T.H.E. Journal News

Amazon is extending the reach of its computer science education program to a total of more than 5,000 schools, more than doubling the number of participating institutions. Applications are now open for schools that wish to participate.

Robotics company Ozobot has launched a new program aimed at bringing robotics education to the home, as well as hybrid education environments. The Ozobot 1:1 Hybrid Program, as it’s called, was developed in conjunction with educators. The program is aimed at students in grades K–12.

A startup founded by education technology veterans has announced a program intended to make Zoom more effective in replicating the classroom experience for teachers and students. Class for Zoom is currently seeking teachers to beta test the software.

Nearly two dozen organizations, including teachers, instructional coaches, researchers in higher education and experts from nonprofits and offices of education recently contributed to the creation of a digital toolkit for anti-racist instructional practices for teaching math in grades 6-8.

What makes for an engaging learning experience? Multiple factors, including instructional practices used by the teacher, content that's "relevant and relatable to students' lives" and a design that helps students focus.

An esports league company has announced the kickoff of its fall tournament season. Generation Esports hosts competitions for middle school and high school.

Gaggle has launched a new service called Gaggle Therapy. The service connects students with licensed counselors in their state for teletherapy.

Want to promote more reading? Encourage students and families to turn on the captions while they stream video. That's what a new literacy campaign targeting students aged 8 to 12 is promoting.

Two organizations have kicked off a project to help increase home connectivity for students. The "K-12 Bridge to Broadband" initiative is the brainchild of the Internet & Television Association (NCTA) and EducationSuperHighway, a national nonprofit that helped lead work to close the classroom connectivity gap. The goal is to help public school districts and states identify the students who need access to the internet and potentially connect them.

The project will be coordinated by the District's Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) and will incorporate internet streaming through Comcast's Internet Essentials and RCN's Internet First programs.

Amazon's voice-controlled assistant, Alexa, now allows for the printing of educational materials from JumpStart Games. Students, teachers and parents can say, "Alexa, print a coloring page" or "Alexa, print a multiplication worksheet for third grade," and the Echo device will follow the command.

In a lengthy message, Miami-Dade County School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho attempted to calm his district community after a chaotic start-of-school week that included distance learning outages and an about-face on usage of a new learning platform.

According to the organization that conducted new research on solar power in schools, energy is the second largest individual expense for U.S. schools after personnel.

In response to the number of states, districts and schools that are shuttering schools to students in response to fears about the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), education technology companies have stepped forward to help educators reach students in virtual ways. (Updated September 14)

Sales of course materials for K-12 plummeted by $182 million between June 2019 and July 2020. That's a 25 percent drop, according to the Association of American Publishers.