Add These to Your Reading List
It’s not just student learning that’s going digital. More and more professional learning resources for teachers are moving online. In fact, many popular print publications for educators, such as District Administration and Tech & Learning, now have digital versions. But other professional development periodicals are only available online, which means some may be overshadowed by flagship publications or just lost in the massive wave of information that the Internet offers.

Don’t let good resources go to waste! Take a look at the following list of online publications you should be reading – some for administrators and some for teachers.

“Another day, another educational policy that changes how we do things ... again.” That’s the way it feels at times, doesn’t it? And sometimes, past negative experiences can cause educators to ignore potential opportunities because it’s just such a relief not to have to make another change. Well, brace yourself. Here is a quick overview of how four very recent federal policies are significantly changing (or may have the potential to change) what and how students learn.

Much like many of the decisions that principals face every day, the world of “resources” isn’t as cut and dried as it used to be. A website offers a blog, a book has a hashtag, and some providers offer a little bit of everything: blogs, books, articles, conferences, twitter chats...you get the picture.

To cut to the chase, we offer the following list of 25 great resources for school administrators at all levels, in no particular order:

Kevin Ryan, Director of Educational Technology and 21st Century Learning

The schools in Kildeer Countryside School District 96 had already been recognized for their academic excellence by the US DOE and the Illinois State Board of Education. Still, district administrators recognized that significant changes needed to be made to our classrooms, and better technology needed to be acquired, in order to help our students acquire the new skills mandated by today’s educational standards: effective communication and collaboration. So, we focused our attention to revamping classrooms to fit the learning needs of 21st century students, and we turned to our most trusted partners to get the job done. Working closely with these partners made all the difference in our successful implementation. Following are the lessons we learned along the way in terms of products and partnerships, which are inextricably connected.

Education Twitter Accounts You Should Be Following
Twitter has proven itself to be a crucial tool for educators around the globe. Whatever skill level you may be at, Twitter is out-and-out fun and worth your time. It can educate you, help enlighten you, make you laugh, and pretty much just keep you in-the-know. But you have to follow the right people/accounts. Otherwise, your Twitter feed can easily fill up with boring, useless tweets – and then, before you know it, you’ll stop checking Twitter and taking advantage of its power.

You may remember this controversial line from the 2008 Presidential campaign: “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig.” While the phrase ruffled some feathers during the campaign, it’s an idea that’s useful in classrooms today: Even if it’s displayed on a projector, a worksheet is still a worksheet.

School is already back in session for many teachers, but some of us are still savoring the last weeks of warm weather, sleeping in, and grilling out. We all have our back-to-school lists close at hand, however: folders that need to be labeled, tech that must be tested, and lesson plans to get ready for the year ahead.

During this time of prep and anticipation, it’s good to find new ideas and inspiration. To give you an assist, we’ve pulled together a list of great content, training sessions for the month ahead, and other on-demand resources.

As the educational technology industry has grown over the past 15 years, certain investors have become well-known for their contributions to ed-tech startups. We’ve compiled a list of the most notable investors active in this sector right now. The first three on the list, NewSchools Venture Fund, 500 Startups, and LearnCapital, are known as the biggest investors in ed-tech entrepreneurs, but all seven are worth watching. As the leading venture capitalists and investors in education, their current decisions set future trends and help to drive development across the educational technology landscape. What they invest in today will shape the classrooms for schools, teachers, and students tomorrow. Take a look at this quick overview of the financial giants behind much of the tech in schools today, and learn why they do what they do.

What the Boxlight Team Learned at ISTE

Our team has returned from this year’s ISTE Conference & Expo in the Mile High City. The event, as always, provided plenty of great opportunities to exchange ideas and information with educators, students, and journalists about all things related to education technology and technology implementation strategies.

We’ve asked our team members to share their most significant observations from ISTE 2016. So, whether or not you made it to Denver, you can gain some valuable information from the largest educational technology trade show in North America.

But before we get down to business, we want to celebrate a milestone: the company’s first conference as Boxlight and Mimio combined! In addition, we are pleased to have won Tech & Learning’s ISTE Best in Show Award for our P12 laser interactive touch projectors.

Summer is here! For many this is a time to relax and take it easy, but for some of us this is the time to get busy thinking about and planning for the coming school year. With the day-to-day demands of school out of the way, we have the space to start thinking about what technology we want to start implementing – and how we can make those plans a reality.