VSTE

Virginia Society for Technology in Education

timstahmer

Diversity and Equity Taskforce: Mentoring Program

by

In 2019, the VSTE Board of Directors agreed to create an Ad Hoc Inclusion Task Force focused on issues related to diversity in education and educational technology in Virginia. This group had two initial goals: learn more about the challenges related to workforce diversity and identify ways VSTE could increase diversity. In an effort to meet these goals, the Task Force established a pilot mentorship program.

The program ran from October 2019 to March 2020. With monthly virtual meetings, participants were invited to engage in courageous conversations related to diversity, education and technology. The program consisted of 4 African American female teachers (mentees) who were paired with instructional technology leaders (mentors) from Arlington County and Petersburg.

This pilot program was designed to allow mentees to receive ongoing support so that they were aware of professional opportunities in the field. As a result of networking with others in the program, one of the mentees was able to secure a position as an Instructional Technology Coach.

Participants were asked to provide a brief statement about what attracted them to Instructional Technology. Charles Randolph, one of the program mentors and Senior Instructional Technology Coordinator for Arlington County Public Schools created the video below which captured some of the participants statements on what attracted them to Instructional Technology.

Written by Nicci Dowd. Nicci is a special education teaching in Prince William County and the co-chair of the VSTE Diversity and Equity Taskforce.

Video by Charles Randolph. Charles is a Senior Instructional Technology Coordinator in Arlington County, co-chair of the ISTE STEM Special Interest Group, and a Certified Apple Learning Specialist. You can follow him on Twitter @CharlesRandolp3.

Help All Students Access The Internet

by

With nearly all schools in the U.S. closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, many districts are transitioning to distance learning. This shift to technology-mediated teaching and learning puts a spotlight on the homework gap -- the divide between students who have home broadband access and those who do not.

Getting all students online will take some elbow grease. Fortunately, a number of organizations offer resources to help with this challenge. Here are five things you can do to ensure your students get the access they need:common sense education logo

1. Get students, and their families, online.

Effective distance learning starts with connectivity. Students in households that don't have Wi-Fi won't be able to download work, view online materials, or attend virtual classes. For a list of free and low-cost internet offers, check out the National Digital Inclusion Alliance. Families can also find out about service offerings in their areas with the ZIP code search tool from EveryoneOn.

2. Secure devices for every student.

Most households have mobile devices, but it’s hard to get work done on a phone. PCs for People and Human IT are programs that can link students up with free or low-cost computers, tablets, and laptops. These programs also provide resources on how to navigate new digital tools.

3. Leverage educational TV.

Ninety-six percent of homes in the U.S. have televisions. To support student learning at home, PBS and other local public television stations and some larger broadcasters are airing educational programming throughout the day. Check your local PBS schedule for standards-aligned programs such as Nova and History Detectives. In addition, Amazon pulled down its paywall for educational content on Prime Video, making it free for families with a device and an Amazon account. Amazon Prime Video includes educational programming from various outlets including PBS, plus Amazon originals like Creative Galaxy and Tumble Leaf.

4. Check your local library.

Libraries across the nation are leaving their Wi-Fi open to the public for use from the library parking lots. If students already have access to a device, this option allows them to download materials and access free broadband when they're within range of the signal.

5. Demand action now.

Common Sense is calling on Congress to fund devices and broadband service so all students can connect to distance learning this school year. Are your students connected? Share your story to #ConnectAllStudents and we'll make sure lawmakers hear your call. Send us a video or tweet at us @CommonSenseEd on Twitter and Instagram.

Written by Amina Fazlulla. Amina is Equity Counsel in Common Sense's D.C. office, with a focus on expanding access to technology and digital well-being advocacy.

Serving All Students in an Online Environment

by

Addressing the needs of students with disabilities in an online environment can seem like a daunting task for educators, especially in the midst of an emergency, overnight transition to online learning. With the right tools and some small adjustments in practice however, keeping each of your students engaged and progressing is within reach.

Disabilities come in many different forms (mobility, hearing, vision, and cognition) and aren’t always visible or diagnosed. Even if you don’t have a student in your class with an identified disability, following these practices can provide benefits for your students and any parents or guardians who may have a disability.

1. Ensure your web-based tools and resources are accessible for students with disabilities
Any platforms or websites you share with your students must comply with state and federal rules for accessibility. Tools that conform with international accessibility standards, such as the WCAG 2.1, provide a base level of access for all users. Companies that may be providing you with a platform or other tool should have readily available check lists for conformance with standards.

Some of the most common barriers to access for students that you should check for with any tools and content used for instruction, are screen reader incompatibility, keyboard navigation problems, and lack of video captioning. Free web accessibility checkers, like WAVE, are a great way to quickly check a web-based resource for accessibility with just its URL.

