The 10 most innovative companies in education technology dec 2017

www.insightssuccess.com DECEMBER 2017

MENTOR MIND Popular Technology Waiting to be Scaled

The way of business solutions

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0

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CHALK TALK Big Data and Analytics for Education

Christopher Revord Founder & CEO

Changing the Educational Learning Landscape through Digital Student Engagement Software

Editorial

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oday, we can see that education has become more interesting unlike before and a major percentage of credit goes to technology and its influence. Emerging technologies have totally transformed the way of learning process by making it more simple, accessible and effective. Education Technology companies are endlessly introducing innovative educational tools and programs which are improving every aspect of the current education system.

Interestingly, online learning programs are becoming more and more popular with their flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and simplicity as compared to conventional classrooms. Some companies are integrating new technological tools with conventional education system and this combination is resulting in the cost-effectiveness and overall simplicity in the learning process for students.

M-learning is gaining more momentum as one of the effective tools for learning. Today, in general, we can see that everyone possesses their own mobile phones from young children to the elder ones and most of them are steadily connected with it. This makes too easy to run an educational program through mobile devices with full flexibility.

Education Technology: Bringing Tremendous Learning Opportunities

Educational Technology Industry is not only making learning interesting, but also fulfilling the overall conditions of education like financial aid for education of low-income student and such more. That’s why Education Technology has now become a vast industry as it is not only limited to educators for teaching students, but also covering the students, teachers, institutions, and whole education process.

The Educational Technology industry is steadily expanding in the educational space with their game changing innovative technologies and strategies, making education so simple and available to all irrespective of their age or experience.

In the upcoming future, we will see the more sophisticated solutions from Educational Technology industry and improved communication networks like 5G and IoT will add the advantage. So, it will be interesting to see how Educational Technology industry will reform the education sector by use of future technologies and make education more simple and interesting again.

Suhel Mashayak

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Senior Editor Ariana Lawrence Managing Editor Suhel Mashayak Co-Editors David Smith Rajarshi Chatterjee Piyush Rishi Visualiser David King Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Co-designer Alex Noel Picture Editor Mayur Koli Art Editor Poonam Mahajan Business Development Manager Mike Thomas Nick Adams Marketing Manager Philip Walker Business Development Executives Josh, Sophie, Urvi, Kevin, John, Sherin Research Analyst Jennifer Circulation Manager Robert Database Management Steve Technology Consultant Swapnil Patil sales@insightssuccess.com

December 2017 Corporate Ofces: Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com

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24 EXPERT’S TALK The Need To Understand The Necessity Of Innovation

36 E-LEARNING VIEWPOINT The Real-Time World-Wide Learning through the Internet

YouBthere: Changing the Educational Learning Landscape through Digital Student Engagement Software

42 TECHNOLOGY REVISION Disrupt The Distruptest Technologies

Content

16 IN THE SPOTLIGHT Flipped Learning: A Technological Advancement That Takes Learning at Ease

20 CampusLogic: Simplifying Access to College Through Better Financial Aid Processes

22 MENTOR MIND Popular Technology Waiting to be Scaled

26 Networld Solutions: Customizing the Business of K-12 Education with Innovative IT Solutions

32 28

EDITORIAL’S DESK What Will Dene the Face of Education?

ReviewStudio: A Collaborative Platform for Creative Review

40 38 School Software Group: Revamping the Foundation of the Education System

CHALK TALK Big Data and Analytics for Education

Education Technology: Redening the Education

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ducation is one of the most important parts of the human life and any physical or economic or mental obstruction for education may generate undesirable complications in the human life. As education plays a vital role in the overall improvement of a human being, it is highly significant to make education easily available and affordable for all. For that, the Education Technology providers are continuously working to simplify the education system by riding on advanced technologies. With technical advancement and efforts of Education Technology providers, today we can see that digital learning processes such as online learning, mobile learning, virtual classrooms, etc. have become more popular. Whatever you want to know can be easily available on the web with only need of one search. This increased adoption of digital learning due to its simplicity and readily availability is making Education Technology companies more valuable. So we have introduced our latest issue The 10 Most Innovative Companies in Education Technology 2017 to showcase the efforts of Education Technology industry in transforming our education system.

We have highlighted the cover of this issue with YouBthere, which is changing the Educational Learning Landscape through Digital Student Engagement Software. YouBthere is a cloud-based student engagement software application that helps professors and students engage, discuss, and stay connected regardless of a preferred learning environment. It offers an enhanced classroom or online learning experience by creating an interactive exchange of ideas and discussion topics all through a click of a button. Its easy setup capabilities and end-user experience are changing the way instructors and students engage and learn. YouBthere helps students to better focus on their subject matter via their preferred smart devices.

After doing in-depth research and studies we have enlisted; CampusLogic: Simplifying Access to College Through Better Financial Aid Processes, Networld Solutions: Customizing the Business of K-12 Education with Innovative IT Solutions, ReviewStudio: A Collaborative Platform for Creative Review, and School Software Group: Revamping the Foundation of the Education System.

While going through our magazine, you can also read the masterly written articles by our in-house editors such as Big Data and Analytics for Education, Flipped Learning: A Technological Advancement That Takes Learning at Ease, Popular Technology Waiting to be Scaled, and What Will Define the Face of Education? From the Editor’s Pick. Disrupt the distruptest technologies, The Need to Understand the Necessity of Innovation and The Real-Time World-Wide Learning through the Internet from the View of some the Successful Leaders.

Hope this special edition of education from us will create a mark on your mind.

Changing the Educational Learning Landscape through Digital Student Engagement Software

We

are the

INNOVATIVE LEADERS in

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

Christopher Revord Founder & CEO

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oday, technological advancement is totally transforming the educational experience from its origins. Students are now learning through their smart devices more easily and effectively than ever before thanks to companies like YouBthere. The combination of both classroom and on-line programs within higher education is gaining more popularity due to its flexibility, cost-effectiveness and overall simplicity. This increasing trend of hybrid or blended learning students as they are called, is creating tremendous pressure on educational institutions to try and find new value-added digital technologies. Finding those relevant digital technologies that will help create and deliver a meaningful impact on improving student educational outcomes is the next wave in education today.

YouBthere is a cloud-based student engagement software application that helps professors and students engage, discuss, and stay connected regardless of a preferred learning environment. It offers an enhanced classroom or online learning experience by creating an interactive exchange of ideas and discussion topics all through a click of a button. Its easy setup capabilities and end-user experience are changing the way instructors and students engage and learn. YouBthere helps students to better focus on their subject matter via their preferred smart devices.

Simplifying Learning with Comprehensive Solutions YouBthere’s core technology is a robust, digital student engagement (SE) solution that works in all three learning environments: classroom, synchronized and asynchronous online courses. Team YouBthere’s exclusive approach allows them to combine many applications into one simple software solution which is fully integrated in real time within a schools Learning Management System (LMS). YouBthere’s proactive approach addresses the need to match relevant digital technology with the changing learning landscape in a student’s educational journey.

Architect behind YouBthere Christopher Revord is the Founder and CEO of YouBthere. Like most CEO’s, Mr. Revord is responsible for managing the overall direction and execution of the company’s domestic and international business plans. Prior to YouBthere, Christopher has been a Managing Partner at Chicago Research & Trading, Managing Director at Bank of America and President of Paragon Global Capital, LLC. His previous financial sector experience in building relevant software and profit centers has proven to be extremely helpful in guiding YouBthere’s overall development and direction.

“I believe we have raised the bar of what educational institutions should expect from digital technologies.

