VSTE

Virginia Society for Technology in Education

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Ryan Imbriale to Keynote Leading Ed Forum 2017

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The VSTE CoSN Council is pleased to welcome Mr. Ryan Imbriale as the keynote speaker for the second annual Leading Ed Forum. 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.

Mr. Ryan Imbriale has spent his leaderPhoto of smiling man with glassesship career in education focused on how technology can empower student learning.  He is the Executive Director of Innovative Learning for the Baltimore County Public Schools and is responsible for leading the system’s digital conversion initiative, S.T.A.T. (Students and Teachers Accessing Tomorrow).  Ryan was previously the Principal of Patapsco High School & Center for the Arts in Baltimore, MD.  Under his leadership, Patapsco was named one of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ National Schools of Distinction in 2009 and recognized by the College Board as the Middle States winner for Excellence and Innovation in the Arts in 2012.  The school developed an active Facebook page, a successful YouTube channel, Twitter account, and a native app for the iPhone developed by students.

Prior to coming to Baltimore County he was facilitator of the Maryland Students Online Consortium, working with 17 Maryland school systems to review, pilot, evaluate, modify, and recommend online courses for students, as well as coordinator for professional development at The Johns Hopkins University Center for Technology in Education. Ryan has extensive experience presenting to audiences on online and blended learning, learner-centered environments, curriculum design, and effective leadership.

Ryan is a Past-President of MSET, Maryland's ISTE Affiliate, and he is a former member of the Board of Directors for ISTE, the International Society for Technology in Education.  In 2008, Ryan was named one of its "20 to Watch" educators by the National School Boards Association (NSBA) and in 2009 was awarded the Making IT Happen award, honoring educational technology leaders around the world for their commitment and innovation.  Tech & Learning magazine named Ryan one of the future leaders in its 100@30 in 2010 as part of the magazine’s 30th anniversary celebration.  In 2012 he was named a Phi Delta Kappa (PDK) Emerging Leader and in 2013 the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) named him a National Digital Principal of the Year. Ryan was honored by Intel® in 2015 as an Education Visionary, an elite group of approximately 40 education leaders from all over the world who will be exemplars for global education transformation. Most recently, he was named to the National Council on Digital Convergence.

 

National Day of Action for Education

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Join CoSN, ISTE, and SETDA on May 11, 2017, for a national Day of Action to advocate for the policies that could significantly impact educators, their schools and the students they serve.

What You Can Do on May 11th

On May 11th, we ask that you please join educators and advocates all across the nation by taking one (or all) of the following extremely critical actions:

1. Send a prewritten letter to Congress

Use our easy advocacy tool to send this pre-written letter to Congress about the effectiveness of E-Rate and the Title IV, A block grant, which houses the ed tech provisions in ESSA.

2. Tweet #ERateWorks, #MoreTitleIV, #Act4EdTech

Here are some sample tweets you can use:

  • Millions of students are connected to the internet at school because #ErateWorks @AjitPaiFCC
  • Personalized and digital learning is possible in schools because #ErateWorks to provide broadband in classrooms @AjitPaiFCC
  • Give schools the funding to provide Students with a well-rounded education @[Congressperson] #Act4EdTech #MoreTitleIV
  • Every school benefits from #edtech funding @[Congressperson] #Act4EdTech #MoreTitleIV

3. Call your members in Congress!

Unsure who your Representative is? – Visit the Find Your Representative tool. Unsure what to say? - Here is a script you can use when speaking to staff member of the office.

  • I am a [insert title and organizational affiliation] and I am calling to urge Senator/Representative [insert name here] to support full funding of the Student Support and Academic Enrichment grant program under Title IV, Part A of the Every Student Succeeds Act. Congress authorized Title IV Part A of ESSA at $1.65 Billion to ensure that each school district received funds to support access to a well-rounded education, improve student’s physical and mental health and improve conditions for learning, and to increase the effective use of technology. Unfortunately, the current appropriation bill falls far short of full funding.
  • There is a wealth of evidence that supports the needs for students to have access to a diverse academic curriculum that includes science, arts, foreign language and civic education; programs that support students physical, mental, and behavioral health, and the improve school safety; and modern, classroom based technology. All of these areas are critical to ensure all students graduate from high school ready to enter.
  • ESSA consolidated most of the programs that support student health and safety, well rounded academics and education technology into this new flexible block grant.  Without a significant investment in Title IV Part A, districts will be faced with the unnecessarily difficult decision of choosing which area to invest in. Full funding of Title IV Part A will ensure that each district is provided funds to invest in each of these critical areas.
  • I urge Senator/Representative [insert name] to support the full funding if Title IV Part A.

