Keeping up with EdTech news, product releases, and general information can be tough on educators. Even with summer coming up and the amount of time they'll spend student grading papers and creating lessons (hopefully) reduced, there’s still a lot that teachers can’t get to. That’s why we try to bring the most relevant updates and educational technologies directly to them. Our twice-weekly newsletter is a great source for STEM educators to subscribe to and a fabulous way for them to learn about many of the advancements in EdTech and additions to our store. There are a variety of topics that enter subscribers’ inboxes each week. So, we thought we’d give a taste of what you could access as one of our thousands of email subscribers.
Eduporium Helping Teachers
Over the last couple months, we've rolled out our mini video series to our newsletter subscribers and social media followers. These videos cover four main topics that are very important to us and to the foundation of Eduporium. Each video is about two minutes long and they can all be viewed on our YouTube channel. The previous three topics included our core vision, the feedback loop, and what we'd consider to be productive technologies. This past week, we released the fourth and final video to our audience to cap off the fun, new initiative. Entitled ‘Eduporium Helping Teachers,’ two of our founders, Rick Fredkin and Irina Tuule, took out some time to reflect on why we do what we do and discuss some of the many ways we can help educators discover new technology, new teaching tactics, and new sources of teaching inspiration!
Our newsletter subscribers are among the first to access the videos and we’ve been excited to share these with everybody! As a reseller of STEAM tools, we’re always looking for the latest and greatest technologies teachers could use in instruction. As Rick starts off the video saying, that helps them to develop a stronger system of implementing technologies in their classrooms and allows them more time for focusing on other things. Irina also talks about one of our most popular and innovative services—the creation of technology bundles. Since teachers often want to be able to use a bunch of different EdTech tools in their classroom rather than only one, we launched the service to help ensure they get exactly what they need. And, we’ve learned that many educators also share these bundles throughout their school communities with different teachers, librarians, and others.
We also let educators try technology in their classrooms so they can see how students use and create with it. Having this opportunity to test out that important factor of compatibility is paramount for many teachers. It also helps to eliminate some of the hesitations they have when researching technology for the classroom. So, not only are we helping instructors learn about and know where to find new STEM tools that may be of help to them, we’re also offering them support for when they first bring it into their classrooms. It seems so simple, but even things like knowing how to turn a tech tool on or what devices it's compatible with can be things that instructors overlook. We'll work with them to help prevent that and offer a streamlined transition from research to implementation. To see the ‘Eduporium Helping Teachers’ video, visit our YouTube page.
Help Us Build a Hub of EdTech Activities
One thing that we’re constantly cognizant of when advocating for technology in education is how teachers may not know what exactly to do with various tools after they acquire them. They know that various STEM devices have the potential to teach kids all kinds of wonderful, real-world skills, but, unfortunately, may not know how to use them within lessons. Since educators are often on their own to create these lesson plans, often, their administrators need to see how the pieces of technology can align with curricular requirements and simultaneously promote student engagement. Creating specific lessons around a STEM tool just adds extra work for teachers on top of what they're already doing. That’s why we have worked with a number of our EdTech vendor partners to obtain step-by-step classroom activities. We have also created some of our own, and now we’re asking educators if they have any they can offer!
We're currently designing an online hub to host a library of classroom activities for use with certain EdTech tools. Over time, we hope to have multiple activity options for the most popular STEM tools from our store, including the Ozobot, Dash and Dot, Edison, Cubetto, littleBits, and others. For now, we’re very excited to launch this project and ask educators who've created their own activities to submit them. To submit any original projects, all you have to do is find the link and submit the form with details. We’ll then receive your submission and publish it on this hub as soon as everything is up and running! We truly believe that this is another awesome use of the power of social media and online PD. It helps instructors discover new ways of using tech tools they already have or inspires them to try something new!
Besides helping STEAM educators discover new things, there's another prime advantage for teachers who submit activity ideas to our hub. Each month, we're selecting our favorite and, while all submissions will be published, one entrant will earn a special prize. For the most creative and educational project every month, we'll reward that person with $50 to the Eduporium store! The only thing better than discovering new ways of using STEAM tools may be saving on some in the future! So, pay attention to our blogs, newsletter, and social media channels for updates on the release of the activity hub. We’ll definitely be keeping everybody posted once the portal is up and running!
Start Thinking About Summer Camp STEM
For teachers, the end of each school year probably can’t come fast enough, but, for students, those same instructors are probably going to be advocating for them to continue their learning throughout the summer. Although it’s also important for kids to recharge their brains, it’s important for them to remain stimulated as well. That’s why summer STEAM camps are such a popular and beneficial option for today’s students. At these camps, they can explore learning experiences that keep kids engaged with finding new and creative solutions to problems and generally aren't too physically taxing or stressful on them. Summer camps offer opportunities to take part in unique STEM activities and work together with other children on collaborative challenges. Many of the same STEM tools they can use during the school year fit into summer camps and leaders of these programs should be mindful of keeping these options open.