Even today the fact that the majority of institutions only use a polling feature, or nothing at all suggests that there needs to be a more exploratory approach to evaluating new and relevant digital technologies. The preferred method of pilot trials is certainly understandable, but there also needs to be an easier and quicker process to test and implement software than most institutions support at this time,” said Mr. Revord.

Limitations of Conventional Education System Educational institutions that do not adopt new digital technologies to resolve pending issues or feel that they can wait will be left far behind by their competitors who do. The competitive landscape for higher education schools is heating up to keep and attract new students. Students research universities that will help them succeed prior to committing. With tuition fees approaching six figures on a yearly basis, students want to feel that there is a process in place to help derive a successful outcome.

Technologically filling the Potential Holes in the current Educational System Through the use of YouBthere’s adaptive features, their software can increase participation and create a better-connected experience regardless of course implementation method. Their path provides something for everyone, including increased engagement and communication for students, easier implementation of

course materials for instructors, and real-time measurement of student comprehension and progress. In addition, administrators can save money by combining their multitude of features into one single digital solution.

“Our unique and exclusive approach lies in our ability to create new and meaningful features and to provide those new features in all three learning environments. By design, we developed a software that is flexible with very few limitations. When institutions begin to realize that their current solution is boxed-in and incapable of expanding as the schools need change, it is a watershed moment.

Digital solutions should be evaluated not only for a school’s present needs but also for their future needs as well,” says Christopher about their technological approach and distinctive strategies.

Dealing Successfully with Problems Currently, there are many issues and trends that are shaping the educational sector. The main issues YouBthere is trying to positively impact include: the need for increased engagement within a digital learning setting, meeting or exceeding standards set by accreditation agencies for state and federal funding, institutional budgetary concerns and the increasing rise of hybrid learning programs.

YouBthere addresses these concerns by providing an affordable, robust interactive digital student engagement software to be used for today’s higher education students that doesn’t ignore the needs of blended learning students.

Team YouBthere recognized this growing hybrid trend and created YouBthere to enable instructors and students to use

“

one single software solution instead of three or more applications.

All higher education institutions need to engage students as this universal and heavily researched component is directly tied to successful educational outcomes. YouBthere’s digital solution provides 15 adaptive learning features, including learning analytics, synchronized digital materials and interactive discussion boards, all at a significant cost-savings.

Overcoming Challenges with Distinctive Solutions and Strategies For all new educational software companies entering this sector, two main challenges exist: First, the educational institution’s long evaluation process of new technologies needs to be shortened and secondly, an LMS’s heavy reliance on pre-existing relationships narrows an institutions’ exposure to new ideas. These hurdles create an unnecessarily long sales-cycle and ultimately reward the wrong entities.

To directly combat these ongoing hurdles, Team YouBthere continues to build game-changing new features or elements that cannot be replicated outside their software. YouBthere provides 13 more features at a tremendous cost-savings.

Christopher’s Advice for Young Entrepreneurs Christopher expressed his suggestions to the young entrepreneurs entering the Education Technology in two-fold; “First, entrepreneurs should plan for a long sales cycle.

Secondly, it’s important for new companies to know the

Our proactive approach

creates early alert indicators

“

that help students who need it

− before it's too late!”

• LMS companies need to embrace new technology companies for their relevancy and for the problem(s) they resolve, not focus exclusively on the number of current users • Institutional LMS administrators and instructional designers need to embrace new solution providers.

• Educational institutions need to find a way to shorten their edtech evaluation and implementation process.

Recognizing these external factors up-front can help shape your company’s approach and in-addition hopefully help avoid early pitfalls when trying to gain traction.”

Future Plans YouBthere will continue to add new features that will improve or enhance the everyday learning experience. YouBthere will focus on the need to improve the long-ignored asynchronous learning environment but will serve the changing needs of educational institutions as well.

“Acknowledging sector-specific challenges help shape our product, we are excited about the role our technology will play in the future of higher education,” says Christopher.

“

classroom

and on-line experience through

our robust

interactive

features

increases a student's

participation

&

“

hurdles within this sector. Here are three external factors that need to be acknowledged and hopefully changed to help new education technology companies penetrate this sector and equally important entice continued education technology investment. They are:

Our sole dedication to enhancing the everyday

learning ability

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CORPORATE OFFICE Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754,(302)-319-9947 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription : www.insightssuccess.com

Company Name

Management

Brief

Campus Logic campuslogic.com

Gregg Scoresby Founder & CEO

CampusLogic is an Education Technology Solution company, which provides end-to-end student ďŹ nancial services solutions.

Competentum Group Competentum.com

Natalia Soboleva Founder & President

Competentum Group is a global industry leader with over twenty years of experience. Over the years, the company has proved itself as a turnkey education technology provider.

Networld Solutions networldsolutions.com

Darryl Vidal Vice President

Networld Solutions is a leading provider of value-added Information Technology solutions. It designs, implements, and manages complex e-business solutions, and delivers these systems with quality and customer satisfaction as a critical-success metric.

PickAtime pickatime.com

John Taves Founder

PickAtime provides an award winning online scheduling solution that is used by schools and organizations, in the United States and Canada as well as in locations around the globe.

Realityworks realityworks.com

Timm Boettcher President & CEO

Realityworks provides comprehensive learning solutions that pair curriculum with hands-on learning aids, student activities and assessment tools to create innovative learning environments.

ReviewStudio reviewstudio.com

Stuart Feldman Co-founder & President

ReviewStudio develops collaborative services and software tools for creative teams that need a faster and easier way to collect and organize feedback and approvals of their digital media projects.

School Software Group schoolsoftwaregroup.com

Chris Trina Co-founder

School Software Group is a web development and technology company specializing in education well known for its award-winning web-based software, BuildYourOwnCurriculum (BYOC).

Sunburst Digital sunburst.com

Ken Leonard Chairman & CEO

Sunburst Digital has connected educators with instructional technology and digital content solutions for three decades. Their solutions are found in more than 97% of US school districts.

Texthelp texhelp.com

Martin McKay Founder & CTO

Texthelp is helping everyone read, write and communicate with clarity in class, at work and in life

YouBthere youbthere.com

Christopher Revord Founder & CEO

YouBthere is a web-based student engagement software application that helps professors and students connect inside their classrooms and online learning programs - all in real-time.

ipped earning: A Technological Advancement That Takes Learning at Ease

T

echnology is a boon and it’s proving it again and again in various aspects of human lives. However, one can still debate on if is it a curse or a boon, but it will be wrong not to appreciate the technology advancements.

Technology advancements are changing the way business was taking place and will be doing the same in the coming years.

While technology is driving a revolution in every ďŹ eld, how education would lag behind? Yes, education combined with technology is a not a surprising thing anymore, as students are already using it anyway. Flipped learning is one of the focal advancement, technology has given to the students as well as educators.

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DECEMBER 2017

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

What is the need?

In a conventional system, students generally try to capture what is being said at the instant speaker says it. However, they face difficulty in getting all the information, as they cannot stop the speaker to reflect upon what is being said.

Contrary to traditional learning, flipped learning allows students to control the lecture: they can watch, rewind, and fast-forward as needed. This ability allows students to get information at ease.

What is it?

The days are gone when students used to attend every lecture being present physically. The modern era demands everything at a click away and that’s where Flipped learning makes an impact. Short video lectures, viewed by students at home or somewhere else, before the class session, making them devoted to exercises, discussions or projects in classtime. Flipped approach is mainly based on video lectures created by the instructor or posted online. A podcast can be a good example of Flipped approach, where information is at ease and one can get it anytime, anywhere. Active learning, student engagement, course podcasting, and hybrid course design can be achieved through Flipped classrooms.

