EdTech Show Daily @ ISTE • June 27, 2022

EDTECH ShowDaily

NEW ORLEANS JUNE 27, 2022

AN INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION NOT AFFILIATED WITH ISTE

Oser Communications Group

Maximizing Engagement in Robotics and Computer Science Programs

Trane Technologies and Discovery Education Launch National STEM Education Initiative

The coming decade will bring unprecedented changes within the workplace. From education, to retail, to hospitality and transportation, virtually all industries will be transformed by robotics and artificial intelligence.

Millions of jobs will be eliminated by technology while millions of new jobs will be created.

Still millions more jobs will be transformed and students that graduate from high schools with strong technical skills (including robotics and A.I. literacy) will be significantly advantaged.

However, despite the increasing importance of robotics and computer science education, enrollment in these courses in the USA continues

Trane Technologies, a global climate innovator and Discovery Education, a worldwide edtech leader, announced they have teamed up to launch a multimedia Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education experience for students in grades 5 to 10. The multifaceted learning program includes interactive tools, resources and volunteers to engage and inspire students to learn, think and solve the world’s biggest sustainability challenges, like climate change and food waste, through sustainable innovation.

“We’re excited to launch this unique learning experience in collaboration with Discovery Education to reach students across demographics, including those in underserved communities,” said Deidra Parrish Williams, Trane Technologies’ leader of Global Corporate Social Responsibility.

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Clark County Public Schools Add Suite of PowerSchool Unified Talent Solutions

Fullstack Academy Partners with Engageli to Transform Online Learning Experience

PowerSchool, the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America, announced Clark County Public Schools (CCPS) in Winchester, KY has added a suite of PowerSchool Unified Talent™ solutions to simplify and automate all aspects of hiring, onboarding, evaluations and professional development for teachers. The latest suite of solutions added includes PowerSchool Unified Talent Employee Records, PowerSchool Unified Talent Perform, PowerSchool Unified Talent Professional Learning, PowerSchool Unified Talent Applicant Tracking, PowerSchool Unified Talent SmartFind Express and PowerSchool Unified Talent SchoolSpring Job Board. CCPS is currently completing its implementation of the solutions, which will provide a unified system for talent management, onboarding and personalized professional

Engageli, a purpose-built comprehensive learning environment designed by educators to foster active, collaborative learning and deeper peer-to-peer connections, announced a partnership with Fullstack Academy, one of the longest-running and most successful tech bootcamp providers in the U.S. Over the next year, Fullstack plans to transition its bootcamp programs, including those with its 16 university partners, to the Engageli platform. These include the cybersecurity, coding, data analytics, DevOps and product management programs and those same classes are powered through partnerships with Caltech, Emory University, LSU, University of Illinois Chicago, Virginia Tech and other universities.

Engageli will support students across these programs to learn and build their technical skills together with their peers while

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Monday, June 27, 2022

EdTech Show Daily

EDTECH Show Daily AN INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION NOT AFFILIATED WITH ISTE Kimberly Oser Publisher

Mimio Connected Classroom

By Melizza Cuizon, Content Creator, Boxlight

The Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS) The Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS) is a National Purchasing Cooperative that provides a proven, streamlined process that eliminates purchasing stress for education organizations. TIPS is housed and managed by the Region 8 Education Service Center.

Membership in a purchasing cooperative offers public agencies: • Access to competitively procured contracts with more than 2,000 quality vendors • Savings of time and financial resources necessary to fulfill bid requirements • Enables members to purchase on an “as needed” basis • Assistance with purchasing process by qualified TIPS staff • Access to pricing based on a “national” high-profile contract Member entities can view all compliance documentation for each vendor and each contract they hold on the website. This information is located under the Due Diligence tab for every TIPS Awarded Vendor. EDGAR, DMWE and HUB Vendors are also available and searchable on the website for your convenience.

TIPS Understands Purchasing TIPS understands your time, your budget and regulations you are required to

follow. Its contracts are written by TIPS’ General Counsel, Rick Powell. As a former director of purchasing, he used to be in the same position you are in, asking himself, “Is this compliant?” “Can this satisfy all of my bid requirements?”

“Will I pass my audit?”

Let TIPS help ease your mind and save you time and money by joining as a member today!

