Situated in one of the lowest-funded school districts in California, Ethel Dwyer Middle School is a Huntington Beach icon. Built in the 1930s, the school’s principals were historically focused more on coaching teachers and encouraging success than on the actual teaching, learning, and staff management.

That changed when Christa Glembocki moved into the principal role a few years ago. “I wanted to set the stage for working as a team,” she says, “and being there for the betterment of our students.”

With the turn of another new year comes another round of EdTech conferences and expos. First up on the docket for 2020 is the 40th annual Future of Education Technology Conference, better known as FETC, being held this year in warm and sunny Miami, Florida. The conference—held from January 14–17—is right around the corner, and we’re getting excited for all of the opportunities the event has in store.

As part of a campus extension, The Stonehenge School in Wiltshire, United Kingdom decided to overhaul its IT infrastructure to improve engagement in the classroom. Like many schools these days, Stonehenge had been relying on a mishmash of failing technology that was slowing teachers down and impacting students’ learning. With 840 students aged 11–16 and an increasing demand for school places, the school turned to Boxlight to bring revolutionary technology into the classroom—enhancing the learning experience and future-proofing the school ahead of continued expansion.

When school districts invest in technology, the tools they buy must be user-friendly, integrated, and ready to use to support instruction—not something that creates an additional burden for teachers. That’s the foundation that Clayton County Public Schools (CCPS)—Georgia’s fifth-largest school district—used in 2018 when it was time to refresh digital classroom tools.

Years earlier, CCPS had spent millions of dollars putting digital technology into classrooms, ending up with a very disjointed solution that included projectors from one manufacturer, whiteboards from another, student response systems made by a third provider, and slates and cameras by yet another. “None of it worked well together,” says Chief of Technology Rod Smith, M.Ed. “From an instructional standpoint, teachers need something that's seamless so they can save instructional time and focus on teaching students.”