as broadcast production, healthcare, and live events—NOMAD delivers wireless freedom; real-time responsiveness; extreme durability; and scalability.

SonnetSolo5G USB-C to 5 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

Featuring an aluminum enclosure and measuring just 1.2" x 3.2" x 0.7", the Solo5G is a compact, fanless 5 Gigabit Ethernet adapter for Mac, Windows, and Linux computers. Equipped with an RJ45 port plus link and activity LED indicators, the adapter supports 5GbE (aka 5GBASE-T) connectivity via common Cat 5e (or better) copper cabling at distances of up to 100 meters. The adapter’s 0.15-meter captive USB-C cable connects to a USB-C or Thunderbolt (Type-C) port on a computer and is bus-powered.

Vernier Science Education & Penda Learning Vernier Connections powered by Penda

Vernier Connections powered by Penda will launch for the 2025-26 school year with the aim to strengthen hands-on and digital science instruction. By combining Vernier’s sensors, data-collection tools, and investigations with Penda Learning’s interactive science activities, this integration allows educators to connect real-world experimentation with digital reinforcement. This collaboration enables students to visualize and analyze real-time data within Penda’s platform, deepen their understanding of core scientific principles, and strengthen their STEM skills.

Extron NAV D 121

The NAV D 121 is a compact decoder that is very economical. This latest addition to the award-winning NAV Pro AV over IP Series is a compact Pro AV over IP decoder that receives visually lossless video, audio, and control over 1 Gbps IP networks. Utilizing the Extron-patented PURE3 codec, the NAV D 121 delivers groundbreaking performance with high-quality video at resolutions up to 4K/60 with 4:4:4 chroma sampling and ultra-low latency.

• Edtech Show & Tell

Instead, I offer a refreshing glimpse into practical ways learned through research and experience to rebuild and solidify trust. The reasons for pursuing this are many, most importantly, the reality that when children learn in a trusting environment, they shine.

And trust starts at the top.

Building Trust From The Top

Effective school leadership, particularly by principals, is closely linked to student achievement, and trust positively influences student achievement. This relationship may seem obvious but where trust has been tested, we must remind ourselves to work on, rebuild, and sustain it. Trust is part of a set of soft skills that continuously surface as significant, even when we are too busy to put in the time as we face the onslaught of other challenges in our schools.

Trust is built through competence, reliability, honesty, transparency, openness, and awareness of vulnerability. So where do we begin in an untrusting, conspiracy-theory world? The most fundamental methods involve analog approaches. Consider: have you ever been wrapped up in an email war, a vicious cycle of back-and-forth antagonism and insults? I am betting you have, and this is my leadership strategy . . . .

I received an email from a concerned parent about an alleged case of lice. You can imagine the misinformation running rampant online. He was genuinely concerned and asking for information, but I couldn’t reveal specifics due to FERPA protections of minors, and my reply conveyed this. He responded with the fear that I wasn’t being transparent and covering up something. I hadn’t interacted with him before and this reaction, even today, surprises me.

Leaders frequently make the mistake of doubling down at this stage, or worse, ignoring the request altogether. This perpetuates mistrust more than anything. Instead, I called him, something that often surprises parents–a fundamental problem in itself. Too often leaders hide behind keyboards, thinking the buffer will protect us when, in fact, it makes things worse.

I’ve written about the online disinhibition effect: the tendency to dehumanize a person on the other side of digital communication. This is how bad online behavior metastasizes, like cancer. The most effective cure is to get the person offline. On the phone, he got to hear my voice, the sound of sincerity and reason. This works 90% of the time–not a bad batting average!

Understand that I wasn’t just calling him; I was calling the 10 parents he followed up with, and the ones they subsequently connected with, echoing even further. The conversation flipped from distrust to respect. I’m not looking for admiration, unless it helps kids win, and kids win when trust happens.

Consequently, this issue was over in one phone call–not a single additional parent followed up, and the social media echo chamber died. You’ve seen the reverse: people go haywire, a hyperactive hive mind starts with a bad seed and snowballs into chaos. Ignore it, as many do, and you’ll regret it. So stop these disproportionate reactions before any take root -- this is the leader's choice.

Toe Dipping: Risk or Reward?

Having the advantage of being in hundreds of schools for various reasons over my career, I’ve learned that each has its own unique persona. You feel it when entering the building, and that’s what makes each school community so special.

Yet one consistent theme across schools are the whispers you hear at the corner of a hallway, or side entrance of the school. Whispers can be good, helpful, and even offer free advertising. Or they can fester and magnify inaccurate details. That’s because absent facts, it is human nature to fill in the gaps, and the brain has a tendency to do so with negative and often gross inaccuracies.

Our choice as school leaders is to reconstruct these whispers. We can’t stop them, nor should we. Instead, we should enter into them in subtle, strategic ways. We should toe dip and share valuable, real information at a time and place where needed. Toe dipping is simply an injection of authentic facts that migrate into the school mindset.

Remember, if you don’t tell the school’s story, someone else will and you don’t want their version.

On the topic of risk with these conversations, it is important to share what you can, do so with candor and thought, and limit what you can’t with frank audacity. Your informal school leaders will respect this approach.

Greasing the Wheels

Change is hard for anyone, and many teachers are type-A personalities, effective at organization and structure, not so much at facing disruptions, such as cutbacks when realigning staff. It can be a dramatic shift.

Proactively sharing ideas with your faculty about ways to adapt, or “greasing the wheels,” helps the change process. You can gain a sense of willingness, and at the same time, toe dip, letting others know what challenges you face, all while monitoring the vibe.

By doing this, you gain ideas from others that you may not have considered. Greasing the wheels with informal powers in your school also makes you willing to hear and adjust. Even if the change isn’t exactly what they had hoped for, there is little that is as powerful as people feeling heard.

Form Feedback: 90% Agreed

Schools take years to undo distrustful us-against-them mantras. For example, in a prior school leadership assignment, I faced a union-heavy environment. This was a difficult transition for me at first. I am not the school leader who points to a contract; I focus on humane leadership decisions, such as letting someone leave 15 minutes early to get to their sick child, without making them give up needed sick time.

In this school, I was asked to add a holiday performance assembly to an already busy instructional schedule. I let the faculty decide, having them complete a survey, and 90% endorsed having the assembly, so we scheduled it.

Later, a union-minded teacher came to me saying that she never would have guessed that so many wanted this assembly, absent the survey. The monkey was off my back! Too many leaders make decisions such as this one without checking with stakeholders. When you do, you can point to the results of the silent majority in a safe harbor.

