VSTE

Virginia Society for Technology in Education

Blog

Lord Fairfax Community College’s HigherEd.org Search Engine and Learning Portal = A Tool for Educators

by

On October 1, 2014, Lord Fairfax Community College (LFCC) was awarded a $3.25 million TAACCCT grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to develop competency-based education (CBE) programs and promote the use of free and low-cost digital resources wherever possible. In conjunction with the creation of their Knowledge to Work (K2W) program (competency-based education programs in information technology, health information management, and administrative support technology), LFCC created the HigherEd.org search engine and national learning portal.

Students Learn Free Online at HigherEd.org

HigherEd.org offers free and low-cost learning resources for personalized learning tied to competencies using OER (open educational resources). HigherEd.org features learning resources from numerous providers such as YouTube, Saylor Academy, and Microsoft. Resources are tied to competencies and aligned to national frameworks in a variety of topics. All resources are curated by a digital librarian for accessibility and adaptation.

For educators, HigherEd.org provides modules that can be adapted to the classroom for teaching, student presentations, and learning aids. HigherEd.org continues to grow. There may even be tools in the future to allow educators to create a digital classroom for their students within the site allowing independent, directed inquiry work.

Students can find links to resources that can assist them in receiving badges, certifications and even information to help acquire employability skills. For those that register for a free MyHigherEd account, they enjoy many learning tools, such as:

  • Create a personalized learning plan to track their progress
  • Set a custom goal and/or choose a credential to locate learning resources tied to competencies
  • Search resources useful for learning competencies and achieving their custom goal or credential
  • Save their searches and review their complete search history
  • Save and comment on resources
  • And so much more

Visit HigherEd.org

Guest post by 
Lyda Costello Kiser, DA, Director, Office of Transition Programs, Title IX Coordinator
Eric Simons, Knowledge to Work, DOL TAACCCT Grant
Lord Fairfax Community College

Joe Freddoso to Head Panel Discussion at Leading Ed Forum 2017

by

The VSTE CoSN Council and the Virginia Department of Education are pleased to welcome Joe Fredosso, USAC consultant and co-founder and COO of Mighty River, as a speaker for the second annual Leading Ed Forum. Joe will lead a panel discussion on Friday, October 20. This event, designed for school division technology and instructional leaders and presented through a partnership of VSTE and the Virginia Department of Education, will be held October 19 & 20, 2017, at Daniel Technology Center in Culpeper, Virginia. Learn more about this event here.

Mighty River was founded by April and Joe Freddoso in July 2014 as an advise and do company in the broadband infrastructure space.  

In its first three years of operation, Mighty River clients have included:

  • EducationSuperHighway
  • Extreme Networks
  • Universal Service Administrative Company
  • Person County, NC
  • The Walton Family Foundation
  • NC Rural Economic Development Center
  • Several client relationships under non-disclosure

One of Mighty River’s roles has been to assist E-rate applicants in navigating the second E-rate modernization order.  E-rate reimbursement for applicant construction of fiber broadband networks either owned by the applicant or by a broadband provider, greatly expanded under the terms of the second modernization.  In its role Mighty River provided advisory assistance to over 1500 E-rate applicants over a 3-year period from 2014-2017.  

In July 2014, Joe completed a 7-year stint as President and CEO of MCNC.  MCNC operates the North Carolina Research and Education Network (NCREN), which provides broadband connectivity to most Community Anchor Institutions in North Carolina.  Under Joe’s leadership, MCNC quadrupled its revenue, grew NCREN's connector community by 700% and now possesses a book value of over one quarter billion dollars.
​
Also, during Joe’s time at MCNC, the organization completed a $144 million expansion of NCREN, called the Golden LEAF Rural Broadband Initiative (GLRBI). This expansion included building over 1800 miles of new fiber optic infrastructure, acquiring 800 miles of fiber optic infrastructure through Indefeasible Right to Use (IRU) agreements and adding these fiber assets to the NCREN network.  The result is an NCREN that covers over 80% of North Carolina’s counties. 

Joe led the effort to negotiate the fiber leases as the lessee and the lessor and all types of lit service, colocation, above the net services arrangements.  MCNC successfully IRU'd to broadband service providers worth over $25 million of fiber on the GLRBI. Joe and MCNC were recognized as White House Champions of Change in 2012 and Computer World Laureates in 2013 for their efforts.

Freddoso has also served in senior executive roles at Cisco, Turner Broadcasting, LLC, Walt Disney World and for several entities in the Olympic movement including as President and CEO of the 1999 Special Olympics World Summer Games.