We hope you can join us on May 11th to support edtech policies!

What Is Instructional Technology?

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Members of the VSTE Board of Directors will be taking time to periodically share their ideas and passions with the VSTE membership. In this post, Board Member Tim Stahmer muses on the meaning of instructional technology. 

A primary mission of VSTE is, of course, to help empower educators to make great use of technology for teaching and learning. Many of our members even have “instructional technology”, or some variation on the phrase, in their job title.

But what exactly is “instructional” technology? As opposed to another variety of tech, like the 1977 Ford Pinto.

Ask around and you'll probably get many different answers to that question, but, since this is my post, here is my twitter-length definition:

Tweet

That would exclude the student information system many teachers use every day. Certainly the online grade book, attendance system, and other tools in most SIS packages is an essential part of classroom management. But it’s not used by students in any part of their learning.

We also drop the learning management system (LMS) many districts provide for their teachers. Think Blackboard, Edmodo, or Google Classroom. Also not “instructional” technology.

I suppose you could make the case that students might use parts of some LMS directly for their learning (a blogging tool, for example). But that’s not how they are commonly used. Most LMS function as organizational and distribution systems for content pushed to students, again to improve classroom management.

Also not “instructional”: response tools (Kahoot, Socrative), interactive whiteboards, video tutorials (Khan Academy), and a long, long list of curriculum games. Although I’ve seen a few (very few) special cases, student interaction with these resources is almost always as consumers, responding to material provided by publishers and teachers, not using them as creators.

And for me, that is the fundamental component for any technology to be considered instructional: control. When I say “directly by students”, I expect them to have some meaningful control as to how the technology - device, software, website, whatever - is used in the learning process.

So, what would I consider some examples of “instructional” technology?

That word processing program most students use would count, but only if they have some decision about what they will write. It would be even better if their writing was connected to the web, allowing them to present their ideas to a larger, more meaningful audience. One without a red pen.

We could include one of those slide show presentation programs, but only if the student has some control over the content. And again, let’s extend that control and let them determine the tools that will allow them to best explain their ideas to an audience beyond the walls of their classroom.

Then there are the devices that many students bring to school everyday, the ones that too many of their teachers still consider as the antithesis of “instructional”. Beyond providing access to vast amounts of information, those so-called phones are also powerful creative tools that can be used to record, edit, and distribute still images, audio, and video. Tools students can use in many, many ways to communicate their thoughts, ideas, and learning.

Of course, all of the above is only my opinion. But what do you think? How would you define "instructional technology" (or it’s shorter, equally vague sibling “edtech”)? Tweet your ideas to @timstahmer and @vste and let’s have that conversation. Or post a longer comment to this post on my blog.

Because in the end, the terminology we use when discussing these issues - with our colleagues, the community, legislators - does matter. We must be very clear when advocating for the use of technology in our schools and why it makes a difference for students.

Smiling man with glasses

Tim has been helping educators make better use of technology for teaching and learning at his website AssortedStuff since the turn of the century. He also loves to connect with interesting people on Twitter and is a member of the VSTE Board of Directors and serves on the conference committee. 

The Word Change (Quick, Find the Exit!)

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Members of the VSTE Board of Directors will be taking time to periodically share their ideas and passions with the VSTE membership. In this edition, Board Member Josh Long  provides ideas for implementing personalized learning. 