Trust in leadership is increasingly fragile. School leaders must prioritize rebuilding and maintaining trust to provide a positive learning environment. By engaging in open communication, embracing vulnerability, and actively involving stakeholders in decision-making, leaders can transform whispers of doubt into a chorus of trustful support.

• 6 Ways For School Leaders to Address “Whispers”
• School Leadership: How to Make Lemonade

With ChatGPT, the advanced search tool is called Deep Research, while Gemini’s version is Deep Search. Perplexity’s option is simply called Research and it will email a report to your inbox. While these tools can provide substantial advantages in educational settings, particularly in relationship to time, critical concerns need to be thoughtfully addressed.

Deep search tools engage in the use of advanced algorithms to retrieve information from vast databases, including academic journals, books, web archives, and multimedia sources beyond the scope of traditional web-based searches. Unlike traditional search engines that rely primarily on keyword matching, deep search tools can synthesize complex information, identify connections across disciplines, and even summarize or cluster related findings.

Beyond the tools available within the more common AI Chat tools, there are a number that are entirely devoted to deeper research.

• Semantic academic search tools such as Elicit, Research Rabbit, and Consensus.
• AI-enhanced databases such as Gale in Context: High School or ProQuest Education Database
• Browser-integrated extensions that refine search results in real-time, such as Perplexity AI’s Pro Search or Google Scholar’s advanced filters

Advantages of Deep Search in K-12 Context

1. Potential for Improved Research Relevance

K-12 students often struggle with constructing precise search queries, especially when working on complex or unfamiliar topics. Deep search tools reduce this burden by interpreting natural language and inferring contextual meaning, thus yielding more accurate results.

For example: A 10th-grade student researching "climate change and agriculture" might receive irrelevant results using a standard search engine. A deep search tool should prioritize scholarly articles, datasets, and reports that directly address how changing weather patterns impact food production, rather than articles that only tangentially mention both topics.

2. Guided Access to Credible Sources

Deep search systems often prioritize or exclusively retrieve information from academic sources, helping students differentiate between credible research and unreliable websites. For K-12 learners, especially in middle and high school, this function is crucial in teaching information literacy and source evaluation.

Many school librarians have begun integrating platforms such as EBSCO’s Explora for Schools or JSTOR’s free student portal into the curriculum, allowing students to experience academic-level research safely and with guidance. However, the student and instructor both need to ensure that the sources obtained are credible.

For example, using the free deep search tools, Wikipedia showed up as a primary source in a couple of the sample searches I tried for this article.

3. Time Efficiency and Cognitive Support

By surfacing high-quality sources quickly and often summarizing key arguments, deep search tools support students in managing large research tasks within limited timeframes. These tools also support diverse learners, including those with reading challenges or executive function disorders.

For example, a U.S. history teacher might use an AI-powered tool to help students narrow down research topics on the Civil Rights Movement, providing summaries of landmark cases, primary sources, and thematic groupings that scaffold independent inquiry.

4. Democratization of Research Skills

Access to these advanced research tools can level the playing field for students across socioeconomic and geographic contexts. Schools without vast physical libraries or local access to an academic library can leverage deep search platforms to provide rich academic resources that are otherwise out of reach.

Cautions Regarding Deep Search In the K-12 Context

While deep search tools offer powerful benefits, the use of these raise pedagogical, ethical, and developmental concerns, especially with younger students. This is especially true when the use of generative AI in any form is frowned upon or outright banned.

1. Over-Reliance and Reduced Critical Thinking

Deep search tools may do too much of the cognitive heavy lifting, summarizing, analyzing, and ranking content. Students may passively consume synthesized results rather than learning how to critically analyze original texts or even search for digital and print materials beyond what the search tool will retrieve.

For example, a high school English teacher may worry that students are bypassing close reading of literary criticism by simply quoting AI-generated summaries or relying on AI clustering to formulate arguments. Instructors need to ensure students learn the basics of document analysis prior to introducing deep research tools.

In that vein, recently, one instructor commented to me about how her student seemed like a squirrel running around to collect a lot of nuts (in this case, sources) but was not able to put any of it into a coherent order for the reader. Instructors need to ensure that the time saved with rapid retrieval is used to improve the writing process and critical thinking.

2. Opaque Algorithms and Bias in Results

Many deep search engines operate as black boxes, meaning the way information is prioritized, excluded, or ranked is not transparent. This can lead to algorithmic bias, potentially excluding diverse voices, minority perspectives, or emerging scholarship not yet indexed by major databases.

For example, a 12th-grade student researching "racial bias in standardized testing" may encounter filtered results that favor official reports over grassroots critiques or skip lesser-known authors whose work is highly relevant. Teachers should guide students in using multiple tools to gather sources, triangulate data, and question what is missing from the results they receive.

A key concern in my sample searches was the large number of sources gleaned from non-academic websites and not from more reviewed and professionally curated sources.

3. Age-Inappropriate Content and Misinformation

Although many platforms have educational safeguards, not all deep search tools are designed for children or teens. Students may encounter inaccurate, inappropriate, or ideologically slanted material, especially when using general AI-based search tools without filters.

All of this is not a change from traditional searches, but it bears repeating. Particularly, if the student expects that deep search tools will provide more factual and academically appropriate information.

For instance, a 9th-grader researching gender in sports might come across controversial political content and opinions presented as factual information. Schools should recommend vetted educational tools and teach digital literacy skills, including how to evaluate bias, intent, and evidence in sources. Such instruction should start early.

4. Academic Integrity

As deep search tools become more sophisticated, they can mimic human synthesis of information, potentially blurring the lines between research and AI-assisted plagiarism. Students may submit AI-generated summaries without reading or comprehending the source material.

Schools need academic integrity policies that include ethical generative AI, use guidelines for research tools, and establish consistent expectations for citation and originality.

5. Equity and Access Gaps

Despite the democratizing potential of deep search tools, access is still uneven. Schools in under-resourced districts may lack high-speed internet, subscriptions to advanced databases, or staff trained to teach research skills effectively. Consequently, districts should ensure equitable access to digital libraries, provide professional development for teachers, and collaborate with public libraries to extend research resources for all students.

Deep search is transforming the landscape of academic research for K-12 students, offering unprecedented access to relevant, credible, and comprehensive information. When used thoughtfully, these tools support inquiry-based learning, promote academic rigor, and foster research confidence among young learners.

