Boxlight Educator UK

EdTech Breakthrough, part of Tech Breakthrough - a leading market intelligence organisation that recognises industry leaders in the education technology market – has awarded our MimioConnect Blended Learning Platform as Classroom Technology Innovation of the Year in its third annual EdTech Breakthrough Awards program. The mission of the EdTech Breakthrough Awards is to honour excellence and recognise innovation, hard work, and success in a range of educational technology categories. This year’s program attracted more than 2,000 nominations from over 17 different countries.

Shamrock Independent School District (Shamrock, TX, U.S.) has long strived to provide its teachers and students with innovative technology to engage and boost active participation in all grades, whatever the situation. A case in point - they were able to respond quickly to school closures due to the pandemic because they are a 1:1 school and students could connect to remote learning without extensive issues.

Bennington Public Schools (Bennington, NE, U.S.) is a quickly growing district that has gone from one school serving all grades in 2005 to six schools today, including a new primary school that opened two years ago. Bennington expects to open four more schools within the next 10 years. According to the district website, their mission is “to provide educational opportunities in a safe, caring environment that will prepare all students to meet the challenges of the future.”

With almost a year of considerable use of education technology, including web-enabled devices, large-screen interactive panel displays, video conferencing software, learning management systems, and web cameras, the need to keep students safe is greater. At the beginning of the school year, most schools made sure parents and students signed some type of Acceptable Use Agreement for online learning and digital resources to ensure a safe learning environment. What are general safety reminders and expectations teachers and parents need to make sure of?

Have you hit your rhythm with lesson planning, teaching, meeting with students, and grading assignments? Are your students excited each time they walk in the classroom or turn on their web cameras for a live virtual lesson? Do you wake up each morning so energised that the cup of liquid energy you pour is unnecessary? If your answer is ‘Yes’ to the previous, that is AWESOME! For the rest of you, there may be moments of ‘Yes’, ‘Sometimes’, and ‘I wish’ for each of these questions and that speaks to your hard work and effort to make learning an enjoyable experience for all.

Teachers are busy searching for and creating interactive lessons that will motivate and engage their learners. But time is essential and teachers need an easy-to-use software that can help them build dynamic activities and lessons in a matter of minutes. The software should be compatible with any of a variety of education technology hardware such as document cameras, interactive flat panel displays, projectors, and interactive whiteboards. When looking for teacher-friendly software that can be customised for a variety of learning situations, make sure these four features are included:

Teachers everywhere are trying different apps, software, and platforms to complement what they are already doing for in-class, remote, or blended instruction. A new tool that many teachers are implementing is MimioConnect® Blended Learning Platform. The MimioConnect platform’s user-friendly interface helps teachers build and present interactive lessons that engage learners, in any location at any time. If you are deciding on an “all-in-one solution”, MimioConnect is offering a free trial so that you can explore its many features: MimioConnect Free Trial. Because MimioConnect is a web-based platform, no software download is necessary. Simply sign up!

The Ridgeway School, located in Farnham, Surrey, wanted to enhance their students’ learning experience and further support their various needs with innovative education technology. Because of the special needs of their students, they were specifically in the market for technology equipment that could withstand heavy wear and tear or any potential damage.

Boxlight recently welcomed Aleasha Stevens to the company where she will serve as Education Consultant and lead the development and delivery of the company’s virtual learning center. In this role, she will use best practises to facilitate demonstrations on Boxlight education technology solutions including interactive displays, MimioStudio lesson creation and presentation software, and the MimioConnect blended learning platform. Stevens is driven by a passion to advocate for the needs of all learners, particularly those who have not been empowered to do so for themselves. This has led her to dedicate her life to advocating for the needs of children as a classroom teacher, literacy program director, VP of Education Services, and an education technology consultant.

The start and end of 2020 may, on the surface, appear to be a complete dichotomy. January and February seemed to be the beginning of a promising year, then March happened. The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic forced all of us to change how we view and make choices about health and safety, education and work, and recreation and travel. For millions of us, there were countless “What now?” moments.