How does it work?

There is no certain model for the flipped classroom that could constrain diversity of the concept to the limited use. The term can be used to describe any class structure that provides prerecorded lectures followed by in-class exercise. In one model, students get lectures of five to seven minutes, while in-class they can solve online quizzes on the topic they have learned or also certain activities can be performed in-class to know what they have learned, which can help clarify points of confusion. Instructors also might lead in class discussions or transform the classroom into a studio where students can collaborate, create and put into practice what they have learned.

The future of education paints success for those advancements which aim to transform the traditional system into something better, wider and easier.

DECEMBER 2017

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CampusLogic: Simplifying Access to College Through Better Financial Aid Processes

G

regg Scoresby founded CampusLogic in 2011 to solve a nationwide problem.

In the U.S., more than 85% of college students receive some form of financial aid, but the student finance process is filled with challenges. Inefficient financial aid processing systems, poor student communications, and confusing scholarship processes create barriers to enrollment and retention.

Helping Schools Change Lives Many students don’t make it into school because of these seemingly insurmountable hurdles—especially low-income students—with 40% failing to enroll because of complex financial processes. “I knew that we could help colleges and universities change lives by simplifying the student financial services journey,” Scoresby recalls.

“I’ve been in financial aid software and operations for about 20 years now,” he adds. “As I’ve met with college presidents, chancellors, business officers and other leaders in financial aid and enrollment over the years, I often ask the question, ‘What would the ideal student finance function do?’

The responses almost always include one or more of what I call the ‘ABC’s of student finance.’ Leaders know that part of their social mission and

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obligation is to increase accessibility, reduce student borrowing, and drive down administration costs.”

Founder Scoresby’s Vision Becomes Successful Reality Today, Scoresby’s vision has evolved into a robust, student financial services platform—the only one of its kind in higher education. The Arizona-based SaaS company now helps more than 450 institutions provide easy, mobile, personalized financial services to 3 million students nationwide.

CampusLogic transforms the way colleges and universities deliver student financial services, helping schools grow enrollment, improve efficiency, and increase student engagement by: • Creating cost and value transparency in higher education with ClearCost, the industry’s leading commercial net price calculator; • Improving scholarship management through ScholarshipUniverse, which matches students’ profiles with scholarship opportunities, streamlines the review and award processes, and keeps donors engaged; • Delivering digital award letters

Gregg Scoresby Founder & CEO

and all types of student financial services communications with AwardLetter; • Simplifying financial aid forms and processes through secure, mobile-optimized submission and review processes via StudentForms; • Driving strategic decision-making with data derived from CampusMetrics, which rides alongside all student financial services products on the platform and provides instant insights to meaningful behind-the-scenes data.

Students and staff can manage financial services processes more quickly and efficiently—supported by text and email prompts, image capture, e-signature, and government-grade security. The cloud-based technology is scalable to serve schools of all sizes, integrates with all Student Information Systems (SIS), and requires little IT intervention. Regulatory updates are seamless and automatic, too.

“By making student financial services more accessible, we’re helping make

DECEMBER 2017

higher education more accessible,” Scoresby says. “And, that ties directly to our purpose, which is to ‘help schools change lives.’

New Product, ScholarshipUniverse, Launches in the Spring Reducing friction across the scholarship process is up next for growth-focused CampusLogic.

ScholarshipUniverse launches commercially in Spring 2018 and is already gaining overwhelming interest within the higher education community. The technology streamlines scholarship management for staff and students, simplifies complex application and review processes, and improves scholarship fund utilization. Plus, for the first time ever, students will be able to match to—rather than search for—relevant institutional and vetted external scholarship opportunities via one integrated collection. “When students get scholarships, they borrow less

DECEMBER 2017

federal aid—helping to shrink loan debt while also helping students stay in school,” says Scoresby. “And that benefits everyone.”

‘

‘

We are on a mission to transform student financial services

Education Technology Inspires ‘Hyper-Personalized’ Experience to Drive Success Asked about the future of EdTech, “hyper-personalized,” is Scoresby’s response. “In every aspect of life—inside and outside the classroom—students and administrators receive a hyper-personalized experience. Think television, healthcare, banking, shopping. Colleges and universities need to drive personalization throughout the education experience for students. In the way classes are offered and structured, down to how students can enroll and finance their education, hyper-personalization is

‘

‘

going to drive success—for students and institutions.”

Recent Accolades for CampusLogic

In 2017, CampusLogic ranked 1,426 on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in the U.S., placing twenty-eighth in Arizona. The company is also a “Spirit of Enterprise, Emerging Enterprise” award winner, and earned third place on the 2017 Phoenix Business Journal “Best Places to Work” for small businesses.

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Popular Technology

Waiting to be Scaled

T

he millennials are all born with a keen sense of technological acumen. At an age when baby boomers were being introduced to the concept of computers, millennials are well versed with the intricate workings of modern computers. Today’s students are experimenting with 3D printers and are having full access to all the books found in a library right from their homes.

So, yes, the internet is a serious revolution if you consider every sector operating in the world. But, how far have the solution providers been able to properly harness the full potential of these latest innovations in the field of education, is a real concern?

What the millennials want to learn?

With improvised learning tools and some suave gadgets, students are actually much more engaged in their learning objectives than ever before. Math is actually turning out to be fun for many with a dedicated perseverance from many Math-lovers to increase its fan base. Software modules are the latest norms that have been implemented with regards to learners of different levels.

However, these software modules need to be constantly upgraded with latest updated subject materials and citations or else they stand to go obsolete. This is where AI and Machine Learning are being perfected upon. There are few researches going on and some companies are already preparing to incorporate both into their learning modules.

According to one ongoing research, Artificial Intelligence is being developed, so as to be able to understand the learning patterns of the learner, their grasping power, the kind of citations they can relate to, the difficulty level of tests, and the points where the module itself is not capable of convincing the learner. The modern Artificial Intelligence systems are being designed to learn about the student while

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the student is learning on the modules. This way, the system learns about the student’s interest in various topics and hence the lessons can be crafted accordingly, similar to the way videos are recommended on video hosting sites.

Social Media – The Power of Collaborative Learning There is no doubt that social media plays a very proactive role in everyone’s life today. The popularity of various social media platforms is already being tapped by institutes in every corner of the world. The only concern, however, with social media is, keeping them engrossed into the educational topics and not the usual fun and frolics that social media attracts.

Social Media could be the most powerful learning tool with the right, well-focused groups and erudite discussion sessions. Such groups do exist in most of these platforms, but like many, they are hardly unbiased and hence, could not be relied upon for doing complete justice to the purpose. Once again, Artificial Intelligence comes to the rescue. Many of the newly developed social media platforms are investing highly into the power of real-time Artificial Intelligence-based Analyzing technology to keep the students engrossed in their learning activities, much like the current social media platforms.

Virtual Reality – Learning from a Whole New Perspective Currently, this technology is popularly being used in the gaming industry. With the requirement of advanced processing technologies and sophisticated programming, Virtual Reality would really take some time to get adopted

DECEMBER 2017

MENTOR MIND

for the financially backward learning industry. However, there are many non-profit organizations that are taking huge strides in making it a reality as soon as possible. The cardboard cut-out, smartphone-enabled, budget virtual reality devices available today are considered too naïve to be adopted for the current lot of students.