Yet, as with any powerful tool, deep search must be accompanied by intentional instruction, ethical considerations, and equitable access to ensure that it enhances rather than undermines the goals of education.

By equipping students with the skills to critique, navigate, and responsibly use deep search technologies, K-12 educators can cultivate a generation of learners who are wise information consumers and thoughtful, discerning, and empowered researchers.

• 8 AI Tools for Summarizing and Reviewing
• Designing AI-Enhanced Assignments for Deeper Learning

The presenters shared the following guiding questions to the attendees, who worked in small groups to discuss the practical steps school districts can take to build a healthy pipeline that represents all voices.

Question 1: Why is it important to build a pipeline and recruit non-traditional talent?

The answer is multifaceted and deeply rooted in the fundamental principles of inclusiveness, effectiveness, and innovation. Viewing difference not as a hurdle, but as a valuable asset, unlocks a wealth of potential for the edtech field.

The attendees noted that, as school district leaders, we have to start rethinking traditional pathways to careers in edtech. They discussed the importance of focusing on teachable skills – not just on degrees – in order to reduce barriers that might discourage people from considering careers in the field.

The benefits of actively recruiting from non-traditional job candidates included:

• Bringing diverse perspectives: Different backgrounds and lived experiences fuel creativity and lead to more innovative and effective technological solutions.
• Better serving your students: The more the edtech field reflects the diversity of the student population, the better equipped it will be to understand and cater to their varied needs.
• Avoiding underrepresentation and reducing barriers: Intentional recruitment efforts directly address systemic inequities and create fairer opportunities for all.
• Sustainability in engagement: In a challenging climate for teacher recruitment and retention, we cannot afford to overlook valuable talent. Building an inclusive environment fosters a stronger sense of belonging and can improve staff engagement and longevity.
• If we don’t intentionally build the pipeline, we won’t ever get the pool of people of which to hire/promote: This proactive approach is not just a matter of fairness. It's a strategic imperative.
• It’s our job to build these recruits, and to reach out to find people: We must actively market ourselves and the opportunities within edtech to diverse communities.

Addressing this work requires the courage to acknowledge differences and speak out when there is a clear lack of diversity. It necessitates relying on allies who are willing to be brave and vulnerable, built upon a foundation of trust. Finding common goals is essential to move forward collaboratively.

Question 2: How are you building an inclusive culture in your district?

Creating a truly inclusive culture requires intentional effort and a commitment to fostering an environment in which everyone feels valued, respected, and a sense of belonging. This goes beyond mere tolerance and actively celebrates the richness that diversity brings. Ideas discussed included:

• Ensure a variety of backgrounds are represented: One powerful step is to ensure individuals see others in the team/school/district that represent them. This visual representation can be incredibly impactful in fostering a sense of belonging and validating diverse identities.
• Lead with people first: The most critical element to growing your pipeline is the human connection. We lead people, not the work. We need to provide environments in which it is okay to make mistakes, and foster a culture of learning and growth for everyone. It’s crucial to recognize that we don’t expect every employee to work the same way we do. Embracing individual differences and working styles is a cornerstone of an inclusive culture.
• Consider varying work hours: Offering differing work hours when feasible can also accommodate diverse needs and preferences. It’s important to acknowledge that traditional education systems can sometimes inadvertently train out the acceptance of diverse approaches, often emphasizing a singular "right answer." We must actively challenge this mindset and be aware of potential unconscious bias that might lead to placing different expectations on certain students or colleagues.
• Create opportunities for students to learn more about careers in edtech: Creating internship programs among students can provide invaluable opportunities to learn about careers in edtech. Platforms such as Floreo, which offer virtual scenarios for practicing understanding in various careers, can also be valuable tools. Consider hosting career fairs where students can meet a variety of school staff and learn more about the benefits of edtech careers.

Question 3: How do you identify and grow leaders in your district?

Cultivating strong and diverse leadership is essential for the long-term success and inclusivity of any educational organization. This process begins with self-awareness: Know yourself.

It also involves a direct and simple step: Ask people if they want to lead.

Some of the components of effective leadership discussed in the groups included:

• Listen, watch, discuss: It’s also crucial to begin with the end in mind, envisioning the type of leadership needed to achieve the district’s goals.
• Focus on strengths rather than deficits: Think about the skills each staff member has, and consider how these skills can support your district work – even if these skills are not included in the traditional job description.
• Build a culture of celebration: Building a positive and supportive environment is key. It’s not about your success, it’s about how to help your team grow.
• Lesson in humility: Hire people who are smarter than you – and bring new skills to your team. Validate your team’s strengths. Don’t be afraid of what you don’t know.
• Hold regular 1:1s with your team: Give your team the opportunity to identify their career goals and interests and offer them challenging yet achievable goals. Providing timely and constructive feedback is crucial for growth. When you see areas of improvement, pull them aside and give feedback.
• Identify natural leaders: Many attendees shared stories about an ally in leadership who saw their potential as leaders and encouraged them to pursue a leadership career track. They credited this recognition as giving them the courage to pursue leadership positions, often when they hadn’t considered it themselves. Attendees suggested that leaders should intentionally identify someone you think can lead your team, have them shadow your work to really know what it’s like to be in your shoes, and conduct regular check-ins to support their development.

Understanding team dynamics, such as those outlined in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, can inform leadership development strategies. Utilizing a Skill:Will matrix can help leaders understand their team's capacity and tailor development opportunities accordingly. Embracing a Growth Mindset is essential for both leaders and those they are developing.

Ultimately, effective leadership involves working with people from their strengths, not weaknesses, and elevating leaders who can compensate for areas that may be missing.

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

The tool, developed in-house by the district itself, aims to foster honesty and alleviate anxieties surrounding AI in education. It essentially works as a dropdown menu option in Google Docs that allows teachers to set parameters around AI use for specific assignments, and then lets students document which AI tools they used, and to what extent.

“I don't want my teachers to be spending time trying to catch kids cheating,” says LBUSD Chief Technology Officer Michael Morrison, who oversaw the two years of development for AI Trust You. “That's the opposite of why they got into teaching.” Having this tool helps teachers be clear about their expectations and students be clear about their AI usage, which reduces stress for both.

Since formally launching AI Trust You within LBUSD in January, the district has made it available for free to school systems across the nation. At last check, the extension is already being used by 47 districts and 600 teachers, although those numbers increase every week.

“We had one person from New Jersey who said that when she showed it to the principals this one high school principal got the chills,” says Morrison. “I think it's more that they realize they've been dealing with this issue with their teachers, and their teachers are frustrated, and it's a pain point for everyone. So I think we're addressing that in a unique way with this.”