Membership with TIPS is completely free with no purchasing obligation or liability. TIPS prides itself on its “Purchasing Made Personal” mantra while further ensuring compliant purchasing from high performance vendors. Join TIPS for free today at www.tips-usa.com/membership.cfm.

TIPS Seeks to Meet Members’ Needs TIPS also works diligently to meet the needs of its member entities. In doing so, its general counsel, previously a purchasing director for many years, creates RFP categories specific to those needs. TIPS is continuously approving high quality vendors that provide their products and services to members nationwide. If you would like to view open RFP categories and have the opportunity to join TIPS as an awarded vendor, enroll in the eBid system at tips.ionwave.net.

For more information, email tips@ tips-usa.com or call 866.839.8477.

YuJa Secures Contract with Texas State Technical College Texas’s only public multicampus technical college, Texas State Technical College (TSTC), has signed an agreement with YuJa, Inc. to provide its Enterprise Video Platform for lecture capture and media management solutions. The college has 10 campuses throughout the state and more than 11,000 students working toward associate degrees and certificates in technical skills and trades.

The institution was seeking a replacement solution for Techsmith Knowmia, which sunset its enterprise education video hosting product. In addition to creating and publishing recordings, generating captions and using the quiz feature, YuJa offers the institution high func-

tionality, ease of use and the ability to manage and simplify workflows. The Video Platform integrates with Canvas, TSTC’s Learning Management System (LMS) and its Single Sign-On provider to provide a comprehensive education media platform.

“Texas State Technical College has a student-centered philosophy that focuses on technology as a ‘force to be explored and channeled by people in a productive and responsible manner for the benefit of all humankind,’” said Nathan Arora, Chief Business Officer at YuJa, Inc. “We’re excited to be a part of that philosophy by providing necessary technology to help students learn 21st

Anthony Socci Vice President of Sales Yasmine Brown Production Manager/Art Director AJ Flick Senior Editor Jeanie Catron Associate Editor Heather Albrecht Customer Service

Inside the Mimio Connected Classroom, curiosities are ignited, teamwork thrives and futures take flight. This ed tech ecosystem is where the doors to collaboration and critical thinking are blown open, the digital divide narrows and where bridges are built to connect people with potential and passion with purpose.

The Connected Classroom is where Mimio’s technology and teaching professionals come together to illuminate human possibilities and bring more power to knowledge. We are transforming the educational experience and taking learning to the next level with userfriendly yet comprehensive solutions for in-class, distance, flipped and blended learning opportunities through customizable plug-and-play technologies, award-winning course designs and data-driven learning assessments.

The centerpiece of the Connected Classroom is the Mimio Pro4 interactive display – a feature-rich and robust, outof-the-box solution that brings brilliant learning and collaboration to life.

Our MimioSTEM solutions inspire teachers to integrate dynamic STEM instruction to foster key skills such as critical thinking, perseverance, creative problem solving, collaboration and teamwork and effective communication. Our award-winning MyStemKits online lesson platform helps teachers find and use standards-aligned, handson lessons that spark interest in STEM topics and concepts for lifelong learning and application. MyStemKits is also a driver to our MimioSTEM products that connect student learning with valuable tech-related skills such as our Robo E3 3D printer, Mimio MyBot robotics system and Labdisc portable STEM lab. To showcase these dynamic solutions, we’ve designed the MimioSTEM Mobile – a van fully equipped with our STEM solutions including interactive display.

Through a Mission to Mars experience, educators and decision makers will come to know that our cutting-edge STEM solutions are the cornerstone of the Mimio Connected Classroom.

To help teachers implement educational technology successfully and with

For more information, visit booth #1122, go to www.boxlight.com, call 866.972.1549 or email marketing@boxlight.com or salesteam@boxlight.com.

century skills that will contribute to their success in Texas and beyond.”

YuJa has a strong and growing presence across Texas, including at Dallas College, University of Texas at El

Paso, Lamar University, McLennan Community College, Texas Wesleyan University, Clarendon College, Vernon College, Lone Star College, Texas State University and others.

Marcos Morhaim Senior Account Manager Alisha Dicochea Account Manager Tara Neal Director of Operations Iszac Saetieo Show Logistics & Distribution Enrico Cecchi European Sales EdTech Show Daily is published by Oser Communications Group ©2022 All rights reserved.