That is, it doesn’t have the ability to keep a student engaged for a long time. This, however, is a matter of developing the content that leverages the complete potential of the VR Technology.

Holographic Projectors – Making Classroom Sessions Lively The science-fiction phenomenon that has been continuously portrayed as a thing of the future is soon going to be a reality. We already have laser projector keyboards and mouse and other motionenabled, holographic-based user interfaces.

The Holographic projectors certainly seem to be the next frontier in the smartphone era and inevitably it will be the next best thing to happen in the education sector. Videos of classes being conducted using the holographic technology seems very promising and with an engaging user interface, holograms are going to make the topics very interesting and easier to grasp.

3D printing – Harboring the Future Designers This is the most happening tool that has got the entire research world excited. From printing a prosthetic limb to a synthetic DNA strand and even a whole building, the possibilities with 3D printing is endless. This is exactly what makes it the most demanded tool in almost every industrial sector in the world.

However, the biggest drawback of a 3D printing equipment is its cost. It is beyond the reach of most of the research institutes and its accessories also come at a premium. Yet, there are some premium schools that are incorporating the know-hows of 3D printers and making their students accustomed to the basics of its operation. In the near future, craft activities using clay and paper are going to be complemented by the use of 3D printers. Even though it is shunned by many, there are still some art installations that are garnering attention around the world, just for being developed on a 3D printer.

DECEMBER 2017

Cloud and IoT – Evaluating Performance on Different Levels This technology cannot be termed as the future, but is being heavily exploited by the present system itself. Students no longer need to haul heavy books in their backpacks. But there is more to this technology than just data storage.

There are programs coming up that aims to implement Big Data Analytics in student's study patterns, their overall performance in various subjects and consequently, their scope of creativity.

There has been a long-standing argument regarding the removal of the present evaluation system where the students are evaluated based on their scores in various subject matters. However, there are some revolutions coming up that consider the performance of an upcoming sportsman, a scientist, a civil servant and many more. Proposals have been going around to give equal considerations to every student showcasing different strata of interest in different activities. Using the cloud-based performance evaluation tools, it is possible to evaluate different students on varying benchmarks and hence, they could be recommended for the most apt career options. In a way, the world would be getting the most productive citizens through this program.

As per an undergoing program, students’every little academic activity will be monitored through smart cameras installed in every nook and corner of the campus, which would be equipped with spectral technology, motion trackers (even for the eye that senses your level of interest for a particular subject) and other gimmicks. These cameras and other sensors, won’t be just tracking the students’ academic activity, but also their personality and their social interactions. The entire information will be processed, analyzed and evaluated to determine the further course the students need to follow. The only glitch to this collaborative technology would be the level of sophistication to acquire the required level of accuracy.

With the advancements in the timeline of Mankind, the amount of data and knowledge will only go on increasing and the upcoming generations are bound to learn many things in a much shorter amount of time. However, the latest technologies stand to be the only respite to the growing concerns of the educational institutes. Be it in preparing an engaging curriculum or in the smooth functioning of the institute, students are going to reap the benefits of the latest advancements in the technology.

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The Need to UNDERSTAND the Necessity of

INNOVATION ABOUT THE AUTHOR Andrew Bagrin is the Founder and Chief Executive Ofcer of My Digital Shield (MDS), a leading provider of Security-as-a-Service (SECaaS) for small businesses. With more than 17 years of experience in the IT security industry, Andrew started MDS in 2013 to bring cloud-based, enterprise-level security technology to small businesses at an affordable price.

Andrew Bagrin Founder & Chief Executive Ofcer

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DECEMBER 2017

EXPERT’S TALK

B

igger, faster, everywhere! The measurement of how we rate technology in general, but more specifically data communications. From the days of spending hundreds of dollars to upgrade from a 14.4 to a 28.8 modem, we have always wanted the data to arrive as fast as possible. More importantly, we have always wanted the user experience to keep improving as we breach new horizons and figure out how to make it bigger, faster and everywhere.

It’s in human nature to want to always make things wildly more impressive from a performance perspective. The car engines just kept getting bigger and bigger to make the cars go faster and faster. At a certain point, the realists had to step in and make it clear that an even bigger engine doesn’t do anything, because the rest of the car is not equipped for that power. The engine itself has to get more efficient with technology, not just bigger, and we have to start thinking about other things, such as stability, safety, efficiency and longevity. As nostalgic as some of us can be over the 1960’s vehicles, the era of the Prius and Tesla are here. Even the older style muscle cars are packed with much newer technology and safety features.

I remember the days of bragging about the bonded 128k ISDN line and when my friend got a 500k modem. The location to live would greatly be determined by what type of internet is available. Today, if I ask some of the savvy network engineers what their bandwidth is at home, they won’t even know, and if they check, it’s usually around the 50-100Mb. Meanwhile the less savvy will brag about their 300Mb

DECEMBER 2017

or 1Gb fiber and will be upset if they are only testing at 700Mb. Why is this the case? What changed?

Are we just getting older and not caring about latest and greatest tech anymore? After digging a bit deeper into this question I realized that we are those realist jumping and saying “do you seriously think you are using more than 100Mb at home?” The reason the internet is crappy is not because of the speed, but because it’s crappy!

So, what are the important applications of the internet?

Browsing, Voice, Email/messaging, Social media, Shopping, Video streaming (movies), Payments/banking etc. Of all of these applications, it seems that security, privacy, latency, quality and reliability would be the most important things.

Bandwidth would really only come into play for streaming video. Netflix suggests 5Mb/s for every HD stream.

That means at 100Mb, I can have twenty separate HD Netflix streams at the same time, and even that I’m sure never happens in any household or office. So why do we push for 200Mb, 500mb or 1Gb? Do we just love the sound of it?

I predict that there will be some refocus of how connectivity is provided. The main focus will not be bandwidth, but will be all the other parameters with bandwidth being one of them. Intel finally changed to model numbers to make it clear that the clock speed is not the only metric. (I3, I5, I7)

provides reliability, quality, some privacy and latency/jitter prevention. It also opens a new way of doing security and making it more accessible for everyone. This is the beginning of a next evolution of how data will be delivered worldwide. The connection between LAN and internet has relied on the wrong metric and poor quality for long enough and the world is realizing it now. Along with the realizations and new technologies, people will quickly retire the old metric and start looking at new metrics as the litmus test of connectivity.

Carriers have been building services bundled together with their unreliable connection. They are now starting to shift to provide those service OTP or at the top, which mean provide it on the IP layer and decoupled from the connection carrier layer. Long time ago, Nortel made a big bet on services over layer 2 and they lost, because it wasn’t decoupled and couldn’t provide the level of integration that was needed. Meanwhile, other companies like Cisco put their services over layer 3 and quickly became the dominant player in the industry.

Connectivity will decouple from services to enhance the connectivity and provide the services separately on top of the enhanced connection.

Welcome to the future of always connected with quality, reliability, performance for its intended uses, not just making the gauge hit the red line!

SD-WAN is becoming a reality for all businesses and it will soon become a reality for homes as well. SD-WAN

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Networld Solutions: Customizing the Business of K-12 Education with Innovative IT Solutions

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etworld Solutions is a leading provider of value-added Information Technology solutions based in San Diego.

Networld Solutions’ experts realize there are many choices available when selecting an IT consulting company, but with their niche services and unmatched expertise, they are second to none. Networld Solutions’ staff can help any business become more efficient through automation, business transformation, e-commerce, website development and network infrastructure services.