Getting Started With AI Trust You

Anyone who is interested can go to the AI Trust You home page for a demo, and to sign up to get started.

The beauty of AI Trust You is its simplicity. Once installed, the extension is accessed via dropdown menu for any assignment through Google Docs.

For teachers, they start by selecting from the four AI technique categories—Content Creation, Content Understanding, Research Assistance, and Audio-Visual Generation—to specify how students are allowed to use AI on a particular assignment. The tool generates a clear assignment guideline text for students, so expectations are transparent.

From the student perspective, they select the AI tool or tools they use while working, and identify the techniques and the percentage of their work that was AI-assisted.

AI Trust You then generates a citation documenting exactly how AI was used for that assignment, which the student can then paste into their work, either at the end or wherever it’s required.

Success So Far

Although it’s only been in use a relatively short time, the tool seems to be working as intended, especially in regard to transparency.

“In one classroom, we had the teacher make all the kids use it, and then the teacher sat down with each kid and looked at the results,” says Morrison. “They went over what the kids said they used it for, where and how it was used in that assignment, and incredibly, it was right on accurate! The teacher said, ‘I could not believe how honest they were about how they used it.’ I think it proved to show that kids want to be honest, and given an opportunity, a lot will be. It's pretty cool to see.”

AI Trust You is not designed for every assignment, Morrison cautions, but for key ones in which teachers want to be clear about AI usage.

“I can picture teachers saying, ‘No, don't use AI at all,’ right? And that's appropriate at certain times,” he says. “I think teachers need to think about being more intentional about what they expect from kids with a specific assignment.” He suggests using AI for research isn’t all that different from using Google, so AI Trust You at least allows students to document the research process.

Improving School Culture

As mentioned, the extension itself is free, and will remain so, says Morrison. The district is working on providing a way to monitor stats on usage, for which it will charge to recoup development costs. To protect student privacy, no personal data is collected. Any information tracked is around the actual platforms used.

Ultimately, AI Trust You has lessened student apprehension about using AI, and reduced teacher suspicion around potential cheating–a big win-win as far as Morrison is concerned.

“I think this has the potential to make our school culture better,” he says. “And that's a pretty hard thing to accomplish with other tools, and this is so simple. I feel like it's almost a no-brainer.”

• 5 Ways Schools Can Prepare Students For AI
• 10 Free AI Trainings and Certifications for Educators

Sobel, Professor Emeritus in the Education Department at Antioch University in New Hampshire, has written several books and lectured extensively on ways in which educators can decrease the “nature deficit” students face.

The new edition of this book features updated examples of outdoor design principles in action, provided by various educators. Sobel also addresses the more recent impact of the pandemic on outdoor learning. However, the focus of Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators remains a discussion of ways to build lessons around behaviors children naturally engage in while outdoors.

“[They] emerged out of my observation of kids in diverse settings in lots of different places in the world, and seeing that when kids are outside in natural settings and have access to free play and it's safe, then they tend to do the same things over and over gain, regardless of economic status or environmental habitat,” Sobel says.

He adds that by harnessing these natural tendencies, educators can enhance learning experiences for students across subject matter.

Outdoor Design Principles In Action

The first design principle that Sobel noticed is what he calls special places.

“Kids make forts or find special places, and it tends to happen in between around ages six or seven and 11 or 12, and it happens around the world,” Sobel says.

Knowing this, teachers can use children’s forts and other special areas to foster learning. “For instance, one third-grade teacher said to me, after reading my book, ‘I would take my kids outdoors one afternoon a week, and each of them found their own special place, and then they would do journal writing or math assignments or something else in their special place. And the kids were more focused, more engaged, and less disruptive,’” Sobel says. “Because she used the ‘special place’ design principle, it led to deeper engagement.”

One common design principle is ‘hunting and gathering,’ which kids around the world inherently do as there’s some biological impulse to do that, Sobel says.

“Another one is 'animal allies,'" he adds. "Kids have a desire to create close personal relationships with animals. Another one is 'maps and paths.' Kids are inherently fascinated with following paths and making maps of places.”

These inherent interests of children can all be harnessed to support their creativity as well as various school topics. Before a writing exercise or STEM activity, Sobel says, you might have students create a map of a small area outside the school, even just of a few square feet.

“The process of creating the map is a focusing device that makes you see things you wouldn't normally see,” Sobel says.

Outdoor Class Logistics and Technology

“There's a whole kind of set of things that you need to do in order to make outdoor time productive, learning time and not recess, or pure recreation,” Sobel says.

To do this requires outdoor management policies that are different from recess policies, and taking into account things such as student seating and that the environment is not too cold and not too hot.

Though important, those considerations are not covered in Childhood and Nature, which instead provides design principles for outdoor class activities you can create once those logistics are taken into account, Sobel says. For a look at outdoor class logistics, he recommends A Forest Days Handbook: Program Design for School Days Outside by Eliza Minnucci with Meghan Teachout, for which he wrote the foreword.

Though Sobel supports the movement in many schools to prohibit cellphone use among students, he says outdoor classes can support technology use overall. One way is by helping students become more engaged with any technology they interact with when they get back inside.

“There's lots of research on how having kids outside in an outdoor learning context increases their capacity to pay attention when they're back indoors,” he says. But there are also many ways of incorporating technology into the outdoor lesson itself.

Sobel's wife is a former sixth-grade teacher. For one exercise, she had her students take photos on a school walk. They sorted these photos by plant and tree type. “Then each kid became responsible for becoming the expert on that plant," he says. "And then they did research on their plant using their classroom computers.”

The final part of the project had them combine their natural exploration with artistic, scientific, and computer literacy skills. “They made a beautiful illustration and description of their one plant in a kind of artistic studio format,” Sobel says.

For more information about outdoor design principles, visit David T. Sobel’s website.

• Using the U.S. National Parks to Support STEM Learning
• Best Free Earth Day Lessons and Activities

Regardless of the tool, it can be difficult to get effective training, and there are likely key features that are being underutilized.

While school-led professional development can be helpful, there are online professional learning communities on various edtech websites that can be leveraged. Also, some of these community spaces offer the chance to monetize your work.

Here is a summary of six online edtech professional learning spaces.

