Tech & Learning.com - Best of 2023 - Feb 2024

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4 Tech & Learning Announces the Winners of its Best for 2023 Contest

8 2024 Edtech Trends: Authenticity, Better Tools, and More AI

By Erik Ofgang and Ray Bendici

10 The 2024 National Educational Technology Plan is Out: Here’s What You Need to Know

By Erik Ofgang

12 The FTC Is Proposing Updates to COPPA. Here’s What You Need To Know

By Susan Gentz

14 She Wrote A Book About AI in Education. Here’s How AI Helped

By Erik Ofgang

16

7 Ways to Detect AI Writing Without Technology

By Erik Ofgang

18 Tech & Learning: 2023 in Review

By Ray Bendici

21

5 Quick Tips for Backing Up Your School Data

By Steve Baule

23 It’s Counterintuitive But Pretesting Consistently Works, Says Research By Erik Ofgang

TECH & LEARNING ANNOUNCES THE WINNERS OF ITS BEST FOR 2023 CONTEST

Tech & Learning’s judges deemed these products as standouts for supporting teaching and learning in 2023

Tech & Learning has named the winners of the Best of 2023 contest, which recognizes educational technology that exceptionally supported teachers and students in 2023.

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

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

Benchmark Education Company, StartUp BuildUp SpiralUp Phonics

Bloomz, Bloomz

Bluum, STEM Kits/Bundles

Bluum, STEM AR (Augmented Reality) / VR (Virtual Reality) Solutions

Boxlight, MimioWall

Boxlight, MimioConnect

Branching Minds, Branching Minds

Capstone, PebbleGo

Cignition, Inc., K-12 Math & ELA High

Dosage Virtual Tutoring

ClassLink, ClassLink Suite

ClassLink, ClassLink DataGuard

Clear Digital, Evo Roll and Evo Roll Pro

Clear Digital, Vue II

Information, U50+

Benchmark Education, Express! AssetBased Access to English

Clear Touch, 6000A+ Interactive Panel

Curriculum Associates, i-Ready Assessment and Personalized

Instruction

Defined, Defined Careers

Defined, Defined Learning

Discovery Education, Experience

Discovery Education, Mystery Science

Discovery Education, DreamBox

Reading

Edmentum, Exact Path

Forward Edge, Edge•U Badges

Frontline Education, Frontline Special Programs Management

Frontline Education, Frontline School Health Management

FrontRow by Boxlight, EzRoom with ELEVATE

HoverCam, Orbit Gigabit Wireless

Document Camera

Inletech, ArtMath

IXL Learning, IXL

Learning A-Z , Raz-Plus

Learning A-Z , Writing A-Z

Learning A-Z , Foundations A-Z

Lincoln Learning Solutions, Lincoln Content Bank

Logitech, Zone Learn

Logitech, Zone Learn

Magic EdTech, MagicBox

MIND Education, ST Math

MindPlay Education, MindPlay

Reading

MobileMind, MobileMind

MobyMax, MobyMax

n2y, Inspire

Open LMS, Open LMS + Monash University + Smart Osvita Partnership

Otus, Otus

OverDrive, Sora, the student reading platform

Paper, Educational Support System

Pencil Learning Technologies, Pencil Spaces

Pikmykid, Pikmykid School Safety and Dismissal Platform

Promethean, ActivPanel LX

Promethean, OPS-A

Promethean, Inc., Explain Everything Advanced

Reading Horizons, Reading Horizons

Discovery

Robotical, Marty the Robot

Samsung Electronics America, WAC

Sourcewell, SpringMath by Sourcewell

Stages Publishing, Inc., Language

Builder: Academic Readiness

Intervention System

Teaching Channel, Teaching Channel’s EMPOWER Platform

TeachTown, enCORE

TouchMath, NOW

TouchMath, PRO

ViewSonic Corp., ViewSonic® IFP52

ED Series Interactive Displays

Vivi, Vivi

Writelike.org, Frankenstories

Zoobean, Inc., Beanstack

Secondary Grade Winners

Accelerate Learning Inc., Math Nation powered by Accelerate Learning

Acer, Acer Student Repair eLearning Program

AllHere, AllHere

Aristo Educational Press Ltd., Aristo Science for the New Century

BenQ , LK935 4K Laser Projector

Bluum, Esports Solutions

Bluum, Integrated Safety Solutions

Boxlight, MimioWall

Boxlight, MimioConnect

ClassLink, ClassLink Suite

ClassLink, ClassLink DataGuard

Discovery Education, Experience

Discovery Education, Science

Techbook

Discovery Education, DreamBox Math

Edmentum, EdOptions Academy

Edmentum, Edmentum Courseware

Edmentum, Exact Path

Edutek Solutions, LLC, One to One Plus

Epson, Epson BrightLink 770Fi

Interactive Ultra Short Throw LampFree Laser Display