2. Avoid PDFs and Images to convey information
PDFs and images often do not carry the proper attributes to ensure the accessibility of the information contained within them for students or parents utilizing screen readers. Information relevant to learning or classroom activities should always be conveyed in word documents or within the HTML of a web page.

When you are creating a document in a word processing program or adding text to a webpage with an HTML editor, be sure to add headings to give your documents a logical structure to allow keyboard and audio navigating students to move freely around the document.

computer screens

3. Watch your colors and color contrast
Creating fun and flashy content and webpages using different colors can be a great way to make learning fun and engaging for students. For students with visual disabilities however, it can make learning challenging when colors are used to convey meaning. About 1 in 12 boys have a form of color blindness that can make it difficult to determine colors, the difference between shades of colors, or even the brightness of a color. Web accessibility checkers can help to identify color contrast issues that may be a barrier to students, but generally it is best to avoid multi-colored documents or assignments that rely on students to be able to identify colors to complete.

4. All videos should have closed captioning
Any videos, including live-streamed videos, provided to students should have captioning or a transcript available. While captioning and transcription can be difficult for live-video instruction, it is critical to ensure equitable access to learning. Students with both hearing and cognitive disabilities will benefit from the ability to follow along.

Any streaming or video recording tool you use should be able to auto-caption your recordings either during the live-stream or afterwards to post with the recording.

5. Differentiate Instruction
In addition to ensuring your technology and content are accessible, serving students with disabilities requires addressing the learning differences between students as well. A video lecture can hit a lot of the curriculum standards, but it may be incongruent with the IEP needs of a student and generally a more difficult method of online learning for all students. Leverage your online tools to create multiple pathways for students to receive instruction or to show evidence for learning they can do on their own.

In the Brightspace LMS, teachers are using Release Conditions to set criteria around the availability of content. For example, setting up checklists in a course to automatically deliver course material in a different format (e.g.a link to a video content page for visual learners or a link to an excerpt from literature for linguistic learners), access to an extra help discussion forum, additional reading material, and alternative formats for multimedia material. This helps ensure that students who need more support have it without hassle and while maintaining student privacy.

Written by Brendan Desetti. Brendan is the Director of Government & Stakeholder Relations for D2L – makers of the Brightspace LMS.

Staying Connected

by

5/365 - Reach Out {Explored}

In the midst of the chaos happening right now I feel very lucky. For one thing, my children are teenagers which means they are pretty independent and don’t need me to be right there with them all the time. I count my blessings daily that they aren’t toddlers or preschoolers anymore. Those of you with little ones at home, trying to keep them occupied and learning while you do your thing and while you navigate this new reality, you all are amazing.

I’m also feeling lucky because my district opted to not jump in with both feet to the distance learning pool. We’ve been out of our school buildings for two weeks and there are resources available to families and students, but teachers haven’t been required to immediately begin teaching remotely. We’re getting time to plan and some training to support us.

But I can’t stop thinking about my third graders. We’ve spent so much time building our community, working, learning, playing, and struggling together. Suddenly being done and physically apart is really hard. For some kids, it’s probably just fine. For others, this is a traumatic situation for many different reasons.

Keeping Our Community Strong

One more reason I feel lucky is that I had just managed to get all my kids using Google Classroom before schools closed. I’ve been posting fun links and videos of me reading picture books there. About a third of my students have posted there as well, either in response to my posts or posts of their own. They’re chatting with each other and with me in that space. While many of my links are connected to our academic work, there is nothing required and I’ve erred on the side of fun rather than rigorous. Our Google Classroom is a space for us to connect and to feel like a community again.

I’m also lucky to be teaching in a school at which all of my families speak English. (This is the first year that is true in 22 years of teaching.) They all have email addresses as well. So I have sent several emails out to everyone with reminders about our Google Classroom and with, I hope, parent-friendly explanations of our school district’s plans as well as some links they might find useful. I’ve also had one-on-one emails with multiple families. Between Google Classroom and emails, I know I have connected with about two-thirds of my students or their families.

Reaching Everyone

What about that other third? Maybe they’re in our Google Classroom and just aren’t posting. Maybe their families are reading my emails and finding them useful. Maybe.

I don’t have any way of knowing and that matters to me. I want to be sure that every child in my class, and their families, have whatever support they need from me. For some that may be concerns about their IEPs or about academic challenges, including a need for enrichment. For others it is more about their social-emotional learning. For some families it is the adults who want the support from me as they navigate being home with their child(ren). Whatever it might be, I want to be sure they know where to go and that I’m doing what I can.

This week I walked to the post office and dropped postcards in the mail to all of my students. The first ones on my list were the ones I haven’t seen online yet. I’ve spoken with our librarian and reading teacher and given them names and addresses of kids so they can add to the mail for those that I think might need it. I’ve also been in contact with the special education teacher and other support teachers to coordinate reaching out to families. Honestly, I’d rather they hear offers of support from us too much, than not enough.