Proposed TSIP Revision

by

A committee of The Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE), with the support of the Virginia Department of Education's Office of Technology and Virtual Learning, is drafting new Technology Standards for Instructional Personnel (TSIP).

If approved, these standards will update the original 1998 standards and represent the base level skills that every educator must meet in order to be considered proficient in the use of technology for teaching and learning.

Below you can read the most current draft of the proposed revision to the Standards. We invite feedback on this proposal from every Virginia educator and you can provide your comments using this form.

--------------------------

Proposed TSIP Standards (DRAFT) 2/13/2017

1. Lifelong Learner: Teachers engage in ongoing professional learning related to content, pedagogy and technology.

a. Engages in ongoing professional growth related to the use of innovative instructional strategies that integrate digital technologies.
b. Use technology to obtain feedback that allows for reflection and improvement in the learning process.
c. Employs digital tools to collaborate with the learning community on educational topics and learning opportunities.

2. Digital Leadership: Teachers model safe and ethical practices for their students.

a. Cultivate and manage their digital identity and reputation and are aware of the permanence of their actions in the digital world.
b. Promote safe and ethical behavior with students through collaborative online experiences
c. Embed digital citizenship skills in all lessons involving online experiences
d. Model the use of technology to communicate, create, collaborate and solve problems
e. Select appropriate digital content, tools and resources that meet local, state and/or federal policies.
f. Demonstrate an understanding of the rights and obligations of student privacy and security when collecting and using student data and selecting digital content, tools, and resources.

3. Learning Facilitator: Teachers support student learning by harnessing the power of technology.

a. Incorporate learning strategies that use technology to accommodate learner variability, personalize learning, and engender student choice, self-direction and goal-setting. (Possible Indicators: coursework in personalizing learning; recognizes and can articulate examples of personalizing learning using technology; articulates how to determine learner variability and potential technology solutions.)
b. Assist students in selecting and using appropriate and available digital tools for learning, creating, problem-solving and communicating. (Possible Indicators: Coursework in using digital tools in the classroom; recognizes a variety of digital tools and can articulate how they might be used with students; lesson plan that involves using digital tools to develop these skills.)
c. Use a variety of formative and summative assessments that leverage the power of technology to provide immediate and specific feedback, and offer alternative learning paths to students including competency-based approaches. (Possible Indicators: coursework in assessments; experience with using technology-based formative and summative assessments; ability to develop such assessments regarding a specific SOL.)
d. Acquire, access, and analyze quantitative and qualitative data to effectively respond to students’ needs and communicate findings to various stakeholders. (Possible indicators: coursework in assessment and understanding data; experience with using technology-based assessment tools; communication skills for interpreting data for student/parent/administrators.)

4. Skilled Technology User: Understand the fundamental concepts of technology operations and troubleshooting as well as basic uses of technology in instruction

a. Demonstrate the ability to choose and use digital technologies including both hardware, software and web-based resources to support classroom instruction
b. Demonstrate the ability to troubleshoot typical classroom technologies using a variety of resources
c. Perform basic computing operations such as accessing accounts, select appropriate applications to perform tasks, file management and web navigation.

Leveling Up Student Learning with a Global Inventors Course

by

Oak Grove students with their global partners

This year, we tried something completely new at Oak Grove Elementary in Roanoke County. Fifth graders have just finished working with Global partners in Nicaragua, Argentina, and Honduras through a Global Inventors course run by Level Up Village--and what an adventure it was.  In this course, students exchanged video messages with their partners and collaborated on designing the case for a solar flashlight using CAD software and a 3D printer.  They also examined the differences between electricity production in the United States and that of their partner’s country and discussed renewable and nonrenewable resources.  Best of all, students made a global friend, and shared aspects of their lives with them, while learning about a different country in a very personal way.

Here are some of the highlights from the course:

Involving the Community

Because we were trying to meet a district initiative to teach Spanish in elementary school, we requested to be partnered with students from Spanish-speaking countries.  High School Spanish students then visited our Fifth graders to teach them basic Spanish phrases they could use in their videos.  They planned the lessons, created handouts, and developed Quizlet games for our students to use as they learned the language. This helped both the Fifth graders communicate with their partners and the high school students practice their Spanish.

Sending Video Messages

Students exchanged video messages with their partners through the Level Up Village platform. In these videos they answered questions posed by the course itself, but also could ask their own questions. It was in this way that the two partners really began to know one another.