Executive and editorial offices at: 1877 N. Kolb Road, Tucson, AZ 85715 520.721.1300/Fax: 520.721.6300 European offices located at Lungarno Benvenuto Cellini, 11, 50125 Florence, Italy www.osercommunicationsgroup.com

Lee M. Oser Founder

confidence, EOS by Boxlight offers a wide range of professional development content and training such as selfpaced, online courses, certifications and customized programs to better meet a school or district’s needs. From Google Workspace to Social-Emotional Learning, EOS’ award-winning, highquality offerings are designed to ensure that teachers confidently and competently integrate technology tools to support and enhance instruction so that every student benefits.

We strive to keep a listening ear to what educators and students need to grow and advance their skills so that we can design comprehensive, cuttingedge and robust solutions to support dynamic teaching and learning. This year, we earned the 2022 EdTech Breakthrough Awards Overall EdTech Company of the Year, further proving that we want to be educators’ first choice for ed tech.

The Mimio Connected Classroom is the future of education and now is the time to grasp it.

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Monday, June 27, 2022

EdTech Show Daily Flexibility ELMO’s wide range of document camera styles ensures that your needs will be met no matter what you’re doing.

Portable document cameras are lightweight and fold flat, offering the ability to travel with your document camera; use it for hybrid learning, adventurous outdoor lessons or to jump between classrooms. ELMO’s TT series and platform document cameras provide crisp imaging and up to 288x zoom, allowing you to clearly show even the smallest details of your lesson, the perfect sidekick for complex science discussions.

Looking to get away from your desk?

Wireless document cameras come with a built-in battery and built-in microphone allowing you to interact with students as you speak. Androidequipped cameras let you further engage your class with STEM-oriented, educational apps, such as Scottie Go!

Why ELMO Document Cameras are a Classroom Essential ELMO released the world’s first document camera in 1988, giving educators the opportunity to engage students and create memorable lessons like never before. With simple connectivity, portability and the option to present wirelessly, you can elevate engagement, get creative and increase reten-

tion with meaningful visual aids.

ELMO’s wide range of advanced education technology caters to any lesson in any classroom. With a document camera as your trusty sidekick, students will remember your lessons for years to come, even if you’re teaching in an online environment.

Creativity There is no limit to what you can teach with a document camera. ELMO’s

extensive line of document cameras offers the ability to show anything from simple documents to complex 3D models. You can even use them as a webcam. Document cameras also seamlessly connect to interactive displays, such as ELMO Board, offering you even more ways to make your lessons memorable.

Simplicity and Confidence The advanced technology in document cameras creates a stress-free presentation environment every time. With easy setup and intuitive software, you can spend less time getting ready and more time being the heroic teacher that you are.

Adding a document camera to your presentations is a no-brainer, but choosing the right one can be challenging. Visit www.elmousa.com to find out which document camera is perfect for your classroom.

For more information, go to www.elmousa.com or call 516.501.1400.

Trafera Acquires AXI Education Solutions Trafera is pleased to announce the acquisition of AXI Education Solutions, a leading provider of Promethean interactive flat panels, educator professional development and related products and services to U.S. K-12 school districts across the mid-South.

“Bringing together Trafera and AXI will help us bring even more value to our school district partners,” commented Scott Gill, CEO of Trafera. “AXI’s talented team has earned the trust of their customers with a focus on Promethean interactive displays.

Coupled with their exceptional professional development platform and stellar installation services, I’m excited to welcome the AXI team to Trafera and look forward to growing together.”

Dale Viola, founder of AXI, noted, “Trafera really understands and appreciates the technology challenges faced by educators and district IT leaders today. I’m thankful that our customers and employees will have the opportunity to be part of an organization that shares our commitment to improving student outcomes through technology.”

Trafera is a portfolio company of Rotunda Capital Partners. Rotunda, along with other investors, provided additional capital for the acquisition of AXI. AXI will continue to be based out of Madisonville, Louisiana.

About Trafera Trafera is a leading provider of educational technology to K-12 schools and a top K-12 focused reseller of Google

Chrome devices. Trafera offers a broad range of additional hardware and software solutions that support better outcomes through technology and also offers a robust set of services including deployment and warranty support.

Based in St. Paul, Minnesota, the company also has operations in Arden Hills,

Minnesota and Muskogee, Oklahoma, supporting the needs of school districts nationwide. Visit www.trafera.com.

