The Equitable Classrooms Challenge, a program of MIT Solve, is seeking solutions that will help bring equity to students engaged in distance learning in the United States and around the world. Prizes for selected solutions range from $10,000 to $250,000.
05/27/21
Acer
today announced updates to its Nitro
and Predator
Orion lines of gaming desktops, arriving in July. It’s also
rolling out three new HDR gaming displays later this year.
The upcoming Predator Orion 3000 update is a mid-tower design
offering an 11th-generation Intel Core i7 processor (up to eight
cores), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 GPU and up to 64 GB of 3.2 GHz DDR4
memory. Orther features include: Intel Killer E2600 Ethernet (2.5 Gbps); WiFi 6 with MU-MIMO functionality; USB 3.2 generation-2 type-A and type-C ports; DTS:X™ Ultra audio; Up to 2 TB PCIe NVMe SSD (1 TB x2) and up to 6 TB HDD (3 TB x2); Optional EMI-compliant tempered glass side panel.
05/25/21
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated an already serious problem for
families, in particular low-income families: access to structured
summer programs.
According to new
research commissioned by the Afterschool Alliance and conducted
by Edge Research, participation in summer programs had been growing,
with 47% of families reporting at least one member of their family
participating in any type of summer program, up from 33% in 2013 and
25% in 2008. However, the pandemic interrupted that growth, and
participation fell to 34% (close to 2013’s levels), but with many
participating virtually. The report, America
After 3PM: Time for a Game-Changing Summer, was based on
responses from 29,595 households, with a total of 53,287 children.
05/25/21
Ed tech company BEGiN has acquired codeSpark. BEGIN is the maker of
HOMER, a learning system for students age 0 to 6 focused on
math, SEL and critical thinking. codeSpark is the producer of
codeSpark Academy, a learn-to-code tool for students age 4 to 10.
According to information released as part of the acquisition
announcement, codeSpark Academy has been downloaded more than 20
million times and has been used in 40% of all elementary schools in
the last year. It also has a presence in a third of all school
districts in the United States.
BEGiN noted in its announcement: “The codeSpark acquisition allows
HOMER to expand from serving kids ages 0-6 to a comprehensive program
SAS has launched a course designed to teach K–12 educators new strategies for understanding and communicating data to students. SAS also created a set of separate resources for K–12 educators “aimed at helping digital native students also become data natives as well.”