eSchool News - Innovations in Education

How Digital Learning is Evolving to Meet Diverse Student Needs This month’s episode explores how remote and digital learning has evolved beyond emergency pandemic measures into strategic, purpose-driven educational approaches. DLAC’s John Watson distinguishes between emergency remote learning during the pandemic and today's well-planned online and hybrid models. He emphasizes that effective digital programs are driven by specific educational needs—whether supporting CTE (Career and Technical Education), dropout recovery, or creating early college opportunities—rather than by technology itself. Guest speaker John Watson is the founder of DLAC (formerly Education Education Group), which has been a leading consulting and advisory firm serving school districts, state agencies, foundations, and companies in the K-12 digital learning field for more than 20 years.

School systems experience nearly daily security incidents with increasing sophistication, resulting in data breaches, financial losses, and operational disruptions. Recent reductions in federal support have created additional challenges, but the sector demonstrates unique strength through collaborative information sharing and grassroots support networks. The conversation highlights the critical importance of focusing on fundamental security practices, vendor accountability, and cross-district cooperation to strengthen K-12 cybersecurity despite limited resources. Our guest Doug Levin is co-founder and national director of the K12 Security Information eXchange (K12 SIX), a national non-profit dedicated solely to helping schools protect themselves from emerging cybersecurity threats.

What will be the fallout of Trump’s dismantling of the Department of Education? It’s not often that I have trouble finding people to discuss the politics of public education. Of course, nothing is usual about this administration’s first few weeks. So I was happy to have this conversation with The Cato Institute’s Neal McCluskey, Director for The Center for Educational Freedom, who may not leave you happy with what he has to say, but maybe less worried.

How High-Quality Instructional SEL and Life Skills Materials Equip Students for Success As students navigate an increasingly complex world defined by artificial intelligence, social media, and rapid technological change, the need for essential life skills has never been greater. A new curriculum called The Edge [https://www.buildmyedge.com/softskillsguide] immerses students in real-life, complex scenarios that challenge them to think critically, collaborate effectively, and apply social-emotional learning (SEL) to everyday situations. Hear how educators are using these next-generation strategies in classrooms today. Special Guests: Jessie Bushman Senior Director SEL North Fayette Valley Community School District, Iowa Devi Sahny CEO and Founder Ascend Now & The Edge

Special education services improve when parents and educators can trust one another for the benefit of students Expert IEP founder Antoinette Banks outlines how special education has been chronically underfunded for decades—and how the potential dismantling of the Department of Education adds new complications. Expert IEP founder Antoinette Banks outlines how special education has been chronically underfunded for decades—and how the potential dismantling of the Department of Education adds new complications. This episode is sponsored by ManagedMethods [https://managedmethods.com/]. ManagedMethods is the only company providing K-12-specific cybersecurity and safety for Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and online browsing. Our product suite makes cybersecurity and safety easy and affordable for school districts working to keep their students, faculty, staff, and communities safe. Gain the visibility and control you need to monitor, alert, and respond when time is of the essence—no proxy, no agent, and no special training needed. Our newest product, Classroom Manager, is the classroom management tech that teachers have been waiting for. Contact ManagedMethods today to learn how other districts are benefitting from unifying their cybersecurity, student safety, web filtering, and classroom management systems. District tech teams love our products’ reliability, ease of use, and lightweight construction which has minimal impact on the end-user experience. To learn more go to https://managedmethods.com/ [https://managedmethods.com/] Managed Methods Logo [https://www.eschoolnews.com/files/2024/12/ManagedMethodsLogo.gif]https://managedmethods.com/