Learning CAD Software

In order to learn to use computer aided design (CAD) software called Tinkercad, students first designed nametags. Once they had learned the basics, they began working with their global partner to design the case for a solar flashlight.  They were provided

Student designed solar flashlight

with the electrical components, but had to make sure their measurements were correct so that components would fit in the finished case.  We printed some example solar flashlights about halfway through the project.  Students analyzed these and then used what they learned to finish their final product.

Connecting Live

We had the added bonus of being able to Skype live with our partners.  While this does not always happen, we were lucky enough to be in similar time zones as our partners so were able to work out this experience. Students gave up lunchtime with their friends and recess to be able to talk to their partners 3,000 miles away. They had fun talking, asking questions, and joking with the class in the other country.

Reflecting Using Blogs

After we finished working our way through the curriculum, students used Kidblog to reflect on the project.  When I read their posts, it was evident that they walked away with not only a better understanding of 4th and 5th grade math and science SOLs and an understanding of Central and South America, but also having developed the softer skills of communication and collaboration.

As an Instructional Technology Resource Teacher teaming this project with the classroom teacher, I can definitely say it was one of the best projects I have helped facilitate. The organic learning that took place could have never have happened just by studying these topics in isolation.  By building a relationship with someone in a completely different country, our students made connections and realizations, and developed understanding and empathy that could not have been taught otherwise.  The personal growth I have seen in our students over the past eight weeks has been extraordinary, and I am so proud of them and so grateful for the chance to be part of it.

Smiling woman with award

 

Tina Coffey is an Instructional Technology Resource Teacher for Roanoke County Schools. She is also the Level Up Village US Teacher of the Year for 2017. Connect with her on Twitter @elemitrt.

It (Technology) Can Make a Difference, but You (Teacher) are the Difference!

by

By William Warby
CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Here we are at the end of another school year.  For me, it marks the end of my 37th year in education, and I still feel the excitement of the end (and of a beginning) of a school year.   My first seventeen years, I was an elementary and middle school teacher.  The last twenty years I have been working with instructional technology needs from our school board office.  So, I have seen a lot of changes in technology use in our schools through the years.

I remember my first use of computers in my classroom.  Back in the early 1980’s I found an Apple IIE computer sitting in the back of a library storage room.  I was told it had been in there a couple of weeks and the librarian was not sure what it was for. I asked if I could roll it into my classroom and my journey of technology integration began! I found a PrintShop application on a 5 ¼ inch disk that I used along with an ImageWriter II color printer to make a banner to hang outside my classroom.  Fellow colleagues saw the banner and they thought I was a computer genius!  

A year later, I transferred to a middle school and guess what I found in their library storage room! Yep, but instead of one, I found three Apple IIE computers.  No one was using them so I rolled them down to my room to use with my math classes.  I had some students that were struggling with multiplications facts. I had tried several strategies to motivate them, but we were not successful.  I found a piece of software where students would use a fire breathing dragon to answer multiplication questions by “breathing fire” on the correct math answers. Students learned their multiplication facts and I saw my first glimpse of how technology can make a difference with student learning!

Fast forward to today and the technology tools our students have access to have a come a long way from our Apple IIes and fire breathing dragons.  We now access the cloud with devices that are becoming more powerful and some cases, less expensive everyday.  We have augmented reality, virtual reality and the reality that everyone needs to be connected!  Technology can be seen everywhere in our world and within our schools.  Just because technology is there does not mean our students are better off now than they were thirty years ago when a few Apple computers were finding their ways into schools.  

The technology can make a difference in our students’ learning, but it is not enough.  The teacher is still the difference maker.  The instructional design provided by the teacher determines how the students will be using the technology.  Will instruction be student-centered?  Will students be able to collaborate, problem-solve, think critically, be creative and demonstrate the potential technology provides them?  When one looks in the classroom, is engaged learning taking place or is it just students sitting in front of devices?  Technology can make a difference, but the teacher is the difference! All of you that are blessed to work with students in our classrooms, take the time to learn ways to integrate technology so it can really make a difference in our students’ learning.  

I have seen the positive impact technology can have when the teacher facilitates instruction that taps into the potential of the students and the technology.  We have access to so many great resources and tools to help our students learn.  What a great time to be an educator!  I hope everyone has a great summer!  Thanks for all you do and I am off to go explore the Oregon Trail on an Apple IIe!

Tim Taylor is a member of the VSTE Board of Directors and  Instructional Technology Supervisor for Shenandoah County Public Schools.