The Networld Solutions’ K-12 focus is on technology strategic planning, IT assessment, and IT project management. This focus helps K-12 districts develop long-range technology plans that directly address LCAP and Board Goals and Objectives. From these strategic technology plans, Networld Solutions defines technology initiatives and they can plan and manage them through implementation.

Driving Force of Networld Solutions Darryl Vidal is the Vice President and Senior Education Technology Consultant of Networld Solutions. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business and a Master’s in Education Technology and has been managing Networld Solutions successfully for over 20 years. Throughout this tenure, he has consulted with the largest school districts in Southern California and helped plan and manage over $500 million in technology programs. He

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has also published Networld Solutions’ IT strategic planning and project management methodology called MAPIT®.

Darryl Vidal Vice President

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Education Technology Initiatives Education Technology Standards Project Management Office Information Technology Operations

The deliverables from the ETSA assessment include: Extraordinary Services from Networld Solutions “We like to deal with districts at the highest possible level, but that is not always possible, especially at the larger school districts. In terms of specialization, it’s really in developing technology infrastructure. We started 20 years ago writing design guides and specifications for Local-Area Networks and classroom audio/video systems.

With the larger initiatives, the more facilities infrastructure are required, like data centers, MDF/IDF facilities, fiber-optic backbones, wide-area networks, wireless saturation, and security,” asserts Darryl about their core consulting services.

Today Networld Solutions’ Education Technology Strategic Assessment (ETSA) provides a high-level review and analysis of any school district by looking at four strategic technology areas:

• Education Technology Readiness score • Assessment of Ed Tech initiatives and standards with Recommendations. o Including Rough Order Magnitude (ROM) cost model • Project and program management Recommendations • IT Operations Assessment and Recommendations Technologies for Success “In line with MAPIT® methodologies, we feel districts must strategically plan technology initiatives based on LCAP and Board Goals and Objectives. This means that all dollars spent on infrastructure and technology are identified, standardized and implemented specifically to address these goals. Many districts are driven by technology-based initiatives like 1-to-1 devices and interactive displays.

These programs are not always aligned

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with the needs of each school, class, and student,” asserts Darryl.

By using MAPIT® methodologies to first develop a strategic technology plan that encompasses all technology and infrastructure at the district level, each technology initiative is prioritized, sequenced and funded, based on the overall plan. Of course, professional development becomes a key factor in the success of any academic initiative, and these types of the success factors are included in the MAPIT® methods in the form of Data Integrity and Quality Assurance plans.

Improved Communications and Workflow with the Incorporation of MAPIT® Networld Solutions utilizes the MAPIT® methodology to define a district’s technology strategies. In order to do this, the district must have a vision for technology, but this vision must be based on academic goals and not technology-centric goals. By ensuring that technology programs are based on academic need, the rate of adoption and success increases.

Districts must look at the form and function of the instructional model and develop infrastructure standards based on that model.

The MAPIT® strategic planning methodology calls for the definition of academic and instructionally-based needs. These needs are then addressed through systems and technologies. So if an academic initiative calls for new technologies, such as 3-D printers, robotics, makerspaces, and coding classes, then the implementation plan will help define the scope and scale of each initiative.

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core networking services business. In the K-12 space, they’re continuing to focus on the ETSA deliverable because it’s easy for a school district to understand and fund – the deliverables are fully implementable.

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We pride ourselve s on customization base d on need, and can plan and exec ute any IT solution to fit your school or business

Interestingly, Networld Solutions has observed a need in the SMB space for onsite technology support, as opposed to a remote, MSP-based service. Some customers in this space have been burned and become disillusioned with the promise of the MSP and Service Level Agreements. These businesses seek to have a real person who they can speak with, show things, and get some hands-on support for local office technology.

Future Strategies Networld Solutions is pioneering the concept of technology independence in K-12 Education – a concept beyond 1-to-1 Computing and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) initiatives.

Technology Independent Model for Education™ is a trademarked model that promotes the development of enterprise systems to proactively manage all technical aspects of a K-12 school district.

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The model uses MAPIT® methodologies to understand and define requirements for four areas, and then develop processes and platforms for maintaining and supporting them: • Curriculum • Technology • Technology Resource Management • Sustainment

The model’s core objective is to ensure device need is addressed on an “as needed – just in time” basis. Meaning that devices are managed and deployed as opposed to distributed and fixed.

The core tenet being that no single device is always appropriate for the curriculum and pedagogy. By planning and mapping curriculum, the school should be able to deploy technology according to need.

Thus the IT Operations organization moves from being a reactive, “break-fix” operation, to being a proactive deployment team. Instead of fixing broken equipment, the IT department is deploying fully-charged and configured equipment as required by the curriculum plan.

Think of a race car pit crew, versus an auto repair garage. The pit crew tunes and readies the car for maximum performance specific to its purpose.

The repair garage fixes broken cars.

Objectives and Achievements Networld Solutions seeks to grow their consulting services along with their

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ReviewStudio: A Collaborative Platform for Creative Review

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eviewStudio is an online proofing and collaboration tool for marketing, education and creative teams who need a faster and easier way to collect and organize feedback on their digital media projects. Based in Montreal, Canada, ReviewStudio offers a visual and collaborative approach to collecting and consolidating feedback and approvals – keeping everyone on the same page throughout the course of a project.

PDF files. Unlike most generic project management applications, the platform offers a “media-centric” approach that presents all project communications and task management directly in the context of the media being produced.

When it comes to creative review, consistency is key. Yet, even today, some of the largest creative agencies and production studios use a mixed bag of solutions to manage team workflows and organize feedback and approvals.

The Architect behind ReviewStudio

This can be a nightmare for project-related communication – making delays, errors and budget overruns all too common. As creative projects become increasingly constrained by tight deadlines and budgets, they need a better way to manage the iterative review and approval cycles that drive successful design and production workflows.

ReviewStudio’s real-time, mobile-friendly application allows creative project groups to collaboratively share, markup and approve multiple forms of digital content including video, images, and

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In the context of education, Students and educators around the world use ReviewStudio to give clear visual feedback on media assignments and host live interactive reviews with individuals or entire classes.

Stuart Feldman is a Co-founder and President of ReviewStudio.With a background in both architecture and computer graphics, Stuart started his career as a Co-founder of Lightscape Technologies, a 3D visualization software that provided architects and designers the ability to visualize, analyze and present their virtual 3D projects under accurate lighting conditions.

After the acquisition of Lightscape by Autodesk, Stuart became a senior project manager for design visualization software at Autodesk and later managed a project to extend the availability of 3D tools (“virtual photography”) to marketing professionals. His experience with creative design and production teams led to the development of

Stuart Feldman Co-Founder & President

ReviewStudio as a platform to solve the unique challenges inherent in the development of digital media projects.

Journey of ReviewStudio ReviewStudio began as a project to help the art production staff of a major motion picture address their problems getting timely feedback and approvals from multiple stakeholders spread across three continents. Poor communication and a lack of effective collaboration was severely impacting the film’s production schedule and budget. In response, the ReviewStudio team developed a simple, web-based solution for uploading, sharing and reviewing the digital comps that significantly streamlined the review and approval cycles.

Since that initial solution, the ReviewStudio team has continued engaging and collaborating closely with clients, ultimately expanding to address a much broader range of creative workflows. “Today, our customers come from a wide variety of creative disciplines – marketing, digital production artists, videographers and photographers, designers and

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educators,” explains Stuart. “Our mission is to provide these creative professionals and teams with the best tools possible to help them collaborate more effectively and realize the full potential of their creative efforts in advertising, film and video production, education and publishing.”