About AXI Education Solutions AXI Education Solutions, the 2020 Promethean Partner of the Year, is a leading provider of educational technology focused on enhancing teaching and learning. With a portfolio of products and services including interactive displays and professional development and a host of supportive technologies, AXI partners with school districts to support college and career readiness for every child regardless of social or economic background. AXI is based in Madisonville, Louisiana, with a customer base of school districts spanning the mid-South states.

Visit www.axiedu.com.

For more information, visit booth #2316 or go to www.trafera.com.

Monday, June 27, 2022

EdTech Show Daily Maximizing Engagement (Cont’d. from p. 1)

to lag behind many other countries.

Within American high schools, enrollment averages less than 3 percent of boys and 0.3 percent of girls. To put those numbers into perspective, a school with 2,000 students will often have less than 30 boys and 3 girls in their robotics programs. This means that 1,967 students are missing out on a literacy that is rapidly becoming a key differentiator across a huge spectrum of jobs.

Within middle schools, the results are marginally better with 5-15 percent of students typically enrolled – still tangibly below the needed levels.

Trane Technologies (Cont’d. from p. 1)

“The goal is to expose them to STEM concepts and experts at work in the real world and encourage them to pursue careers in science, technology and sustainability. Our company’s purpose is to boldly challenge what’s possible for a sustainable world. This initiative does just that by inspiring students to explore themes and topics, problem solve and develop creative solutions. It is accessible to all and easy for educators to incorporate into their curriculums.”

The program is part of Trane Technologies’ Sustainable Futures corporate citizenship strategy, which uplifts underrepresented students and PowerSchool (Cont’d. from p. 1)

development, among other benefits.

CCPS had a positive experience with its prior use of the PowerSchool Applicant Tracking solution, which helped solidify its decision to move forward with an expanded suite of PowerSchool Unified Talent solutions. The goal was to simplify and automate all CCPS processes with a singular provider to enable easier Fullstack Academy (Cont’d. from p. 1)

also growing their professional networks.

In Fullstack’s bootcamps, learners apply new content knowledge to practice problems, code reviews and group project work. Fullstack selected Engageli to support this collaborative work, finding the platform provided critical elements not available through other tools. With Engageli, the bootcamp provider can foster personalized, small group coaching around programming and code review to ensure active learning and real-time feedback. The platform’s ability to deliver collaborative and instructor-assisted support to synchronous and asynchronous learning environments, as well as to learners with low internet bandwidth or older machines, aligns with Fullstack’s goal of bringing engaging tech education to a

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“It’s truly a crisis,” says Dennis Kambeitz, founder of Robots.Education.

“Robotics and A.I. will impact all industries, but it’s only our most engineeringminded students who tend to take this type of education. The unfortunate truth is that the students who need this education the most are often the ones who are least likely to enroll.”

Fortunately, there are solutions that have been shown to dramatically improve engagement.

Dennis has demonstrated robotics to more than 18,000 students, with really exciting results. “When we demonstrate robotics with the EZ-Robot Humanoid at high schools, we’ll typically see 25 percent to 45 percent of stu-

dents indicate that they would like to learn robotics. That’s an increase of about 1,000 percent for boys and 10,000 percent for girls. The teachers can’t believe it.”

At the middle school level, the results are even more impressive, where up to 90 percent of students will indicate that they would like to learn robotics, following Dennis’ presentations.

“There’s something about EZRobot’s Humanoid that students simply love,” says Dennis. “Schools that implement robotics programs with it see huge increases in enrollment across the entire student population - boys, girls, nerds, jocks, at-risk, SEN, gifted and even students who aren’t as academically

communities through access to STEM education, enhanced learning environments and pathways to green careers.

The company has committed $100 million and 500,000 employee volunteer hours by 2030 to deploy Sustainable Futures in communities where it operates and serves.

A core feature of the learning experience is a virtual field trip, “Reimagining Today for a More Sustainable Tomorrow.”

The engaging virtual experience gives students an up-close look at climate innovators at work across Trane Technologies. During the field trip, students will encounter professionals from diverse backgrounds as they demonstrate real cases of how bold thinking can spark leading edge innovation. Students

can also connect directly with STEM professionals for classroom talks, mentoring and career exploration. Program resources will be available to schools and educators throughout the United States.

