Virginia Society for Technology in Education
VSTE recognizes excellence in education through its annual awards program. We ask our members for nominations for three awards: Outstanding Leader, Outstanding Teacher and Innovative Educator of the Year. Winners receive a complimentary registration to the annual conference and are recognized during the opening session.
You may nominate yourself or a colleague.
Nominations close on October 1, 2016.
VSTE partners with Big Deal Media to bring you the best in online resources, grant and competition opportunities and more. In this edition, you can Experience Virtual Reality, Make Original Media, Think Globally & More.
Here are a few of our favorites from this edition...be sure to check the full Big Deal Book for more great resources!
Educators can transform and accelerate STEM education with the zSpace STEM lab. The lab includes a set of student virtual reality stations and a teacher station, each outfitted with an interactive stylus, as well as educational software covering a wide variety of subjects, from science and physics to engineering.
KQED Teach, a new online learning platform, supports educators’ growing media literacy needs by helping them develop the media skills necessary to bring media production to their learning environments. KQED Teach courses are free and self-paced so that educators can learn what they want, when they want.
The Global Read Aloud program uses social media to improve student learning. Over a six-week period, classes all over the world read the same book. Using Twitter, Skype, Write About, Edmodo, or another social media platform, students connect and engage with other classes from every corner of the globe to discuss the book. The 2016 Global Read Aloud will take place between October 3 and November 11.
Not everything in the Book is time sensitive so be sure to check out the archives.
VSTE and the Virginia Department of Education are partnering to present Leading Ed2, a one-day conference for school division instruction and technology leaders including chief technology officers, technology directors, and superintendents. Session topics will focus on E-rate, digital equity, 1:1 initiatives, and student data privacy.
The conference will be held October 11, 2016, 8:30 AM to 4 PM, at Daniel Technology Center, Germanna Community College, Culpeper, Virginia.
The complete schedule is available now.
Featured Session:
Opening Panel: Where We Are, Where We're Going
State Senator Amanda Chase has suggested that school librarians in Chesterfield County should be dismissed for making certain book recommendations as part of summer reading lists.
EveryLibrary, a school library advocacy group, has initiated a petition that will be sent to both Senator Chase and the Chesterfield County School Board asking them to reconsider their stance on this issue.
Please consider signing the petition to support intellectual freedom.
The House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee approved $1 billion of funding in fiscal year 2017 for the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants Program (SSAEG), Title IV, Part A of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Brian Lewis, CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE®) commented positively on the funding, which falls short of full funding, but is much higher than the Senate Appropriation Committee's $300 million.
Read the full statement at the ISTE website.