Benefits for Clients ReviewStudio’s innovative approach to media-centric project management helps creative teams deliver their projects on time and on budget. Some of its most important features and benefits include: ■ Simplicity. An easy-to-use non-technical markup tool lets collaborators and clients immediately review, markup and approve a wide range of digital media files from any online computer or mobile device. They have no need to purchase, install or learn specialized tools to provide clear and effective feedback.

■ Agility. Design and production cycles are faster because all content display and markups are centralized. Collaborative threaded discussions help avoid multiple iterations by centralizing feedback from all project collaborators.

Integrated versioning makes it easy to track and compare the progress of a project from early design through finished deliverable.

■ Dialogue. Project team members can hold live online review presentations where all collaborators can view, discuss and markup content together. This functionality helps to resolve

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issues faster and avoid communication errors.

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Our unique combi nation of easy-touse markup tools and ad vanced real-time collaboration capa bilities helps creativ e teams deliver digita l media projects on time and on budget

■ Reference. The platform maintains a complete, searchable record of all content-related communications and activities that take place over the course of project development. This helps team members stay organized and avoid conflicts by providing a verifiable audit trail of all review activities.

The Distinctive Methodology of ReviewStudio ReviewStudio’s distinctive advantage is that it supports both the independent and synchronized collaborative review of digital media.

Independent reviews allow clients or collaborators in different locations and time zones to view content and provide feedback independently at their convenience.

Synchronized reviews allow teams to work together from remote locations to brainstorm or discuss various aspects of a project in live real-time review sessions. A team member can synchronize the playback of a slide-show or video with any number of online participants and stop on any frame to discuss and markup the content together.

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collaborative nature of creative project workflows.

Achievements and Future Plans

Stuart attributes ReviewStudio’s success to its team’s extensive experience in the creative production environment and its deep understanding of client workflows.

“We are very engaged with our clients,” observes Stuart. “We see the ongoing development of ReviewStudio itself as a highly engaged and collaborative effort to meet their needs and goals.”

In the coming year, ReviewStudio will be focussing on three primary goals: ▪ Extending project management workflows to facilitate the tool’s adoption by larger agencies and educational institutions.

▪ Extending APIs and integrations with popular project management and educational platforms.

▪ Support for emerging media formats such as immersive VR images and videos.

This combination of independent review and real-time conferencing makes ReviewStudio particularly well-suited for the the iterative and

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What Will

Dene the

Face of

EDUCATION? T

he gusty winds of education due to insufficient funding, advancing technology, and the need of tough jobs in the last few years has been a thing to think for many thinkers and experts. The economic health and capacity to innovate largely depend on the improvement in education. While the “how to” improve is still unfolding. But there are some trends that are aiming to change the face of education in the coming years.

Rethinking How School Works- Need for Change in the Traditional Way

There is a concentrated effort to reinvent the traditional classroom pattern and rearrange the entire school experience. A trend that is being driven by the impact of innovative learning approaches. Project and challenge based learning methods are removing the limitations of the traditional bell schedule for schools that allow students to move from one learning activity to another more easily. The integrative nature of these traditional approaches has popularized the innovative application of technology and encouraged innovative designs of school models that connect each class and subject matter to one another.

Also, as learning becoming more student-centered and fluid, some administrators and teachers have started to believe that schedules should be more flexible to allow opportunities for authentic learning. To change the traditional way of learning that takes place in classrooms is becoming more agile and open to trying new approaches.

Deeper Learning Approaches- Coping up with Advanced Technology There has been a long-term prominence in the classroom on deeper learning approaches that delivers rich core content to

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EDITORIAL’S DESK

students in innovative ways, which allow them to learn and then apply what they have learned. Problem-based learning and similar methods encourage more active learning experiences. As technologies such as smartphones and tablets are more willingly accepted in schools, educators are using these tools to connect the syllabus with the real life applications. With the advanced examples of this trend, students are able to create solutions to press local and global problems and begin to execute them in their communities.

Collaborative Learning Approaches- Group Learning is the Solution Collaborative learning, which refers to students or teachers working together in group activities or peer-to-peer, is based on the view which says learning is a social construct. It involves activities that generally focused on four main things, putting the learner at the center, highlighting interaction, working in groups, and developing answers to real world problems.

Collaborative learning models are successful, especially for shy students in improving engagement and achievement.

Teachers also get beneďŹ ts through peer groups as they engage in professional development and teaching opportunities. An increasing focus on online global collaboration around the world to support curricular objectives and intercultural understanding is an added dimension to this trend.

Consumers to Creators- Transforming Theory into Reality A switch is taking place in schools all over the world as students are learning the subject matter through the act of creation

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rather than the consumption of content. A wide number digital tools are available to help this transformation. Indeed, a whole new level of comfort is growing due to the accessibility of mobile technologies. Many educators believe that sharpening these skills in students can lead to engaging learning experiences in which students become the authorities on subjects through storytelling, investigation, and production. Game making and development that nurtures learners as inventors and entrepreneurs are other components of this trend. Intellectual property issues will become a key component as learners will be active producers and publishers of the educational resources.

Blended Learning- Combination of Online and Ofine Learning is the Key Blending learning models are giving favorable experience to students all over the world. Online learning has been the most active model for students in recent years. Hybrid learning which is a combination of best practices from online and ofine learning is on the rise. Well funded institutes are solidifying this trend all over the world. Blending and hybrid model embracing schools are ďŹ nding online method is different but at the same time complementary functions to physical institutions. Students can achieve mastery of content that too with online learning when designed and implemented correctly.

On the other hand, teachers can focus on small groups less strong students who need support. This trend will continue to grow towards integrated online learning due to progress in adaptive learning, learning analytics and combination of cutting edge digital platforms.

STEAM Learning- The Necessity of Art in Prime Education The movement from STEM to STEAM learning has been taking root over the past few years and is moving forward on a positive note to truly meet the needs of the 21st century. Several key components were missed in STEM learning for many educators, parents, and employers. Thus, the need for STEAM learning has been essential for the education. STEAM is an educational method that mainly uses Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics as main points for guiding student dialogue, inquiry, and critical thinking. The end results learners who take thoughtful risks, persist in problemsolving, work through the creative process, embrace collaboration, and engage in experimental learning. The innovators, leaders, and educators are in the making through STEAM learning.

Education is the key to future, and making it advanced will only help mankind in reaching a brighter tomorrow.

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The Real-Time

WORLD-WIDE Learning through the Internet

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he story of the Internet started in the 1950s with the development of electronic computers. The first message was sent over the internet from computer science Professor Leonard Kleinroc’s laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to the second network node at Stanford Research Institute (SRI).

Vast researches and inventions made today’s most sophisticated internet platform that we are using. Within a fraction of a second, we can inter-act with anyone present in any part of the world. This opens the door for highend communication and education.

Pre-Internet Education Prior to the Internet age, students wrote with pen and paper, send it by post, waited for weeks to hear back from their friends around the world; Students have been connecting with pen pals to learn about other countries and cultures; many have even traveled to meet in person after decades of correspondence; Students fully depend on hard copies of the book and their school teachers; unlike today. Today’s extreme architecture of Internet not only overcomes the communication

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issue but also opens the tremendous opportunity of learning for the students.