Canva for Teachers Community

Canva offers a global online community of millions of educators worldwide. Within this, there are opportunities to learn how other educators are using Canva in their own teaching as well as learning early on about new Canva features. Sub communities can also be found via Facebook groups that are organized by country. A unique opportunity within the Canva for Teachers Community is the chance to become a Canva Creator, through which you can contribute to the Canva template and resources available for other teachers, and even receive royalties as compensation.

Curipod Teacher Community

Through a private Facebook page, Curipod provides online resources and collaborative opportunities for teachers to connect around their use of the tool. On the Curipod website, there is also a blog that covers a wide range of content. Recent blog posts include “Breaking language barriers for young developing multilinguals” and “The complete guide to social emotional learning (SEL) including engaging activities.”

Kahoot! Community

Kahoot! offers opportunities to earn while contributing to resources that other educators can use. Two pathways for joining the Kahoot! community include becoming a verified creator or ambassador. The Kahoot! community is also an international space, where you can connect through messaging, join a private Facebook, and meet in person at Kahoot!-sponsored events.

Quizizz Teacher Blog

Quizizz offers a teacher blog space with articles and topics relevant to using the tool. Educator stories are highlighted, including details on how Quizizz is being used, challenges overcome, and unique ways that teachers are approaching teaching using Quizizz. Tips and Resources provided have accompanying recorded videos and webinars. Case studies sharing stories of school district and classroom use of Quizizz that may be similar to your own learning environment are also available.

Quizlet Be the Change

For resources to tackle content related to societal issues, Quizlet has created an online space for educators. From NPR and The New York Times, it has the intent to support students in becoming educated, empathic, and empowered to the world around them. Some of the lesson plans and study sets provide support for students to become change agents and focus on mental, activism, and class

Scratch Discussions

Scratch offers an online forum for educators to connect as they use the tool in their teaching. Various topics on the forum are organized by overarching categories, including “Welcome to Scratch,” “Making Scratch Projects,” “About Scratch,” “Interest Beyond Scratch,” and “Scratch Around the World.” The topics of conversation are endless, and you can highlight what you are doing in the classroom, make suggestions, troubleshoot, collaborate, gain project ideas, and more.

As you spend time engaging with different edtech PLC’s and utilizing the varied resources, you will see various ways to incorporate tools into lessons. To get you started, these related sample lessons plans may also be helpful:

• Canva Lesson Plan
• Curipod Lesson Plan
• Kahoot! Lesson Plan
• Quizizz Lesson Plan
• Quizlet Lesson Plan
• Scratch Lesson Plan

“People want to know, ‘What should I do?'” says Pinet, a staff scientist at the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language in San Sebastian, Spain.

The problem is that the topic is complex and full of nuance, and students often benefit from learning both typing and writing. “Both exist and we have to do both,” she says. “One is going to yield you something; one is going to yield you something else. It’s not like you really have to choose.”

Handwriting’s Connection To Learning Is Not Settled Science

A 2024 study compared brainwaves in adults who typed vs. those who wrote by hand and concluded that the handwriters had more brain activity. This study was viewed more than 84,000 times and was amplified by coverage in more than 170 news outlets, including a story I wrote for this publication.

Many of these stories overemphasized the implications of the study, essentially suggesting that it was settled science that students learned more when writing by hand than typing.

That’s not necessarily the case, Pinet says, which is why she and a colleague, Marieke Longcamp, wrote a commentary on this handwriting study. Pinet and Longcamp argue that since the study looked at brain scans of adults and did not measure what they learned, it is hard to conclude much from the results.

The abstract, or summary, really makes it sound like it has huge consequences for children learning to write, but it's really not so direct,” Pinet says, adding that the study never tested participants on what they actually learned.

Brain measures, on the other hand, are less direct and can be subject to interpretation. For instance, in this study, in an attempt to control for some of the inherent differences between brain activity in typers and handwriters, study participants were asked to type with one finger; however, Pinet says doing this limited the implications of the research.

“Most people don't type that way,” she says.

Typing Vs. Handwriting In General

Pinet, however, stresses that she is not against teaching handwriting and notes that while more needs to be understood about its impact on learning overall, we do know that writing by hand can help students learn to write and recognize letters.

“This is because the motor action that you're doing when you're doing handwriting is much more precise, and that helps you remember this new letter,” Pinet says. “In typing, the motor action is you’re just pressing a button and it’s the same action no matter the letter. You can say that you're using a different finger, but the action itself isn’t different. If you're writing by hand, writing an ‘A’ is very different from writing a 'B,' and that helps you dissociate them.”

For these reasons, Pinet believes handwriting should remain a part of education. “In some countries, handwriting is being taught less and less, and so it is important to defend handwriting,” she says. “It really freaks me out to think that children will not learn to handwrite, and not only because of the dependence on technology but because we know that it is an important skill and that it does transform your brain in a specific way.”

However, she also believes typing is an important skill for students to be instructed in, and notes that many countries do not have formal typing instruction as part of the school curriculum.

Ultimately, her advice to educators is to try and find the right balance between the two forms of writing. “I think as much as possible, you should encourage both,” she says.

• Busting The Myth of Learning Styles
• The Research-Practice Divide is Real. Here's How To Overcome It.

Sponsored by itopia, this webinar, which took place on April 8, 2025, explored how districts can take charge of their cybersecurity strategy, ensuring proactive threat prevention, responsible AI adoption, and total data control, with a platform such as itopia’s SecureClass. With fully customizable access controls, SecureCless helps you determine exactly what's allowed, down to the details.

Hosted by Tech & Learning’s Content and Brand Director Christine Weiser, the discussion featured Kyle Berger, Chief Technology Officer at Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, and Jena Draper, Chief Innovation Officer at Itopia.

Watch the replay here

Key Takeaways

AI Adoption and Cybersecurity Risks: AI is rapidly being adopted in education, far exceeding that of previous technologies such as the internet or social media, however, this growth brings increased cybersecurity risks. Schools need to secure data from AI-driven threats and maintain control over their systems. “Tools have now embedded AI into their platform, sometimes with us knowing it and accepting those terms, and sometimes without us accepting or knowing those terms,” said Draper. “It has created this extreme risk for us." This necessitates continuous review and adaptation of cybersecurity strategies.

Balancing AI Adoption and Security: "AI is going to be embedded in jobs that are existing today,” said Berger. “Jobs that have always been around are adapting." Consequently, schools cannot simply block AI due to its increasing importance in preparing students for the future workforce. Instead, they must find ways to enable AI use while mitigating risks.

Threat Landscape: The threat landscape is evolving, with bad actors increasingly using AI for malicious purposes. Schools need tools and strategies to defend against these advanced threats.