“Innovation sprouts from courage and creativity in STEM. Sustainable Futures with Trane Technologies helps inspire students to create real-world sustainable solutions that make the world a better place, both in their own neighborhood and around the world,” said Beth Meyer, vice president of Social Impact at Discovery Education. “By connecting the dots between STEM and sustainability, educators can access critical resources to empower students with forward-thinking content that sets them up for future success.”

Learn more about Sustainable Futures at sustainablefutures.discovery education.com or within the Discovery Education K-12 learning platform.

Connecting educators to a vast collection of high-quality, standards-aligned content, ready-to-use digital lessons, intuitive quiz and activity creation tools and professional learning resources, Discovery Education provides educators an enhanced learning platform that facilitates engaging, daily instruction.

integrations and a more intuitive process for staff.

The impact of these PowerSchool solutions has been felt across multiple departments at CCPS from Finance to Human Resources and beyond.

Department leaders noted immediate benefits from the implementation of the solutions.

PowerSchool’s Unified Talent suite of solutions are designed to enable districts like CCPS to find new

staff, properly train them and retain them for the long-term. The combination of SchoolSpring, Applicant Tracking and Records helps CCPS accelerate hiring by 50 percent while retaining effective educators with professional development and online evaluations. PowerSchool can help reduce administrative burdens up to 80% with easy-to-use integrated solutions.

Clark County Public Schools are

located in Winchester, KY, 20 miles east of Lexington. The district serves more than 5,000 students in Pre-K through 12th grade. CCPS offers a Migrant Education Program, a Digital Learning Hub, as well as a robust athletics program.

wide audience.

“Partnering with Engageli significantly advances our mission to transform lives and communities through accessible and engaging tech education,” said Jerrad Tausz, CEO of Fullstack Academy. “Students in our bootcamps learn skills needed to secure well-paying, in-demand tech jobs and Engageli’s seamless support for active, multimodal learning will ensure that we can continue to scale our course offerings while maintaining focus on the learner experience and positive engagement.”

Engageli-powered online classrooms focus on providing students with collaborative workspaces that mirror inperson classrooms. Engageli’s table model allows larger class sizes to have the same degree of student attention with the added benefit of participation measurement. Students can be placed into smaller groups of up to 10 where

they can work and learn collaboratively, discuss solutions to problems and program together in a shared environment.

Instructors can “walk around” and provide feedback to each group as they would have in-person prior to COVID. Engageli’s native engagement tools, such as quizzes and polls, provide real-time student comprehension, along with feedback mechanisms including emojis to determine if students in the class are engaged and understand the content.

“Engageli’s purpose-built Comprehensive Learning Environment enables inclusive and accessible quality education at scale,” said Dan Avida, CEO of Engageli. “Fullstack’s innovative pedagogy and skilled instructors utilize Engageli to teach transformational skills obtaining meaningful student outcomes.”

While Fullstack intends to com-

pletely transition its bootcamps over the next year, it has already begun using Engageli in select course offerings, including its Grace Hopper Program, an immersive software engineering course for women and nonbinary students and the NY Data Analyst Training Accelerator (DATA) program, offered in partnership with NYC’s Tech Talent Pipeline.

“We are committed to and passionate about the experience students have in our programs. As our live online programming continues to evolve, it’s incredibly important to us that we’re providing an environment that sets our students up for success,” said Bryan Kind, vice president of academics at Fullstack Academy. “The intimate and highly collaborative engagement that Engageli allows for encourages student participation and inclusive learning approaches to support diverse student needs.”

inclined. Everybody can have success.”

What is Dennis’ secret to generating this level of engagement?

“I’ll typically demonstrate the robot for four or five minutes and then give the students the opportunity to volunteer to program the robot. In 40 minutes, students as young as 4th grade can program the robot to wave, talk, respond to their voices, recognize their faces and greet them by name. EZRobot is an incredibly powerful platform that is easy enough to be learned, or taught, by virtually anyone.”

For more information, go to www .ez-robot.com or email education @ez-robot.com.

For more information about Discovery Education’s digital resources and professional learning services, visit www.discovery education.com and stay connected with Discovery Education on social media through Twitter and LinkedIn.

For more information about the PowerSchool Unified Talent suite of solutions, visit www.powerschool.com/ solutions/unified-talent.