Online Learning Opportunities One might think that fast and easy communication through the Internet would have made pen pal exchanges even more popular- but in fact, the opposite has happened. Online communication through letters, have fallen out of fashion across the United States. Why? Teachers now face intense pressure to use every minute of classroom time to prepare students for standardized tests that have implications for their school’s reputation and funding. This heightened focus on testing leaves little time for activities such as pen pal exchanges that don’t focus on the skills that will be tested at the end of the year.

This decreased the popularity of pen pals couldn’t come at a worse time.

Due to the rapidly expanding network of cultural and economic ties between nations, students are graduating into an increasingly international workplace.

Whether students pursue careers in technology, manufacturing, professional services or almost any

other industry, they will be working side-by-side and online with colleagues from China, India, Mexico and dozens of other countries. In an age when employers are increasingly setting their sights overseas, we can’t afford for our schools to shut themselves off from the world for the sake of better scores on a test.

Obstacles in Language Learning While students in other countries may not suffer from the same focus on standardized testing, they face another challenge that is even more urgent: learning English. For students around the world, the ability to understand, write and speak English can often mean the difference between a life of poverty and an opportunity to build a career. More than 80 percent of the information stored electronically around the world is in English.

Schools, governments, businesses and nonprofits have invested heavily in English instruction, but despite these efforts many schools are still challenged to find qualified teachers.

Even in wealthier schools, many students struggle to learn English without every-one having the opportunity to interact with a native English speaker.

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E-LEARNING VIEWPOINT

Real Life Awareness and Consideration There must be literacy and cultural awareness within the learning youth of all around the world. Students further aware of the issues like, environmental sustainability, gender equality, human rights and other subjects in addition to world religions, international trade and politics, literature, cooking, athletics and many other subjects. Voluntarily teachers are also needed for schools and adult learners to avoid the barrier for the poor who can’t pay, so that everyone should get educated. All learners require a common online platform that connects them, to learn together, which helps to build the foundation for a more peaceful and collaborative planet, regardless of their age or topic of conversation.

Pen pals may have gone out of style for a few years, but that’s quickly changing thanks to rapidly expanding access to the internet throughout the developing world and the universal desire to connect, learn, and share the experience.

About Joe Troyen Joe Troyen has founded PenPal Schools, an organization that connects over 100,000 students from more than 170 countries to learn together. PenPal provides a common online platform for all learners from all around the world for overall improvement in all elds. Before starting PenPal Schools Joe worked for 5 years designing software for Education and other industries, taught English in Spain, and researched the effectiveness of afterschool programs in the Bronx. He holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Pomona College and is passionate about connecting learners and expanding educational opportunities around the world.

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Joe Troyen Founder, PenPal Schools

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School Software Group: Revamping the Foundation of the Education System

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here appears to be a renewed commitment to openness and integration in the education technology industry, and this is exciting. Education is so diverse that one company cannot do everything alone. As a result, districts have always been faced with the challenge of implementing an overwhelming number of diverse, leading edge, solutions and struggling with integration or choosing one large company which offered well-integrated, but inadequate solutions. With the emergence of industry initiatives, such as OneRoster, districts can be in a position to leverage the best tools available in a fashion where they easily work together.

BuildYourOwnCurriculum (BYOC), was created as a collaborative effort working directly with districts and teachers to implement the basic vision of a curriculum-driven educational system that most districts and educational leaders have long expounded on, but seldom realized.

School Software Group has always been committed to working with other educational products; however, this has often been limited to custom data exports and imports. With the emergence of the industry initiative, OneRoster, School Software Group is committed to moving towards an ecosystem of tools that allow districts to easily integrate and prosper. School Software Group’s goal has always been to position districts to accomplish key, basic, functions that most have struggled to truly accomplish. Their core offering,

School Software Group has two co-founders, Chris Trina and John Pranica. Chris is a software engineer by trade having worked for a variety of large software organizations in his 30+ year career. During his career, Chris’ responsibilities have focused on tools and practices to promote developer productivity and consistency, which he has applied to how he works with educators and district leadership teams.

“Our offerings for schools strongly reflect this ongoing pursuit of proactively driving consistency and efficiency,” says Chris.

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BYOC is focused on the basic task of educational planning and coordination.

This product is utilized by teachers and school administrators to plan and execute daily instruction more effectively. Students use their system to view and submit classroom work and also to take online assessments.

Principal Duo of School Software Group

Chris Trina Co-founder

John is a CPA by trade, having held a variety of roles for organizations including Chief Financial Officer and President throughout is 30+ year career. John has consistently provided School Software Group with a strong infrastructure and financial stability.

Combined, Chris and John have created a solid organization that continually reinvests in its products.

They have taken a conservative approach that has led to controlled but steady growth while maintaining their commitment to providing schools with the best tools possible in a cost-effective fashion. As a testament, BuildYourOwnCurriculum price has never changed since its initial release over 12 years ago!

Overcoming Limitations of Current Education System “The basic concept behind everything we do is that school districts need a consistent, documented plan of agreed upon, student-friendly goals and

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pacing for each grade and subject area. This intentional plan can be evolved over time for continual, ongoing, student performance growth.

Furthermore, that plan needs to be the basis for all activities across the district, including lesson planning, assessments, grading, and teacher observations. Please understand that the goal of this plan is not, in anyway, to lessen or stifle teacher innovation, but merely to focus and direct it onto a consistent set of shared goals and time constraints. One prominent educational author has stated that teacher creativity comes to the forefront when constraints regarding content and durations are applied,” says Chris.

Distinctive Strategies “Honestly, our goal is to make the basic foundations of education work better. Without an effective, intentional plan, schools have little to no hope of ongoing success for their students.

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We are committed to moving towards an ecosystem of tools that allow districts to easi ly integrate and prosper

Districts who continually apply the “latest and greatest” tools, regardless of their quality, are doomed to long-term failure without a plan that defines consistent goals and directions.

Implementing tools without this underlying plan simply results in a continual cycle of successes and failures. Our goal is to provide that underlying plan, driving the selection and implementation of tools and professional development that support it,” says Chris.

Customer Oriented Approach School Software Group is totally client driven. They constantly interface with clients during customer support engagements, training opportunities, and state-specific user’s groups.

Additionally, they partner with educational service agencies across the country to better understand the needs

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of their clients. Feedback and suggestions from these encounters drive everything they do. These schools and agencies are the frontline experts who truly know what tools and services they need to succeed.

Future Plans School Software Group strongly believes that openness is the key to the future. Product integrations are too time-consuming and one provider solutions are too limiting. For districts to thrive, education tool providers, as an industry, need to fulfill the promise of delivering easily integrated, best of breed solutions to educators.

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Data Big Analytics for &

Education B

ig Data is having an influence everywhere and education is not an exemption. Big data is becoming a fruitful tool in the education system. In the last decade, learning has changed its phase from a passive to an active experience.

The traditional education system requires classrooms, textbooks, reference books, teachers, and all institutional management which are now drastically changing. Institutions are no longer required to continue education in a conventional way. From homeschooling programs that has become highly effective to the online colleges, to the efficient online educational tools to boost professional career, the opportunities to expand intelligence of learner from their desk are abundant.

Big Data is Making Education More Interesting, Affordable and Available Big Data is assisting educational institutions and companies to understand things they could not have previously. For student enrollments, Big Data and predictive analytics have the ability to prepare analytical databases which can cater to college administrators with fast, actionable information. This information helps them to take smart enrollment decisions and allocate both staff time and financial resources to raise enrollment from current markets while constructing new ones.

Companies like edX are using Big Data to determine what kinds of classes can be conducted online and which are best suited to a classroom culture.

