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

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. 

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 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.

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.

Ohio’s Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement addresses the need to support educators to recognize and plan instruction for students with dyslexia. Because dyslexia affects between 11 and 17 percent of the population, all educators must have access to instructional approaches that are explicit, systematic, and structured (Wagner et al). This quality instruction will impact not only students with dyslexia but also their classmates who are not. Equipping educators with knowledge and skills from the Science of Reading is essential for reading proficiency for all students.

This summer, INFOhio's Library Services Platform will be upgraded to Symphony 4.0. With this upgrade, users of WorkFlows will need to update their version of the WorkFlows application.

Literacy Pro for Grades 3-6 has been available through INFOhio since August 2022 as a replacement for Storia for Grades 3-6. INFOhio’s subscription to Literacy Pro will end June 30, 2023.

Starting with the 2023-2024 school year, content in Educator Tools will primarily focus on digital tools and resources licensed or purchased by INFOhio. Users can continue to find training and support materials for resources such as BookFlix, the World Book suite, and Points of View Reference Center using Educator Tools’ simple search features. In addition, it will be easier for educators to access videos, flyers, lesson plans, and other materials to help them use and integrate the quality resources from INFOhio. Educator Tools also includes direct links to individual BookFlix eBooks, World Book webquests, and videos from the INFOhio Digital Video Collection.

An enhancement to help support searching within Fetch is infinite scroll. Infinite scroll enables students to continuously scroll through search results without having to click to load additional pages. This approach is often used for sites targeting younger audiences because it provides a browsing scaffold for early users and a seamless user experience. Students can continue to scroll through search results without having to click through to the next page, which can be particularly appealing for mobile users.