VSTE

Virginia Society for Technology in Education

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Share Your Passion: Conference Call for Proposals Open

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Conference LogoSuper Early Bird registration is open now for the 2021 VSTE Annual Conference. The conference will be held December 5 - 7, 2021, at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center, in Roanoke, Virginia. Virtual and face to face options are available. Seats are limited this year, and we will sell out.

The call for proposals is also open. Consider sharing your passion and expertise with other VSTE attendees by submitting a proposal. Deadline for submissions is September 15, 2021.

Learn more at the VSTE Conference website.

VSTE Welcomes Regional Representative to Board of Directors

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a blue apple with a green leaf and brown stemIn order to provide representation to all areas of Virginia, VSTE's bylaws require that the Board have at least one representative from each region of the state. The Board of Directors is pleased to appoint Joy McDonald from Rockbridge County as the representative from Region for the 2021 - 2022 term. She joins a dynamic group of educators that provide leadership and direction to the organization.

Learn more about Joy.

Learn more about the Board of Directors and meet the current board. New board members will join the Board on July 1.

Get Your Game On With Scratch

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Have you always wanted to learn more about programming for yourself and to better support your students? VSTE is offering the PERFECT opportunity!

Bea Leiderman, Scratch pro and technology coach, will provide a hands-on, minds-on learning summer learning experience: Game Programming with Scratch. Over the course of three weeks, participants will code a paddle-and-ball game from start to finish. The course will include live virtual meetings with Bea each week along with online activities via the Virtual Virginia Course.

This course is a perfect, facilitated start to learning Scratch. Veterans will benefit from connecting with others and pushing the limit with their Scratch knowledge.Enrollment is limited, and cost is just $30. The first class meets on June 28.

 

Meeting Dates:
Session 1: June 28th
Session 2: July 1st
Session 3: July 8th
Session 4: July 12th
Session 5: July 15th
Session 6: July 19th
Session 7:  July 22nd- Scratch Conference

Learn more and register now.

Student Engagement and Choice Go Hand in Hand

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Smiling WomanDuring their VSTE 2020 session, Student Engagement through Choice and Project-Based Assessment: Skills for Future Readiness, Lindsay Krauss, Instructional Technology Coach for Prince William County explored project-based choice assessments to enhance student engagement. She discussed ideas for how to implement project-based assessment with elementary and secondary students that included student choice for different learning styles. She also included specific tech tools as examples of choice that students could use collaboratively or individually to create podcasts, newsletters, and videos.

When students are offered choice the outcome is increased student engagement. In this instance, choice is defined as, the learner has choice in how they learn and options on how they demonstrate mastery.  Lindsay spoke about why student choice and gave the following reasons. 

  • Differentiation
  • Engagement
  • Ownership and Buy-in
  • Independence
  • Connection
  • Confidence 
  • Competence 
  • More fun

When talking about engagement it is important to remember that there are different levels of engagement. Student choice leads to the top form of engagement. The Schlechty Center has five levels of engagement.

  1. Rebellion: Diverted Attention - No Commitment
  2. Retreatism: No Attention - No Commitment
  3. Ritual Compliance: Low Attention - No Commitment
  4. Strategic Compliance: High Attention - Low Commitment
  5. Authentic Engagement: High Attention - High Commitment.

Student choice leads to the highest level: Engagement, which is defined as, the student associates the task with a result or product that has meaning and value for the student. The student will persist in the face of difficulty and will learn at high and profound levels. It is for this reason that we want to offer students more opportunities for choice.  

You can watch Lindsay’s VSTE 2020 presentation on the VSTE Youtube Channel and resources from Lindsay’s presentation can be found on her Wakelet site.

 

Heather Hurley is a member of the VSTE Board of Directors and chairs the Outreach Committee. Heather is the Personalized Learning Specialist in Arlington County Public Schools. 

Let’s Go To Space!

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logo for go open vaCheck out these #GoOpenVA Resources!

On May 5th, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space. He piloted the spacecraft Freedom 7 during a 15-minute 28-second suborbital flight that reached an altitude of 116 miles (186 kilometers) above the earth. Shepard’s success occurred 23 days after the Russians had launched the first-ever human in space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, during an era of intense technological competition between the Russians and Americans called the Space Race. Since we are actively exploring space again, check these “out of this world” resources related to Space Travel!

  1. Space Race - Primary Source Sets for the Digital Public Library of America. The Space Race witnessed extraordinary feats of courage, intelligence, and ingenuity as astronauts and cosmonauts made voyages that previous generations thought were impossible. It also involved deception and espionage as the US and USSR competed for technological advantages. Both sides imprisoned, exchanged, and executed spies to protect these scientific secrets. The Space Race yielded many impressive achievements: putting humans into space, inventing new rocket technologies, launching satellites into orbit, and landing people on the moon. The race also resulted in frightening and powerful technology, including the development of thousands of nuclear missiles strong enough to destroy much of the earth. This set focuses on the Space Race during the mid-1950s and 1960s and examines the impact of the Space Race today. The selected documents, clips, and images raise questions about who “won” the race and shed light on the paradox of the Space Race—a period of tremendous scientific advancement that also yielded destructive technology and weapons.
  2. Edible Rovers - Students act as Mars exploration rover engineers. They evaluate rover equipment options and determine what parts fit in a provided NASA budget. With a given parts list, teams use these constraints to design for their rover. The students build and display their edible rover at a concluding design review.
  3. Space Travel - In this lesson, students are introduced to the historical motivation for space exploration. They learn about the International Space Station as an example of recent space travel innovation and are introduced to new and futuristic ideas that space engineers are currently working on to propel space research far into the future!

Tim Taylor is a VSTE Board Member and Instructional Technology Supervisor in Shenandoah County. He chairs VSTE's Education Committee.