From a student’s viewpoint, Big Data and predictive analytics can assist the candidate to shortlist colleges that best fit for their profile. These conclusions based on thousands of data points that can guide the applicants towards those colleges and universities which will be the best match to their profile. College students are increasingly using social media to guide and influence their college choice.

Reshaping Learning Through Big Data While considering modern day educational learning, there’s no doubt that students are having more options than ever before. They can learn at their convenience from home, the coffee shop, or the classroom with the assistance of Big Data as a tool which is more powerful than conventional learning.

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DECEMBER 2017

CHALK TALK Digitized Textbooks Future Textbooks will be not likely to anyone who carried around heavy backpacks in their high schools and colleges.

The transformation from a backpack that’s full of books to a slim smartphone has been an ongoing phenomena for some time, but the future textbooks will be increasingly interactive, collaborative, and updated for accuracy in real-time.

Greg Fenton, CEO of Redshelf (the digital textbook company) says, “There is a plenty of information available on students’ habits of reading and the amount of time they spend for studying. With online textbooks, publishers and professors now have access to information that shows exactly how, when, how often and why the students use textbooks.”

This data, assists publishers with insights that inform the editorial process and also gives teachers access to information that can help them to improve as the instructions based on student’s learning habits. With the digital textbook, updates can be automated in real time whenever required, homework sections in the book also can be graded in real time, video files and audio files can be installed, and much more.

much more effective when equipped with the tools to evaluate the student’s abilities and challenges. Most of the students get bored while studying in a textual format so now, textbooks are not only coming with just a digital copy, but also they have web-based sites that include animations, videos, and sample quizzes. Digital textbooks have benefited with an active feedback loop in which students and teachers can note areas of confusion also they can highlight the tools that are helpful. Changes and improvement made in real time can actually be profitable for the students and teachers immediately, instead of semesters or years later unlike before.

Big Data for e-learning: From Classroom to Corporate World Now e-learning is not only limited to classrooms for studies, but it also benefits to the corporate world for the improv ement of employee skills within least time span. Also, the e-learning is becoming more useful for physically handicapped and ill students who can’t attend classes, it helps them to overcome the losses they suffer due to unavailability in the classrooms. The conventional classrooms are also becoming e-classrooms which provide e-learning, helps students to easily grasp knowledge as it is available in pictorial forms. Big Data is fruitful in e-learning as learning material is analyzed based on usefulness and acceptability to make it readily available for all at the same time.

Internet of Things (IoT) The IoT market is continuously expanding, from consumer electronics, manufacturing, e-commerce, autonomous vehicles, drones and education. IoT integration is much beneficial for higher education because its cloud capabilities reduce hardware costs. Most of the students have Internet-connected devices which create an academic infrastructure that is no longer restricted by traditional barriers, such as geographical location, language, specialized learning needs. It makes the campus without a Generally, the goal of any invention is to make the life of physical library. All books can be digitized and readily available for every student at the same time, independent of human being easy and comfortable. The Big Data also altered the way of learning by making it easy, simple and the number of copies of physical books unlike before. interesting. The traditional classroom environment is no longer necessary for learning. Technology will continuously Personalization make learning easy for the convenience of students, no Plenty of data and analytics tools available to give an opportunity to create a high level of personalization. Every matter someone likes it or not. single learner isn’t the same, thus teachers can become DECEMBER 2017

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T

oday we are surrounded with many buzzwords: AI, VR, AR, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Machine learning, etc. That may be very stressful, especially if you lead a company and choose which way to turn the wheel.

CEOs and top managers are under big pressure and afraid to make mistakes. No one knows which is the best direction or whether you should make a raise on a flop or 3-bet on a turn hoping to catch a full-house.

In “From Good to Great” Jim Collins states that technologies can’t the only key to build a Great company, sametime technologies accelerate growth or failure.

Here, at VironIT we believe, that companies should focus on 3 key points: Ÿ Your passion. What you really take care of. Ÿ What you believe you can be the best at. Ÿ The appropriate business model you live on.

Many companies, who failed had many CEOs with “outstanding innovations programs” which were inconsistent with the previous steps the company had made.

So, consistency and perseverance often wins (as Chinese turture). By the way, my college-mate was trying to make a pass at the most beautiful girl at our class and got many denials, but in the end, after 5 years of attempts they got married.

Let’s come closer to the point: If you already have a viable product which brings profit, you should think which new technology can enrich your software or business to make “learning curve” higher for your competition.

For instance, if you have software which teaches how to drive tractors or excavators, you should definitely apply VR to your existent software.

If you are in the middle and want to make a pivot: I advise you to make an experiment and allocate the amount of budget you can for a side research. One of the key success of Israel startups is that the country invests heavily in R&D (4.25% of GDP https://www.ft.com/content/546af0b2-ede5-11e6-930f061b01e23655?mhq5j=e3).

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- I get your point, I don’t have the right people on board.

Technical talent is a big issue everywhere. As Collin says in his “Good to Great”, “a company can grow as fast as its ability to hire the right people”.

What do we hear about looking for technical talent? Ÿ Hire a good HR agency Ÿ Ask among friends Ÿ Do LinkedIN research Ÿ Try outsourcing to India, get burned and try to outsource Eastern Europe I will share our VironIT’s secret (we never published it online) on hiring savvy technical talent. “It is plain and evident, repeatable anywhere in the world.” We hire developers, who took part in programming contests: topcoder, international competitions, Olympiads, etc.

Why does it work?

As you don’t know the plot of your tomorrow’s day, you don’t know which tasks you have to cope with.

Programming contests have non-trivial tasks to be solved within a short period of time. Programmers who are the best at such competitions can easily crack 95% of other “realworld” programming. They are usually smarter than average developer, used to work under stressful conditions, fast-learners and self-confident.

For such developers, even if they are still undergraduates, within 1-2 weeks of diving into technology they outperform those who had been several years in the industry. Ofc, if you want to build a next MSQRD (the app created at hackathon and sold to Facebook within 3 months after its creation) that approach won’t work. MSQRD’s success story was based on 10 years of experience of one team members in facial recognition.

So, hiring some undergraduates with appropriate minds is: Ÿ faster Ÿ cheaper Ÿ doable We used that approach several times and never missed the target.

DECEMBER 2017

TECHNOLOGY REVISION

TECHNOLOGIES If you just have a raw unique idea: Where should you go? AI, VR, AR, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Machine learning, or maybe IOT? As Jobs said, “Do what you love”. As Collins says: “Do what you are passionate with”. I think all that buzz will bring your ship to some shore. You have to make the right answer to yourself: “Can you be the best at XXX”? where XXX is not only technology, it is more about market industry or vertical market.

This year I attended Nassim Taleb’s speech, where he shared his thoughts on antifragile world. I liked the thought “making a bet on unknown”. You never know 100% percent the shore your reach with that flow.

Making a bet on unknown can bring you either to positive “Black Swan” or you get nothing. A good try is better than regretting passing by on a deathbed.

But here is a trick.

The step you take should be consistent with the “core” of your business (unless you choose to open a new branch). It is quite easy to lose focus. “Great” companies also had “non-todo” lists and “immediately-stop-doing” lists.

That is very important to say “no” to many good ideas to choose one “great” idea.

So, AI, VR, AR, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Machine learning what’s next big thing?

I think the next Big Thing is the right combination of well-known things in the right order, implemented by right people at the right time backed by right investors at the right market.

Author: Alexey Grakov Co-owner & Chief Marketing Ofcer VironIT

DECEMBER 2017

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