Data Control: A significant focus for schools and AI should be data control. “It just comes down to what data can be shared with that AI tool, right?” said Draper. “If I'm just typing in silly things about cats or something, it doesn't really matter. But if I'm starting to put my personal information in there, whether it's knowingly or unknowingly, then that's what creates the risk.” To that extent, Itopia's SecureClass allows schools to control what data can be shared with AI tools, such as blocking copy/paste, uploads/downloads, and camera/microphone access.

Chromebook Security: A misconception exists that Chromebooks are inherently secure. However, as their use increases, so does the risk. “It's not just students that are using these devices anymore,” said Berger. “The more usage you see, the more targets and threat actors are gonna start trying to find ways to get to it.” Ensuring that your cybersecurity protection works for all devices is critical.

Fighting AI with AI: The webinar emphasized the need to use AI to fight AI threats. “We've got a massive database of over 8 billion endpoints, and we're watching these threats as they are suspicious events so that they don't become problematic for you in the future,” said Draper. “So anytime a URL has any kind of suspicious activity, we go ahead and block it with our extension in real time, and we unblock it proactively as we get information that allows us to feel that that is no longer a risk to you. So we've blocked over 18 million websites in just the last 90 days for suspicious activity around malware and phishing. This is no easy task. But securing AI and then using AI to secure it is all part of what SecureClass's underlying mission is.”

• Tech & Learning Webinars

Fortunately, artificial intelligence (AI) can now act as a personal assistant, helping you to save time, reduce decision fatigue, and restore some work-life balance.

Here are ten practical ways AI tools can streamline your daily life outside the classroom:

1. Create Smart Grocery Lists

AI tools such as ChatGPT or AI-enabled apps (e.g., AnyList, Google Keep with AI integrations [still in Beta]) can generate grocery lists based on your meal plan, dietary preferences, or even what’s already in your pantry. For example: Ask ChatGPT: “Make a grocery list for five easy dinners with chicken, beans, and rice as main ingredients.” You’ll get a ready-to-shop list that is customizable and shareable in seconds. You could similarly identify the ingredients you currently have and ask AI to identify potential meal options.

2. Plan Weekly Meals in Seconds

Decision fatigue is real, especially after a long day at school. Let AI take over weekly meal planning. You can include time limits, dietary needs, or ingredient preferences. For example: “Plan five quick vegetarian dinners I can make in under 30 minutes, with minimal prep.” You can pair this with a grocery list generator to get everything in one go. Additionally, if you forget an ingredient, AI can provide a list of potential substitutes based on what you have available.

3. Summarize Long Emails or Articles

If you’re subscribed to parent newsletters, community updates, or other info-heavy content, AI can summarize these for you in a flash. Browser extensions such as Wordtune Read, or plugins for ChatGPT or Chrome, can help you focus only on the key points. As an example: Paste an article into an AI tool and ask: “Summarize this in three bullet points.” For more robust summarizing tools, see 8 AI Tools for Summarizing and Reviewing.

4. Auto-Draft Thank You Notes or Messages

Whether you’re thanking a friend for dinner or following up with a neighbor, AI can help draft warm, personalized messages without the stress of figuring out the right words. For example: “Write a friendly thank-you note to a neighbor who brought over cookies.” Revise the output as needed, and it can save time and mental energy.

5. Schedule Social Media Posts or Reminders

AI can help you brainstorm captions and post ideas for birthdays, holidays, or even school events. Some tools can help automate reminders and calendar tasks using natural language. An example could be “create a cheerful Instagram post for my son’s 10th birthday with a short poem” or “create an image to celebrate my husband’s (our) 10^th wedding anniversary.”

6. Organize Travel Plans

Planning a weekend trip? AI tools can act as mini travel agents, suggesting destinations, building itineraries, and even helping you find the best travel times or routes. Try “Plan a three day weekend trip near Minneapolis with historical sites and budget lodging” as a sample or “build a day long road trip route through Minnesota that visits points of interest including the World’s Largest Ball of Twine and the SPAM Museum.” Each state has similarly interesting roadside attractions.

7. Create a Study Plan for Your Own Coursework

In order to make your own classwork fit more effectively into your schedule, ask Google Gemini or another tool to review your syllabus and ask it to draft a study schedule to ensure all your assignments are submitted at least a day before the due date. You could similarly have AI draft your spring workout schedule to prepare for that mid-summer half marathon!

8. Draft and Revise Household To-Do Lists

Let AI help create or prioritize to-do lists for house chores, errands, or home projects. You can ask it to organize by urgency or time required, or even assign tasks to other family members. Try using “create a weekend to-do list for cleaning, grocery shopping, and minor home repairs.”

9. Plan Family Activities or Game Nights

AI can suggest creative ideas for rainy-day activities, family movie nights, or screen-free games for kids of various ages. Claude could be asked “suggest fun, low-cost family activities for a Saturday afternoon with two kids aged 8 and 11.”

10. Reflect and Journal with AI

End your day with AI-assisted journaling. Tools such as ChatGPT can prompt you with questions to help you reflect, practice gratitude, or simply de-stress. “Please give me a journal prompt to reflect on a challenging but rewarding moment today.” It is potentially a low-effort way to check in with yourself, reflect, and stay grounded.

Living Smarter

Educators are caregivers, knowledge-sharers, and multitaskers, and it’s easy to put your own needs on the back burner. By offloading some of the daily mental tasks to AI, you’re saving time and freeing up brainpower for the things that matter most: being present with your students, your family, and yourself.

The key is to start small; try one or two of these ideas this week. You’ll likely be surprised by how quickly AI becomes your time-saving sidekick.

• 9 Suggestions For Your AI Reading List
• AI Resources for District Leaders

Megan Simonson

Megan Simonson earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Saint Mary's University and a master's degree in School Counseling and Community Counseling from Winona State University (WSU). She has worked in various enrollment-related roles in WSU’s College of Education since joining the team in 2016 while also serving part-time as a mental health counselor at an outpatient treatment center in Rochester, MN. She now focuses on her role as the Recruitment and Admission Coordinator for the College of Education.

This compact and portable device combines hands-on learning with advanced features such as built-in sensors for data collection, compatibility with coding languages such as Blockly and Python, and an intuitive interface that supports cross-curricular activities, which is at the heart of the Next Generation Science Standards.

Xploris: Getting Started

I found getting started with the Xploris very straightforward. The device's user-friendly, colorful interface and feature set really showed me how it can easily integrate into STEAM curriculums.

