Tech & Learning — February 2018

WWW.TECHLEARNING.COM | FEBRUARY 2018 | 49

WHAT’S NEW

software & online

all aimed
at inspiring
growth and
engagement in
student reading. The real-time, actionable
data allows teachers time to respond to
the data and aid students in their progress
with the proper guidance. Original
reporting features (time spent reading,
books read, etc.) are still available, along
with additional reports to measure reading
habits, word count, project involvement,
news article consumption, and more.

NEARPOD AND PHET
(nearpod.com & phet.colorado.edu)
Nearpod
announces
the launch of
50 new lessons in partnership with PhET
Interactive Simulations. These lessons
add PhET’s simulations, developed by
the University of Colorado Boulder, to
Nearpod’s digital platform that is filled with
features such as virtual reality and in-class
evaluation. The new science lessons span
6th-12th grade and will run on all devices
including iPads.The simulations allow
students to engage in physics, chemistry,
earth science and biology concepts.

OVERDRIVE
(company.overdrive.com)
OverDrive welcomes four new publishers
in time for the 2017-18 school year.
Rosen Publishing (social justice-oriented
materials), Gareth Stevens (Hi-Lo titles,
informational texts and fiction titles ),
Cavendish Square (circulating reference
and nonfiction titles) and Enslow
Publishing ( biography, contemporary
issues, history, health, etc.) serve grades
Pre-K -12 with high interest, curriculum-
correlated materials. They are making
hundreds of titles available digitally to
libraries and schools for the first time, with
more planned for 2018.

PANOPTO

(www.panopto.com)

Panopto

announced the

latest update to

its enterprise

video platform.

The release continues Panopto’s focus

on delivering immersive video learning

experiences through support for 360-degree

and virtual reality (VR) video. Also

included in the release is a major upgrade to

Panopto’s inside-video search technology,

Smart Search, which now supports speech

recognition in 9 languages and integrates

with captioning providers Rev.com and

Verbit.ai. Among the new updates includes

Blackboard Gradebook integration.

PRESENCELEARNING

(www.presencelearning.com)

Presence-

Learning

recently

launched online

early childhood

services to expand the ability of schools

and districts to deliver early childhood

interventions and services to children

ages 0-5. With PresenceLearning, school

systems and education organizations can

access a nationwide network of hundreds

of highly qualified clinicians – including

speech-language pathologists, occupational

therapists, and behavioral and mental

health professionals – to help deliver these

timely services to young learners and to

consult with their families and caregivers.

REMIND, PBS, & QUIZLET

PARTNERSHIP

(www.remind.com) & (www.

pbslearningmedia.org) & (www.quizlet.com)

Remind announced a partnership with

PBS, Quizlet and other leading education

companies. The new partnership feature,

Share on Remind, is an effort geared toward

connecting educators

and students with

the resources that

help them teach and

learn. Now, with the

Share on Remind feature, educators can

share resources from PBS LearningMedia,

Quizlet and more with students and parents

with a single click of a button.

RENAISSANCE AND

EDUCATION.COM

(www.renaissance.com) and (www.

education.com)

Renaissance announces Education.com

as the latest member of the Renaissance

Growth Alliance. The collaboration will

provide educators with more instructional

options and a seamless journey to

personalized learning for every student.

The partnership will include Education.

com’s digital resources, tools, and learning

materials for teachers to easily view and

assign to students using Renaissance

Flow 360—a new solution that supports

personalized learning by connecting

assessment, planning, instruction, and

practice in one place, and more.

STUDYSYNC

(www.studysync.com)

StudySync now

offers over 100

Spanish titles in

its digital library. In addition to 40 Spanish

versions of English titles, the Spanish

collection includes over 60 authentic

Spanish-language texts representing Latin

American, Latino and Peninsular literature,

with authors from over 20 countries. ELA

instructors can use Spanish versions of

English library items as scaffolds for EL

students, use Spanish and English library

items to supplement their curriculum and

recommend Spanish texts to their students.