ExploreLearning, Gizmos

Forward Edge, Edge•U Badges

Frontline Education, Frontline Special Programs Management

Frontline Education, Frontline School Health Management

FrontRow by Boxlight, EzRoom with ELEVATE

Gale, part of Cengage Group, Gale In Context: Literature

Gale, part of Cengage Group, Gale In Context: For Educators

GAT Labs, GAT+

Gradient Learning, Along

HoverCam, Orbit Gigabit Wireless Document Camera

Paper, Educational Support System

Pencil Learning Technologies, Pencil Spaces

PowerSchool, PowerSchool Naviance

CCLR

Proximity Learning, Live Virtual K-12 Education

Realityworks, Medical Terminology Class Kit

Samsung Electronics America, WAC

Scribbles Software, ScribChoice

Sergeant Laboratories, AristotleK12

Singleton Foundation for Financial Literacy & Entrepreneurship, Venture Valley (Mobile & PC Game)

TeachTown, enCORE

Tutor.com and The Princeton Review, High-Dosage Tutoring

Tutor.com and The Princeton Review, On-Demand Tutoring by Tutor.com

Vivacity Tech PBC, Student Repair Academy (SRA)

Vivacity Tech PBC, Mobile Charging Station

Vivacity Tech PBC, Guardian Work-In Case with Pouch

Vivi, Vivi

Writelike.org, Frankenstories

YouScience, Brightpath

Higher Ed

Impero Software, Impero Classroom

Incident IQ , iiQ Facilities

IXL Learning, Rosetta Stone for Schools

Lightspeed Systems, Lightspeed Alert

Lincoln Learning Solutions, Lincoln Content Bank

Linewize, Linewize Pulse

ManagedMethods, Cloud Monitor McGraw Hill, McGraw Hill AR

MobileMind, MobileMind

MRU, Introduction to Economics Unit Plan

n2y, Polaris

NoRedInk Co., NoRedInk

Otus, Otus

Acer, Chromebook Plus 514 (CB5143H/T)

Anthology, AI Design Assistant

Blackboard Learn by Anthology

BenQ , LK935 4K Laser Projector

Bloomberg, Bloomberg for Education

Canva, Canva

Chief, Voyager Mobile Cart

ClearOne, DIALOG UVHF Wireless

Microphone

ClearOne, BMA 360D

Crestron Electronics, Inc., AirMedia®

Connect Adaptor

Gale, part of Cengage Group, Gale Digital Scholar Lab

Kaplan, All Access License

MaivenPoint, Examena

2024 EDTECH TRENDS: AUTHENTICITY, BETTER TOOLS, AND MORE AI (OF COURSE)

By Erik Ofgang and Ray Bendici

Just like making annual resolutions, we cast our vision ahead at this time of year to ponder what may come our way over the next 12 months. And in the fast-paced, everevolving world of education technology, that task is more challenging than keeping that weight-loss promise to ourselves!

Nonetheless, let’s gaze into our edtech crystal ball . . . .

AI Takes the Next Step - Now that educators have become more comfortable with using AI for basic tasks, expect to see it become a key driver of classroom creativity and innovation.

AI Becomes Boring - The trend toward normalcy and everyday integration of AI in schools will begin in earnest, and conversations around teaching with AI will become just conversations around teaching.

Pretesting Takes Off - The body of evidence that pretesting helps students retain material continues to grow.

Emphasis on AuthenticityWith the growing use of AI, teachers will have to get creative and rethink

pedagogy, and craft assignments that require developing new approaches to instruction.

Tactile Strikes Back - New research has suggested reading on paper can be more effective than on screens and that writing by hand can lead to deeper learning than typing, which may mark a return to more hands-on experiences for students.

Schools Cut Back on The Number of Edtech Tools - Look for the number of digital teaching tools to decrease in the coming year, as districts realize that often less is more.

THE 2024 NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY PLAN IS OUT: HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

By Erik Ofgang

The U.S. Department of Education has released a new national education technology plan for the first time since 2016.

“ The office of Ed Tech, working with other organizations, brought together stakeholders from K16 to put together a plan that focuses on closing the digital divide,” says Greg Bagby, Coordinator of Instructional Technology at Hamilton County Department of Education in Tennessee, who participated in creating the plan. “There are examples from all 50 states on the work that’s going on.”