The Xploris platform is really a hands-on, cross-curricular learning platform that includes a one year subscription to the MyStemKits website as well as a two-hour online training course ($200 value). Both are accessible via a user code included with the device.

The website contains 31 standards-aligned lesson plans to utilize the devices onboard sensors for ambient temperature/external temperature, distance, light, sound level, and voltage. With these I am able to run science experiments, log and analyze data, create custom animations and music, as well as program it to provide output based on sensor readings.

The software and resources provided me with plenty of ideas and support for designing engaging lesson plans.

Xploris: Best Features

• Portability: This is a compact device that is easily recharged. The fun 16 x 16 pixel LED dot matrix display is clear and bright, allowing it to be easily used both indoors and out.
• Interdisciplinary Learning: Xploris seamlessly integrates science, data collection, coding, art, and control, allowing students to explore complex STEAM concepts in a cohesive manner.
• Sensor Suite: The Xploris’s five built-in sensors (light, temperature, sound, distance, and voltage) allow students to conduct a variety of experiments and collect real-time data.
• Coding: Xploris’s compatibility with Blockly and Python coding languages gives students the ability to to code animations and music.
• Software Platform: The Xplorilab can be used independent of software but the Xplorilab software is a very powerful and user-friendly solution that looks great on a computer screen as well as an interactive whiteboard.

Xploris: Key Specifications

• Auto-calibrated
• USB 2.0 and BLE 4.2 connectivity
• 150-hour battery life (with screen off), 8 hours (screen on)
• Servo outputs allow controlling small servos
• Image-based readings to enhance understanding
• Remote data collection.
• 100 samples/second max speed.
• 100,000 samples memory size
• 30 animations or 1,800 still image memory size
• 16 x 16 pixel LED dot matrix display
• Rechargeable LiPO 3.7V battery
• Windows 11, Android, iOS compatibility

Xploris: Pricing

The Xploris STEAM are generally sold in bundles and have educational pricing. Education pricing is around $2,900 for a bundle. Refer to the Xploris for reseller information and pricing details.

Xploris: Key Takeaways

The Xploris is a comprehensive solution offering integration between STEAM subjects, making it a valuable tool for educators looking to provide a cross-curricular learning experience. The Xploris device is very user-friendly, allowing educators and students to focus on teaching and learning rather than learning how to use the technology.

The Xploris is also cost effective since it combines multiple tools into one device, which could help schools reduce overall costs of a STEAM program’s equipment.

The device can stand-alone by itself, but the additional software and lesson platforms give educators the flexibility to create lessons that encourage creativity and engagement through interactive hands-on projects.

Ultimately, this is a solution with the features that will definitely improve students' interest and learning in STEAM related subjects.

• Educator Edtech Reviews

I started teaching back in 1995—long before AI became the household acronym that it is today—after earning my engineering degree and a master’s degree in technology. I learned about VHS Learning through a College Board forum about five years ago. Since joining the company, I’ve revised and expanded our computer science program to provide critical opportunities for computer science education to students around the world. I’ve developed courses including AP Computer Science A, AP Computer Science Principles, Discrete Mathematics, Cybersecurity, Data Science, and our newest course piloting this spring, Artificial Intelligence.

5 Ways Schools Can Prepare Students for AI

Artificial intelligence has been around for decades, but now that it is an integral part of all our lives, we must support our students in developing the skills to be informed users of it.

At VHS Learning, our target audience for our Artificial Intelligence course is the high school student who is curious about AI and the impact it has on their life. In our work to develop this exciting new course we identified five important goals that may be helpful for any school that is considering how to teach students about AI:

1. Expose students to a wide variety of applications of AI: While most students are aware of AI, they may have a very limited knowledge based on fictional representations and social media influence. In our AI course, students are constantly exploring the use of AI across many different fields. For example, students may not realize that AI-driven medical cancer screening programs—approved by the FDA a couple years ago—can now detect cancer earlier because the programs are trained to detect abnormalities beyond what the human eye can detect. Prompting students to explore how AI is used in various fields and contexts is a great way to get them interested in learning more about how artificial intelligence works.

2. Present the big picture of AI: Most students assume a technology degree will in some way involve computer coding, but do not understand how AI is truly the intersection of programming, machine learning, neural networks, and deep learning. Students do not need extensive programming experience to have a basic understanding of how AI works. In our course, for example, students can explore how AI is based on computer code without any prior programming knowledge. They are provided with friendly versions of code that allows an app to function and are then prompted to explore how making changes in the code affects the functionality of the app. Students then shift their focus to explore the general concepts of machine learning, neural networks and deep learning in later units of the course.

3. Provide opportunities for hands-on experience: In the beginning of our AI course we use Google’s Teachable Machine to allow students to create an AI model that is trained to distinguish between two animals. They upload photos of their favorite animals and then input data to train their model to identify the different types of animals by key characteristics. Students explore how processing more images with their model allows the AI app to get smarter by helping to identify where further training is needed. This is a very simple yet effective model to teach students the power of AI, how machine learning works and why limitations or biases may exist.

4. Explore the impact of AI on careers: We ask our students to try and identify an industry that’s not going to be impacted by AI in some way. As high school students consider their future and potential career fields, we want to ensure they consider how AI will impact those fields. This is yet another reason why schools should be embedding AI learning into their curricula across disciplines. No matter what career students choose, they will need to have a general understanding of AI, how it works, and how it’s being used -- as well as how it shouldn’t be used.

5. Engage students in critical thinking about the ethical implications of AI: We recognize that AI can be a scary topic for students and set out to make the ethics of AI a central theme in our course. Each week students discuss applications of it and consider both the benefits and potential harm of those applications. In our final module, Living in an AI World, students spend time exploring human centered design and the responsible use of AI, including ethical frameworks, privacy and empathy maps, and consider the future of AI. When developing this course, we were intentional about looking at AI through different lenses, to allow students to understand the complex nature of the technology and its applications, to empower them to make educated decisions about their use of AI, and to be informed decision makers that will help shape future AI policies.

The Responsibility and Challenge of Teaching Students about AI

Instead of shying away from AI tools, we should be integrating them into curriculum from day one. Students need to learn not just how to use these tools, but also how to critically evaluate their output. We've seen students attempt to use AI to cheat, demonstrating a troubling lack of understanding of AI’s limitations, such as its propensity to "hallucinate" or generate inaccurate information. With school-appropriate AI platforms, we can teach students how to use AI responsibly, analyze generated content, and delve into the source of the information to investigate limitations and bias—all while preparing them for success in a wide variety of careers and industries.

