VSTE

Virginia Society for Technology in Education

vsteadmin

Big Deal Book, May 2, 2016

by

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 Juxtapose Photographs, Consider Ethical Questions, Gather STEAM & More.

Here are a few of our favorites from this edition...be sure to check the full Big Deal Book for more great resources!

Make Your Dream STEM Lab a Reality

Northrop Grumman Foundation aims to get students excited about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by making five grants of up to $100,000 each available to public middle schools for a fabulous school lab makeover. To enter theFab School Labs Contest, applicants should create a video or submit photos, along with a written essay describing their current classroom and their vision for a school lab makeover.

Celebrate Visual Storytelling

A new quarterly print magazine for creative youth and their grownups, ILLUSTORIA celebrates visual storytelling, makers, andDYI culture. With backgrounds in design, comics, illustration, writing, and publishing, the magazine’s contributors share a belief in the power of stories, art, and creative expression.

Explore Worlds of Art

#MetKids is made for, with, and by youth and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The website encourages children across the globe to explore The Met.

Big Deal Book, May 2, 2016

Not everything in the Book is time sensitive so be sure to check out the archives.

Webinar Event: District Strategies for Achieving Digital Equity

by

Vincent Scheivert, Chief Information Officer, Albemarle County Public Schools (VA) will be a panelist for the upcoming webinar Digital Strategies for Achieving Digital Equity conducted by The Alliance for Excellent Education and Consortium for School Networking. Registration is required for this free webinar which will be held May 6, 2016, from 11:00 to 11:30 AM. This will be the first in a series of webinars exploring digital equity and broadband access.

Vince will be joined by Keith Krueger, Chief Executive Officer, Consortium for School Networking, and Kamila Thigpen, Manager of Digital Learning Policy and Advocacy, Alliance for Excellent Education.

CoSN released its “Digital Equity Action Toolkit” on the 2016 Digital Learning Day. This webinar will provide an overview of resources available in the Toolkit to help education leaders address digital equity in broadband access. It will also include a discussion about emerging strategies that districts are using to overcome disparate levels of access within their communities.

Participants are welcome to submit questions to the panelists to be addressed during the webinar.

Learn more and register now. 

 

ISTE’s ESSA Primer: Meet the New Law, Not Like the Old Law

by

Thursday, April 28, 2016, 4:00 - 5:00 PM ET

ISTE's legislative counsel, Jon Bernstein, will provide an interactive introduction to help you understand what ESSA has in store for educators. The webinar will include:

• An explanation of ESSA's new framework, including implementation milestones
• A deep dive into SSAEG and how it may benefit ISTE members
• A federal funding forecast for next school year
• Opportunity to get your questions answered

You will need a free ISTE account in order to RSVP for this event.

Learn more

Free CoSN Webinar: Trusted Learning Environment (TLE)

by

Thursday, April 28, 2016, 1:00 - 2:00 PM ET

Developed through the collaborative insight and work of national educational leadership organizations and school systems nationwide, the Trusted Learning Environment (TLE) Seal embodies the commitment of school leadership to safeguard the digital privacy of student data.

This webinar will provide further insights into this new initiative and will allow the opportunity to gain a more in-depth understanding of what the seal will mean from school systems.

This webinar will be FREE for both CoSN members and nonmembers.
Moderator:
  • Bob Moore, Chief Technology Officer, Dallas ISD (TX) and project director for CoSN's Trusted Learning Environment Seal initiative
Speakers:
  • Linnette Attai, President, PlayWell, LLC and CoSN Project Director, Protecting Privacy in Connected Learning initiative
  • Jim Siegl, Technology Architect, Fairfax County Public Schools (VA)

Register Now

E-Rate Application Filing Window Extended

by

On April 15th, the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) announced that the FY2016 E-Rate application filing window will be extended to allow applicants more time to submit their applications. This move followed letters from a number of parties, including one signed by VSTE's parent organization, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), seeking an application window extension because of problems that applicants were encountering in navigating E-Rate's new application portal.
Specifically, USAC is extending the window for all applicants by four weeks with a new closing date of May 26. 2016. When that window closes, USAC will open a second filing window for consortia and libraries, which will close on July 21, 2016. USAC indicates that the reason for the longer window for consortia and libraries is that many are unable to complete their applications until their member/related school district(s) finalize their discount rates in the system.