The Digital Design Divide - The key focus here is on creating an edtech-friendly culture for students and educators that provides plenty of professional support for both.

The new plan focuses on three key areas:

The Digital Use Divide - To overcome this divide, the NETP offers advice that focuses on strategies such as developing the profile of a technology-using learner (including determining basic competencies and needs), designing detailed edtech evaluation and adoption plans, forging partnerships with stakeholders, and providing edtech professional development.

The Digital Access Divide - The key takeaways here revolve around being very intentional in edtech planning, purchase, use, and adoption, and making sure to always consider aspects such as inclusion, accessibility, and digital literacy. than on screens and that writing by hand can lead to deeper learning than typing, which may mark a return to more hands-on experiences for students.

CREDIT: PIXABAY

THE FTC IS PROPOSING UPDATES TO COPPA. HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

By Susan Gentz

Th e Federal Trade Commission recently announced that it is updating COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act). Many of the proposed changes are aimed at better protecting student data by requiring technology providers to take a bigger role in that effort, as well as limiting the ability to monetize student information.

According to the FTC, here is a recap of the key proposed changes: Requiring separate optin consent for third-party disclosures - This means that the default settings for edtech platforms and products would automatically be set to “no sharing” for students, and parents would have to specifically opt in to share or allow data to be shared with third-party advertisers.

exceptions to send push notifications to kids.

Limiting data retention. The FTC proposal would limit how long edtech companies could retain student data to essentially the time the student is actively using the product or platform.

Codifying edtech guidance. This would formalize FTC guidance and safeguards.

Increasing accountability for Safe Harbor programs. This would increase transparency and accountability of COPPA’s Safe Harbor programs.

Strengthening data security requirements. This would focus on generally creating more stringent rules and safeguards that edtech companies have to follow for student data.

Limiting the “support for internal operations” exception. Currently, edtech companies can collect information if it’s for internal business operations. The FTC wants to limit this going forward.

Limiting companies’ nudging of kids to stay online. This is straightforward – companies wouldn’t be allowed to use certain COPPA

A change to the definition of “personal information” to include biometric identifiers. This would include protecting students’ biometric information collected by edtech companies, such as thumbprints, facial recognition patterns, etc.

SHE WROTE A BOOK ABOUT AI IN EDUCATION. HERE’S HOW AI HELPED

By Erik Ofgang

Technology in the classroom is part of our everyday world and, as part of that, we must ensure that all students have access to the devices and the content they need for learning. Accessibility ensures everyone, including those with disabilities, can use and benefit from products, services, and information.

Educator and edtech expert Alana Winnick never considered herself much of a writer. Even so, she was able to write The Generative Age: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Education at warp speed. This was thanks to, well, AI.

Winnick is more comfortable speaking than writing, so she used an AIpowered voice-to-speech transcription tool on Google Docs to capture her words. “I dictated it on the page, I took that, I ran it through an AI to remove my filler words and make me sound more professional,” says Winnick, Educational Technology Director at the Pocantico Hills Central School District in New York. “Then I would go back and edit it.”

Winnick received the Innovative Tech Director Award, one of Tech & Learning’s Innovative Leader Awards, during the recent Northeast Regional Leadership Summit in New Jersey. She was honored for her work promoting effective and responsible AI use in the classroom as well as her larger efforts to use edtech to promote innovation in education.

7 WAYS TO DETECT AI WRITING WITHOUT TECHNOLOGY

By Erik Ofgang

Over last summer, I began seeing the first suspected cases of AI use in the introductory college writing courses that I teach online. Since then, AIgenerated essays have become a more common element of these classes.

Thankfully, I’ve gotten much better at instantly spotting AI papers thanks to some tell-tale signs of ChatGPT’s and other AIgenerators’ writing styles.

Here are the signs I look for to detect AI use from my students.

1. The Submission is Too Long - When an assignment asks students for one paragraph and a student turns in more than a page, that raises a red flag.

2. The Answer Misses The Mark While Also Being Too Long - Being long in and of itself isn’t enough to identify AI use, but it’s often overlong assignments that have additional strange features that can make it suspicious.

3. AI Writing is Emotionless Even When Describing Emotions - If ChatGPT was a musician it would be Kenny G or Muzak.

4. Excessive Use of Lists and Bullet Points

- ChatGPT and other AI generators frequently present information in list form even though human authors generally know that’s not an effective way to write an essay.

5. It’s Mistake-Free - ChatGPT tends to produce very clean prose that is, on average, more error-free than what is submitted by many of my students.

6. The Writing Doesn’t Match The Student’s Other Work - Writing instructors know this inherently and have long been on the lookout for changes in voice that could be an indicator that a student is plagiarizing work.

