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ISTE 2024 Highlights: New Otus AI Features and Best of Show Award

Author: David Specht | Product Update, Featured, Blog |

One week after summer kicked off, the Otus team traveled to Denver to attend ISTELive 24 – four days of inspiring talks, cutting-edge technology, and visionary leaders. This year’s conference saw more than 16,000 attendees, including thousands of educators and edtech industry leaders from around the globe, gathered to explore the latest advancements in teaching and learning technology. The Otus team was proud to present our upcoming AI features, share insights on personalized learning, and celebrate receiving Tech & Learning’s Best of Show award.

The Future of AI-Powered Otus Unveiled on the Trailblazer Stage

Otus President and Co-Founder Chris Hull took the stage at ISTELive to share what educators can expect from Otus AI as they look to the future. Here are three key takeaways from Chris’ session:

Otus President and Co-Founder Chris Hull took the stage at ISTELive to share what educators can expect from Otus AI as they look to the future. Here are three key takeaways from Chris’ session:

1. Otus’ Comprehensive Data Set Will Drive Meaningful AI Interactions

A key differentiator between Otus and other one-off K-12 tools is that Otus offers a comprehensive set of data for every child, allowing for more accurate and meaningful AI-powered recommendations. For over 10 years, Otus has helped educators gather academic and non-academic data from K-12 curriculum and SIS partners, as well as formative and summative assessment data. This comprehensive approach allows for detailed analysis, including performance by individual leaning standards. All of this helps educators see the whole child and better understand what is necessary to support each student’s unique learning journey. This extensive data collection, combined with our ability to organize the data in a way that is easily understandable by educators, enables our AI tools to provide accurate and actionable insights.

Otus Data Driven Instruction and AI in Education
2. Otus Has the Tools in Place to Drive Student Growth In addition to a comprehensive data set, Otus already offers the tools educators use daily, including a gradebook, reports and dashboards, progress monitoring plans, student profile pages, and more. By embedding AI into these tools and integrating it with the data you’re collecting, the opportunities are limitless – regardless of your tech and data skills. Imagine receiving summaries and insights immediately after your assessment data is recorded, followed by recommendations on supporting your at-risk students. Or, imagine asking AI any question about your students’ performance using natural language – all within the Otus platform. These tools will not only save educators time but also drive significant student growth.
The typical K-12 educator is not a statistician but needs to understand data and trends related to student performance in their classroom. This video shows how AI-powered Otus will support the analysis and synthesis of student data.

3. Ensuring Security and Accuracy

Protecting student data is our top priority. Otus adheres to stringent security measures to safeguard personal information and addresses privacy and security practices with a comprehensive approach encompassing the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information. This ensures that security practices remain robust and up–to–date even with the addition of AI-powered features to the Otus platform. A second requirement of Otus AI is accuracy. Continuous advancements in AI models ensure the accuracy of responses, supporting educators with reliable and precise insights. Otus has already established trust with educators, students, and families and plans to collaborate continuously with these key stakeholders to develop AI responsibly.

Otus Wins Tech and Learning’s Best of Show

The Otus team was thrilled to be recognized as a winner of Tech & Learning’s Best of Show awards at ISTELive 24. The evaluation criteria included: 

  • Ease of use
  • Value
  • Uniqueness in the market
  • Proof that the product helped make teachers’ lives easier
  • Supports student achievement

While AI was the most-talked-about topic at ISTE, the judges were impressed by the tools that continue to support the “nuts and bolts” of teaching.

Showcasing the ISTE Seal at Our Poster Session

Just a few short months before ISTELive, Otus was awarded the prestigious ISTE Seal in the Platform category, distinguishing Otus as a leader in the K-12 educational technology space. The ISTE Seal indicates that Otus promotes critical technology skills, supports appropriate technology use, incorporates digital pedagogy, and aligns closely with ISTE Standards.

The Seal is awarded only to products that have been thoroughly evaluated and have demonstrated their capacity to excel in quality and performance.  

Otus’ Product Marketing Manager, Kendell Hunter, was able to interact with ISTE attendees during a poster session on how Otus supports personalized learning. 

See you at ISTELive 25!

ISTELive 24 was a fantastic opportunity to showcase our latest AI advancements, celebrate our achievements, and connect with educators passionate about improving student outcomes. We can’t wait to see you next year in San Antonio with even more exciting updates and innovations!

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