If you're involved in running a summer STEM camp for students this year, we've got some great, practical suggestions for tech tools that are guaranteed to help you facilitate fun and affordable projects. And, even though it’s soon to be summer time, anybody involved with that facilitation of an educational program over the summer can still purchase tech tools from our store, and receive our Educator Discount. Some of the most popular kits for summer learning are drone kits, which include those that kids can build themselves, take pictures with, and program! One of our nicest options for anybody looking to add drones to summer camps is the Discover Drones Club Pack. It comes with various pieces for constructing drones and plenty of curriculum-based lesson plans for kids to follow as well. And, drones are just one of the ways students can explore STEM during the summer.
Aside from drones, there are additional STEAM tools that spark some serious summer STEAM learning for individuals and student groups. These include some of the Classics, like the Makey Makey, MakeDo kits, and Circuit Stickers. Using these tools, children can build a lot of projects that come in booklets included in many of these kits, or they can use the components in the various kits to add their own flare to anything else they build. Circuitry is another popular option for summer STEAM learning, allowing camp managers to facilitate simple, safe, and affordable projects. We also recommend checking out the Teknikio kits and Snap Circuits kits! And, if you have something else in mind, feel free to browse our store for more.
New Sphero Offerings on Our Store
The Sphero line was among the first to really take off on our store and, since they’re now one of our most prominent partners, we’re super happy that children and educators enjoy learning with them so much! For the last four or five years, we’ve worked with them and started offering their SPRK and Sphero 2.0 models. As they released new robots to replace or complement their offerings, we’ve been excited to offer them as well. In today’s age of supportive content and accessories making STEM tools even better, we now have a few additional items from Sphero available for purchase on our store! And, let’s just say they are as helpful for teachers as they are enjoyable for students!
There are a total of four new things on our store from Sphero: the Specdrums Kit, Sphero Fundamentals Self-Guided Course, and two Sphero Power Packs—one that comes with Sphero SPRK+ robots and one that does not. That Specdrums Kit actually does not involve a traditional Sphero robot, but it still exposes children to creative STEM learning. The kit comes with two rings that slide around students’ fingers. Then, using the Specdrums MIX app, they can tap any object and hear music play out of their connected device. They could use the Specdrums to mix and produce songs, create looping music, and share their sessions with their friends. To learn more about the Specdrums Kit, visit our store!
In addition to the Specdrums, teachers can now purchase that Sphero Fundamentals Self-Guided Course from us. This fully online training course helps them learn the basics about teaching coding with their bots, including how to use the Sphero Edu app and block and text programming. The course is valid for 90 days. Finally, we have two new Sphero Power Packs on our store—one that’s empty and one that comes with 12 Sphero SPRK+ robots! With either power pack, educators can charge and store their Sphero robots in the way that’s most convenient for them. Not only do they charge your robots safely, teachers could use these mobile packs to transport them anywhere! To explore all their Power Packs more and everything else from Sphero on our store, head on over!
Ozobot Evo Educator Kit
The Ozobot Evo is one of our most popular EdTech tools and also among the most reliable. We have been promoting and recommending it for a few years now and it shows no signs of fading away. That’s because the Ozobot Evo helps kids of all ages learn coding skills in two distinct ways: screen-free with color codes or in an online programming environment called OzoBlockly. The Ozobot Evo is the newest and (we think) most engaging of the Ozobot options (there's also the Ozobot Bit). With their Evo, students can truly work collaboratively to program robots using markers and paper or, as mentioned, the OzoBlockly environment. Each method has its advantages for students and things also just got easier for STEM teachers, too.
We’ve added their Ozobot Evo Educator Entry Kit onto our store alongside existing kits, accessories, and classroom packs we offer. This kit is designed exclusively for educators and helps maximize the teaching potential of the Ozobot Evo. It includes plenty of super helpful content and even some free STEAM lessons for teachers to try with students. Most importantly, the Evo Entry kit helps educators learn the best ways of using the Ozobot Evo in the classroom. Whether they’re trying to inspire more creativity in their students or themselves, the included content is very helpful. With the kit, teachers will also learn more about skills kids need and how to make sure they build them.
The Evo Educator Entry Kit includes Ozobot’s Educator Bot Camp, which provides all information teachers need for teaching with Ozobot’s. Your instructions cover every OzoBlockly level, coding on paper, teaching basic STEAM skills, and give possible solutions for potential debugging. All of the information contained in the Bot Camp is real valuable and important as it helps eliminate down time and struggles when educators are using these robots with students. The Entry Kit also comes with one Ozobot Evo for any educator who doesn't have one (or needs a replacement)! To learn more about maximizing the Ozobot Evo using the Evo Educator Entry Kit, get yours from the Eduporium store!
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