7. Something Is Just . . . Off - The boundaries between these different AI writing tells blur together and sometimes it’s a combination of a few things that gets me to suspect a piece of writing.

Read the full article here

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TECH & LEARNING: 2023 IN REVIEW

By Ray Bendici

Be fore going fully into 2024, we wanted to take a brief look back at the year that was in regard to AI in education as well as share a few of our other mostviewed news stories, how-to articles, and edtech features.

Top News Articles

• Sal Khan: ChatGPT and Other AI Technology Herald “New Epoch”

• He Was Falsely Accused of Using AI. Here’s What He Wishes His Professor Did Instead

• President Biden’s AI Executive Order Won’t Fix AI in Schools, But It’s a Start

• Taking Notes vs. Photographing Slides

• ChatGPT Isn’t Designed to be A Tutor. Students Are Still Using it As One

• AI in Education: 10 Months On

Top How-To Articles

• My Student Was Submitting AI Papers. Here’s What I Did

• I Used To Create Long Slideshows. Here’s 4 Things I Do Instead

• 4 Learning Tips From A Cognitive Scientist Turned TikTok Star

• Developing AI Pedagogical Practices

• 4 Ways to Use ChatGPT to Prepare for Class

Top Edtech Tool Articles

• 12 AI Tools Beyond ChatGPT That Can Save Teachers Time

• Best Free AI Detection Sites

• What is GPTZero? The ChatGPT Detection Tool Explained By Its Creator

• Best Interactive Whiteboards for Schools

• What Is Khanmigo? The GPT-4 Learning Tool Explained by Sal Khan

• What is SlidesGPT and How Does it Work for Teachers? Tips & Tricks

• 4 Education Tools That Seem Straight Out of Science Fiction

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5 QUICK TIPS FOR BACKING UP YOUR SCHOOL DATA

By Steve Baule

With the upswing in hacking and ransomware attacks on schools and other educational institutions, it is essential for educators to ensure their data is secure. As some school districts have seen significant data loss due to such activities, such preparation minimizes risks that no one can afford.

Educators should consider the following for backing up their data:

1. Follow the 3-2-1 rule for data backup. Have at least three backups of your data, using at least two different media with one offsite. Those backups should be stored in at least two physical locations.

2. If possible, automate the backup process so you don’t have to remember to manually start it. At the end of each semester or term, it is a wise idea to create a complete backup. Label that backup and set it aside as an archival record for that semester.

3. Make sure you invest in high-quality external hard drives for your archival backups. Many systems include password protection or encryption on the hard drives.

4. Test your backups. Make sure each backup

is complete and successful by recovering at least a couple of files from each backup.

5. Take extra care with any data that includes personally identifiable information (PII). One might consider adding password protection to documents including any PII, especially regarding students.

Implementing a thorough and effective data backup plan is crucial to safeguard your data against loss due to hardware failure, cyberattacks, or accidental deletion.

IT’S COUNTERINTUITIVE BUT PRETESTING CONSISTENTLY WORKS, SAYS RESEARCH

By Erik Ofgang

Pretesting, an education strategy in which teachers provide no-stakes quizzes to students before they’ve learned a topic, is earning high marks in cognitive research.

During one study, a group of college students who took pretests before learning outperformed a separate group who only took post-tests.

“Pretesting is not just as good – which, that in and of itself, is kind of surprising – but it’s potentially even better than a technique that is much more established, which is taking practice tests after learning has occurred,” says Steven C. Pan, the lead author of the study and director of the Learning Sciences Laboratory at the National University of Singapore.

can benefit learning if there is an opportunity to study the correct answers afterward,” and “this prequestioning effect or pretesting effect has been successfully demonstrated with a variety of learning materials.”

Implementing Pretesting in the Classroom - Pan encourages educators to consider incorporating low- or no-stakes pretests into their classes. “Instructors can use it with little fear that will have negative consequences and it will quite possibly have very positive consequences for student learning,” he says.

Despite the benefits discovered in this and other recent studies, pretesting remains underutilized, Pan says.

Evidence In Support of Pretesting - Pan has also been involved with other studies that demonstrate the potential positive outcomes of pretesting, also known as errorful generation. Pan was the lead author on a comprehensive review of existing research that found that “pretesting

Pretests Shouldn’t Be Stressful - To add lowstakes pretests without stress, Pan advises letting students know that these tests are not something to worry about. “If the instructor has a very positive, encouraging attitude, they should say, ‘This is just an exercise related to the course material. Don’t worry about failing or answering all these questions wrong.’”