Digital product development is a living, breathing operation. Unlike physical products that get manufactured, boxed, and shipped, digital products are always evolving, and are never (technically) finished. From major product enhancements to minor bugs, Kids Discover’s Product Development and Editorial Teams always have a project they are working on.
And with that, we are excited to announce some new features and content Units we’re getting ready to roll out (or have already rolled out).
Google Classroom Roster Sync (Launched!)
Google Roster Sync enables Educators to instantly port their student roster into Kids Discover Online.
Building on our Single Sign-On integration with Google, we are excited to announce that you can now port over your Google Classroom Roster into Kids Discover Online, instantly creating accounts for all of your students with the click of a button. With an increasing number of elementary and middle school educators using Kids Discover Online alongside their Google Classroom, this will make the student on-boarding process at the beginning of each new school year a breeze. Just sign-in to your Kids Discover Online Classroom, click the Add Students button, and follow the prompt to use Google Roster Sync.
Tip: Have a Google Classroom, but haven’t used Google Sign-On before? No problem! You can link both accounts up by clicking the Google Sign-On button, and following the prompts to link your existing Kids Discover Online account with your Google/Gmail address.
Sunsetting Desk, Introducing Folders (Coming August, 2020)
We hear all the time from educators that they have too many Topics (articles) saved to their Kids Discover Online Classroom, and it’s become difficult for their students to navigate. Oftentimes, our first response is to ask whether they have used our Desk feature, and more times than not, the answer is “no.” Desk is a great way to plan for lessons in advance, but was in need for a redesign, and minor face lift. With that, we are converting Desk into a new space named Folders. Folders enable you to save out content based on themes or lessons, and then transfer those folders in and out of your Classroom(s).
12 New Geography and Social Studies Units (Coming August and September, 2020)
Starting this coming week, we’ll begin rolling out over a dozen brand new Units to Kids Discover Online. The first 5 Units focus on the history, landscapes, and culture of five distinct regions of the Continental United States: The Northeast, The Southeast, The Midwest, The Southwest, and The West. Then on deck are several new Units covering American History and World History, such as The New Nation (1776-1850 in the U.S.), Muslim Empires, and the Age of Imperialism.
Additionally, we’ll be rolling out dozens of small changes and enhancements to Kids Discover Online over the coming 10 weeks. Most of these enhancements come from suggestions and recommendations from educators like yourself. So we encourage you to reach out to us with changes you’d like to see be made, or perhaps that your students would like to see made.
Thanks for reading, and happy teaching!
Be sure to check our blog for new posts from our amazing community every week!