Finally, there’s a perception that today’s students are very highly technically trained -- this is simply not the case for many. While there is good progress being made in expanding access to computer science education, the bottom line is that many schools still don’t have access to qualified teachers who can teach subjects such as AI. By using a high-quality online learning program such as VHS Learning, which features many highly qualified computer science teachers who bring a wealth of knowledge, experience, and passion to our program, schools can equip their students with the essential knowledge and understanding of technological advancements shaping their future, regardless of their prior exposure to computer science.

Pete Just, Executive Director on the Indiana CTO Council, discusses the intricacies of approaching AI in education, AI adoption strategies, and how to assuage the fear that comes with AI use in the classroom. Just recently presented on this topic at the spring CoSN conference.

The Adoption Curve for AI

When tech innovation is added to education, the adoption process can be swift or it can be measured. AI, as amazing as it can be at times, seems to be taking more of a measured trajectory in schools.

“I thought we would follow a much more aggressive adoption curve because of the transformative nature of what generative AI brings to the table,” says Just. "But it also brings concern, and we need to mitigate that concern. What I mean by the general adoption cycle is that everyone is waiting for the other person to make the change and then they watch what they're doing and they say, ‘Okay, that's not too bad. That's got some benefits. We might want to do that.’”

Many are waiting for the “right” way to use AI in the classroom to present itself. Whereas some are willing to take the leap into AI use, many are hesitant when it comes to altering how we teach students. One of the biggest challenges is shifting this mindset so that students can gain practical experience using AI as it will undoubtedly be a significant part of their future careers.

Changing The “Using AI Is Cheating” Narrative

If a student uses AI for an assignment, is it technically a form of cheating? Can it be labeled as plagiarism? Does it hurt a student’s ability to think critically or problem solve?

”If you are not helping your students understand what we're talking about with generative AI, what it could bring, how to use utilize it, how to think critically about asking those questions or prompting, how to think critically about reviewing the answers or the output, you are doing your students a disservice,” says Just.

What about those who are using AI in the classroom effectively?

“They don't see it as cheating. They see it as amplifying,” says Just. “And so what we have to do is we have to get ahead of that. What we're doing is helping school districts think strategically about how they can amplify what they do within their school district and really turbocharge it in a lot of ways, while also protecting student data and putting guard rails in place.”

AI has become a tool that can help bring students closer together in terms of academic achievement. Crafting ideas, bridging understanding gaps, and enhancing participation can all be supplemented with the addition of AI, as long as teachers demonstrate how to do so effectively and ethically.

The Role Of Administrators in AI Adoption

Should an administrator using AI in their personal life promote its use in a school or district regardless of existing guidelines? What exactly should administrators do when it comes to AI use in education?

“There’s a group of people who are in charge,” says Just. “And their way of taking charge is by having the conversations with their school board, by having the conversations with their community stakeholders, by having the conversations with their teachers, and then determining what is the feeling in our school community about where we should go with this.”

Many education decisions can be held up due to unwillingness to act, so keeping open lines of communication with stakeholders regarding AI can help guide the conversations that are needed. As Just puts it, AI can do amazing things for teachers, but they need the support of their decision-makers to get where they want to go.

• Explaining Your School’s AI Approach To Parents
• Using Chatbots To Create Personalized Learning Experiences

“It opened my eyes to a lot of the opportunities and broad paths within cybersecurity,” says Kircher, who is an intern at the University of South Florida’s SOC. He adds that working at the SOC empowers him and other students. “It gives us the tools and the abilities to think outside the box and think critically while also learning the critical and technical tools of cybersecurity.”

Kircher is one of many across the country who is benefiting from an increasingly popular strategy of recruiting students to help secure school networks from the ever-increasing number of cybersecurity threats. The strategy was recently highlighted by Microsoft in a blog post on digital transformation.

The approach is a win-win that both prepares students with real-world experience and helps universities in their ongoing cybersecurity efforts, say those who have been involved with these types of SOCs.

The Benefits of Student Cybersecurity Involvement

For students like him, Kircher says getting involved with an SOC is an important opportunity to start networking in the field, in addition to learning hands-on skills. He adds that the students who work in these centers also give back to their universities.

“The beauty of our program is that we can take the burden off of our organizations that receive such a large number of security alerts,” he says.

Corey J. Lee, a security CTO at Microsoft, says he is always being asked how to get started in cybersecurity. “From my vantage point, the best place to start is in one of these security operations centers.” He adds this is because many of those hiring for cybersecurity roles, even early career roles, require applicants to have a wide range of experience with different digital threats. “Working in a security operations center, you get exposure to a large number of security domain areas, identity, email security, endpoint security, network security, etc.”

Participating in a student SOC can also help students meet the experience requirements of many jobs.

“A lot of early in career opportunities expect cybersecurity professionals to have three to five years of experience,” Lee says. “What we're seeing is if a student has been working in their student SOCs for three years, and maybe starting in high school, or they've done this throughout their career in college, they're graduating with three to four years of cybersecurity experience.”

Starting A Student-Supported SOC At Your School

Developing a student-involved SOC at your school can be all about matching students with the right roles in your cybersecurity scheme.

Ryan Irving, who manages the student SOC at the University of South Florida, says doing this involves finding the right balance.

“We want to get students exposed to real-world, hands-on events and alerts and give them the chance to investigate and triage. But we want to limit the risk to the organization as well as to the students,” he says. “So what we do here is we focus predominantly on the level one triage. So we will identify an alert from any given tool. We'll investigate it, we'll do our thing on it. We'll run it down as far as we can, and then whatever we identify via assets, users, open source intelligence on IP addresses, other investigative artifacts, things like that, we will curate that we will create a report, and we'll escalate that.”

While these types of measures are important, it’s also critical to help students who are interested in cybersecurity develop the skills they need while working at a student-led SOC. Lee notes that in his experience, oftentimes a passion for learning outshines existing knowledge.

“The talent shortage that we're dealing with right now isn't just about a deficit in humans. It's also a deficit in folks that are interested and willing to learn more and to go into some of the emerging spaces,” he says. “So I can't stress it enough that harnessing the curiosity that exists from students is an opportunity to fill gaps in security operation teams.”

• 5 Cybersecurity Tips For Schools From CISA’s Deputy Assistant Director
• Malicious QR Codes: 5 Ways To Protect Educators and Students