K-12 education technology at NAIS

Bill Carter, myself and Robb Ryerse manning the Budgetext booth

Last week I attended the National Association of Independent Schools Expo with our client Budgetext, who was there promoting its product Studysource, an online bookstore that allows schools and parents greater flexibility when purchasing textbooks. The conference’s theme was, “unleashing your superpowers within” and along with helping teachers and administrators find their super powers during the sessions the expo presented a lot of super companies. 

Among the rows of exhibitors I searched out companies that use technology to promote education and, along with Budgetext, I found some interesting companies that were attracting quite a bit of attention. 

myself and the BrainHoney team

BrainHoney combines classroom instruction with online learning to create a hybrid environment. They provide an inexpensive way to supplement classroom instruction with online content, offer online courses or a complete virtual school. The platform creates a curriculum map that aligns to state standards. Teachers then add activities that map to the standards to complete the map. As assignments are completed and grades are entered, BrainHoney automatically tracks students’ mastery of the state standards, giving teachers an idea of how kids will do on SOLs before they are given.

Schoology screen shot

Schoology is a course management system for K-12 and higher ed built on a social networking platform designed to help educators, students and parents interact outside the classroom and to incorporate social learning into traditional learning. For teachers, Schoology offers an online place to create assignments, post assignments, collect assignments, converse with students, track attendance, and maintain a gradebook. Students are able to see all upcoming school related events on Schoology, and receive email or text messages to remind them of approaching deadlines as well as chat with each other, share notes and collaborate on group projects. And, parents can view their children’s homework schedules, interact privately with teachers and keep tabs on what student workload will look like week to week.

James Conway at the BrainPOP booth – James is an elementary school teacher who uses BrainPOP in the classroom to engage his students.

BrainPOP creates online supplemental learning videos to be used either in the classroom or at home to reinforce curriculum. Using animated characters, short films and interactive quizzes, BrainPOP engages students to learn in a way they find enjoyable, to ask questions and to form their own ideas. Supporting educators and students, BrainPOP works with Science, Math, Social Studies, English, Technology, Arts & Music, Health, Reading and Writing lessons.

– Ali Smith