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The Ohio Educational Technology Conference (OETC) is February 13-15, 2024 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center with the theme Syzygy: Aligning the Innovations of Teaching, Learning, and Technology.

Let's begin the 2023-2024 school year with supplemental materials from INFOhio to support students with academic success in the classroom.

INFOhio strives to curate high-quality instructional materials and resources that meet the needs of Ohio learners. Dig into our repositories of instructional materials and resources to find just the thing to bridge the knowledge gaps and accelerate learning. 

The INFOhio Early Learning Portal (ELP) contains websites and apps that support learning and development in young learners, ages 3-5. This portal was created to help prepare Ohio’s early learners heading to Kindergarten. INFOhio encourages adults to use digital resources with children, providing guidance and support. In this blog, discover ways to add creativity to the school year. 

The Explora interface has been updated with new usability features to improve the user experience. Updates include a simplified design to reduce distractions, more accessible filters, and text-to-speech for Online full text and PDF versions.  

 

During the 2023–2024 school year, Ohio educators can access Learning Blade®, a resource focused on STEM/CS/CTE and career awareness, at no cost. Access to the Learning Blade platform is provided through the Ohio STEM Learning Network. Ohio educators can find Learning Blade using INFOhio's Open Space, Educator Tools, and the Create, Lead, Empower Ohio toolkit.

CultureGrams is now available to INFOhio users across the state through five-year funding provided in part by a federal IMLS Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant through the State Library of Ohio. Additional funding is provided by Libraries Connect Ohio partners: INFOhio, OhioLINK, and OPLIN.

Included in the CultureGrams package are four editions: World Edition, States Edition, Provinces Edition, Kids Edition

GoLearn, Ohio’s Collaborative Course Catalog, is in development and will be released for pilot participation in September 2023. INFOhio has partnered with g2o—based in Dublin, Ohio—on the development of the platform with input from INFOhio's GoLearn user group. GoLearn will give Ohio districts the ability to offer open seats in their courses to students from other schools and districts across the state via remote live instruction.  

Computer Science courses from Code.org have been added to Open Space. These include 222 lesson plans from the Computer Science Principles and AP Computer Science A courses. 

INFOhio is purchasing and licensing high-quality, digital, teaching and learning content for the 2023-2024 school year that all Ohio PreK-12 students, parents, and teachers can use at school, at home, and on the go. This post will be updated as additional information is available.

Learn more about topics such as the Underground Railroad, Civil War, and voting rights with lesson plans for grades K-12 from the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. 

INFOhio provides a variety of options for educators looking for flexible summer professional development. Online classes, webinars, and blogs available at no cost train educators to use and integrate digital content for teaching and learning. Read more about how to use INFOhio's professional development and hit a homerun this summer whether you're at the ball park, on vacation, or lounging at home.

Using digital tools for reading can alleviate some of the frustrations and exhaustion that come with students who need extra support with reading and students who have dyslexia.  Any minor adjustment that makes reading easier, more fun, or accessible is worth trying with students with dyslexia. Giving them a sense of choice and control also goes a long way toward improving their self-confidence as readers.

Raising literacy achievement is no small task. As teachers know, every student is different with unique challenges and characteristics to consider. Students with dyslexia are a unique group of learners who have specific needs and strengths. While using research-based, structured literacy instructional approaches is the first step, dyslexia is more than a deficit or something that we need to fix.

The choice of colors and background images you use for Fetch, INFOhio's basic library catalog search, can have a considerable impact on user engagement. A visually pleasing background image can attract a student's attention and encourage them to continue exploring Fetch.