Hard to Reach Families

There will always be families who are hard to reach. Some may be feeling comfortable and confident with what they are doing and not feel the need to be in contact with me. Others may be hard to reach for reasons that mean they need more. Some families are juggling working with having kids at home all day. Some families will have folks who are sick. Some families don’t have strong, consistent access to technology and the internet. Some families don’t speak English well enough to navigate all the information coming from school districts and teachers.

My next step, for families with whom I haven’t had any reciprocal communication, will be to start making phone calls. Just a short call to let them know that I am still here, supporting their child and them in whatever ways they need. A short call to remind them of the various ways they can reach out to me. A short call to give them the opportunity to ask me any questions they might have. I’m not a teacher who has given out her cell phone number in years past. That is going out the window for me this year. I can control when I answer but I am not going to hold back on offering ways for families to reach me. A phone call may be the best option for some. So be it.

Texting will be another option I will offer families. In my experience, many families who are learning English prefer to text (if they have the technology and plan that make it possible) because it allows them time to work through what is written and compose what they need to say or ask. Talking on the phone in a new language is exceptionally challenging as you don’t even have any of the physical clues of body language and facial expressions to help understanding.

My students are young. This experience may not faze them but for at least some it will be disorienting and scary. The most important thing I can offer them, and their families, in this moment is support. What that support looks like will vary by child and I need to be flexible and understanding about their needs. I hope they will keep reading and writing and practicing the skills we have been learning, but mostly I hope they will come through this emotionally okay. I’ll do all I can to help make that happen.

Written by Jen Orr. Jen is a third-grade teacher at Fort Belvoir Elementary School in Fairfax County. You can follow her on Twitter @jenorr.

The image at the top is titled Reach Out (Explored), from the Flickr feed of Susana Fernandez, and is used under a Creative Commons license.

Technology Considerations for English Learners

by

Due to a sudden shift in virtual learning, how can we effectively use technology with English Learners (EL) in a virtual classroom setting? How can we communicate effectively with ELs? Incorporating technology in the virtual classroom with ELs is an excellent way to support the four language domains. With technology, students can listen, speak, read and write.

A reciprocal relationship exists between reading and writing and reading informs writing. Speaking and listening are the foundational skills for reading and writing. These four language domains are essential for our ELs as they are learning English and with technology, ELs are able to produce and express language. Furthermore, technology allows ELs to have equal access to the language as their native English speaking peers.

Here are a few considerations to keep in mind as you shift to virtual learning for ELs:

immersive reader icon

1. Use trusted translation and interpretation based on the guidelines set by your district

Two excellent tools to use are the dictate feature and immersive reader in Microsoft OneNote and Word. If you have a student that is unable to write in their native language but can speak in that language, it is an excellent way for them to show what they know! Seeing the joy on a child’s face when they see their speech come to life is so exciting. Immersive reader will read text aloud highlighting text as it reads and the language can also be changed for translation.

2. Use audio books for ELs to hear and read text

Another way I love using technology with ELs is by giving ELs access to audio books. The technology we have at our fingertips is just phenomenal. Students are able to listen to a text in their native language and then hear it in English. Additionally, they are able to see the text on the screen. You can even change the interface to the native language. One of my favorite free websites to use for this is Unite for Literacy. (uniteforliteracy.com or Unite Books app) Students can explore a wide range of texts in a variety of languages with beautiful graphics.

3. Utilize multi-modal resources

Another great technology resource for ELs is Discovery Education. The amount of multi-modal resources within Discovery Education is outstanding. For the videos, ELs greatly benefit from the closed caption and transcript features. Being able to listen and see the text on the screen and in print supports ELs with their language development. For the reading passages, the audio feature allows the text to play and students can change the speed of the audio. Students can even see the text be tracked along the screen as they listen. Additionally, students can go on Virtual Field Trips which is so important right now! If your district doesn’t already have Discovery Education, they are offering districts free accounts during the closure.

4. Tech buddies for ELs

Consider having a tech buddy for ELs. Assign an online tech buddy, either a same language student or a tech savvy classmate to support ELs with tech. Additionally, ensure ELs know where and who to go to for tech support when they need it.

5. Clear and concise Communication

Ensure when you are giving information through tech resources that it is clear and concise. Remember that both families and students will need support with the tech resources you share, less is more!

During this time, if technology is unavailable for an EL, consider the phone capabilities they may have. Perhaps they can email or text. Consider having printed paper copies with offline resources of daily or weekly choice boards they can complete with no tech requirements! These activities could include listening, speaking, reading and writing activities. It is vital to ensure during this extended closure that our ELs are still able to access the learning materials even if they do not have technology available to them. With or without tech, our goal for our ELs is to allow for opportunities that they can actively engage in listening, speaking, reading and writing! I hope you will find these resources to be useful with your ELs!

Written by Mandy Livings. Mandy is an Elementary English Learner Program Specialist in Prince William County Public Schools.