When December rolls around each year, it’s hard to believe another year is actually coming to a close. Here at Boxlight, 2018 brought exciting product launches, STEM initiatives, and plenty of collaborative learning events. It’s been a successful year, and we are poised and ready to accomplish even more in 2019!
Looking Back on a Great Year
Before we embrace a new year, I want to take a moment to reflect on 2018. I like to look back on the year as a whole and assess our progress, both personally and professionally. To do this, I always ask myself the same three questions:
- What did we accomplish this year?
- What am I particularly thankful for?
- What are we reaching for in 2019?
With those questions in mind, I can say one thing for sure: It’s been a phenomenal year at Boxlight!
At January’s FETC conference in Orlando and BETT conference in London, we debuted and previewed the MimioFrame—a first-of-its-kind classroom technology solution that turns a conventional whiteboard into a touch board in less than five minutes. We also expanded and updated our other offerings to bring you bigger, brighter, and broader interactive and touch technologies for the classroom. At the BETT awards, the Labdisc was a finalist for “Classroom Aids for Learning, Teaching & Assessment.”
In February, we hosted the second Boxlight STEM day. This event brought students from schools in the United States and Latin America together with a Labdisc portable STEM lab for a hands-on, inquiry-based learning event designed to help them learn critical STEM skills.
Boxlight’s P9 projectors were honored as a finalist in the EdTech Cool Tool Awards in April, standing out as a top “Hardware for Education Solution.”
May brought the successful acquisition of United Kingdom-based Cohuborate Ltd. (“Cohuba") from a family trust of Tony Cann, founder of Promethean. Cohuba is a developer of touch display technology for the education, business, and government markets. The month also saw the beginning of a partnership with Multi Touch Interactives (MTI), paving the way for the next generation of interactive educational activities for large format, horizontal, and vertical classroom-based touchscreens. MTI founders Peter Lambert and Nigel Pearce co-developed ActivStudio, later to become ActivInspire. Now they are putting 20+ years of software development experience to work on multitouch activities for today’s classroom technologies. We also officially released the MimioFrame and the ProColor 490 touch table for educators and students everywhere to start using in their schools.
In June, we attended the 2018 ISTE Conference & Expo in Chicago, where we hosted hands-on, teacher-led learning sessions that covered the key learning areas of whole-class instruction, collaboration, STEM, and assessment. We left ISTE with a Tech & Learning Best in Show award for MimioSpace. Boxlight also acquired Qwizdom––an education software company that produces classroom engagement and presentation solutions––resulting in a powerful partnership creating collaborative software that improves classroom learning.
In August, we received recognition in the Edvocate Awards, with MimioSpace winning “Best Collaboration App or Tool” and MimioFrame being honored as a finalist for “Best Classroom Audio-Visual App or Tool.”
With the start of the new school year in September, we launched our Fall 2018 Webinar series, “Transforming Learning in the Classroom.” This series offered six free webinar sessions for administrators and teachers that focused on transforming the classroom to engage students and boost success. In case you didn’t catch the webinars, you can listen to them on demand. In September, Boxlight also acquired EOS Education, a consulting and professional development company for the K-12 education market.
Just last month, we hosted the third Boxlight STEM day, as students in Georgia, Texas, California, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Costa Rica used the Labdisc data logger to perform experiments. Our goals are to help students grasp the relevance of STEM learning, build the skills they need to succeed, and see the fun in all of it. We have come to believe that this annual learning event emphasizes our commitment to global STEM initiatives through collaborative and interactive technology.
Read more about all of our news and events from 2018.>>
What Are We Thankful For? YOU!
When I think about what I have to be particularly thankful for this year, it ultimately comes down to you—our partners! The teachers, technology directors, administrators, and education specialists who have dedicated your careers to supporting today’s students and our next generation of leaders. Your incredible passion and dedication are astounding. On behalf of everyone at Boxlight and our reseller partners, we celebrate you and offer a heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you.
What’s in Store for 2019?
As we near the start of 2019, our aspirations remain rooted in delivering the highest quality of integrated interactive offerings of software, classroom technologies, professional development, and support services around the world.
What’s next? Good things come to those who wait—and we can’t wait to show you!
Until then, from all of us at Boxlight, may you have a joyful holiday season and a happy New Year!