Changing the way we teach is a difficult task. Asking anyone to change something they have been doing for a long period of time creates tension and stress. I think of a quote I saw from Woodrow Wilson; "If you want to make enemies, try to change something." Nothing can be truer than the changing environments of our classroom. I am currently in a district that is going through this change as we speak. It's a great change as we shift and dive our focus onto a focus of student learning. It is a philosophy that I embrace, it's good teaching, and it hits on everything that one of our previous bloggers touched on, which is personalized learning and personal learning. It is difficult trying not to be that person on the stage anymore giving all of the answers and all of the clues out to scholars. So how do you begin to let your scholars begin their journey on personalized learning and personal learning?

Here are my thoughts, take them with a grain of salt, as I am not an Orator… I am just a teacher of 16 years who believes that if you change the way you teach, it will benefit the scholars and practitioners around you.

  1. Know that personalized learning when it comes down to it is just good teaching practice…it is not something new; it is a change from the norm.
  2. Trust yourself to take on this change. You are good at what you do or you would not be in this position.
  3. Go in knowing that it is going to take time to change, it isn't something that is going to happen overnight, just like we can't expect scholars to change their way of learning overnight
  4. It is no secret that we are no longer teaching students for factory-based jobs. We are in the time of tailoring scholars for jobs that require global communication and understanding of different cultures. In most classrooms I observe, students are in rows, talking is done by the leader in the front, and time for discussion is held to a minimum... (If it's not broke don't fix it right?) The problem with that I believe is that we don't see the problems yet, but we will in the future.
  5. Understand that personalized learning isn't chaos in the classroom...it is just another way of students learning, in the manner that is best suited for them. This gives the practitioner a great vantage point of seeing and knowing how all of our scholars use to learn. In fact it most likely will be less chaotic in the room as students will be doing something that is meaningful to them which means they will be engaged in their own learning and not their neighbors.
  6. Personalized learning to me also doesn’t mean putting them in front of a device and expecting them to learn everything from the computer or a piece of software. Communication is the key, I believe, to good personalized learning. That may occur with a Skype call to an expert in the field, or seeing a scientist working with animals in their respective field.
  7. Lean on your peers for help. Working together to come up with lessons that will inspire your scholars to dive deeper into their learning will make it shine on how much they have actually gained and learned through their unit of inquiry.
  8. Lesson plans are a one way street sometimes. Through personalized learning there are many ways to get to the end of the road, with frequent stops along the way to help gain further and deeper understanding of a topic or thought (Understand though that I’m not saying a lesson plan can’t do that…many times in my class we would wander off the beaten path to discuss something related to the topic at hand.)

I hope that you too can find the way to change the way you reach out to your scholars, and know that yes, it really does look a lot different now than when we were sitting in those chairs those many years ago.

Josh Long is the Supervisor of Technology for Fredericksburg City Schools.

Change Is Hard: Tips for a New Tech Coach

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Image of post it note with the word change written on it.Change is hard. Resistance to change is hard. Staffing changes at schools are hard. Being a new teacher, or a new student at a school is hard. Being a new ITC (Instructional Technology Coordinator in Arlington Public Schools, similar to ITRTs. ) at a new school is equally hard, but recognizing some of the challenges, expectations, and possible limitations that may await you at your new school can help ease your transition.

Every school has its own climate and culture that has been built and modified based on the current administration. It’s always a good rule of thumb to have open communication with your administration, understand the climate, culture, and goals of the school prior to jumping in. This will help you navigate the landscape to figure out if you should you dive head first into the deep end or slowly roll out different processes and procedures. Whenever you take over someone else’s role, or come in behind someone you typically hear, “Well this is how it was done before”, or “This is how so and so did it.” That type of talk is not always helpful. It’s helpful to know what was done in the past but you are now the new person navigating the tech course for your building and you have to remain steady and stand your ground. Recognize this will not always be easy for you or your new co-workers.

Simultaneous to learning about the culture of the school, learning about the people in the school and building relationships is critical. Relationships have the biggest impact on the success of starting over at a new school. Who are the tech leaders? Who is willing to help? Who is good to avoid? Who are the reluctant learners? How best to interact with individuals and the various school groups? What does the Administrative team expect of the ITC? The list is long with items a new ITC needs to figure out and the connections that need to be made. Spending time just walking the halls, stopping in and talking to teachers during Back to School week is important. Being available to answer questions, provide guidance, and support any time is critical. Being open and willing to just listen is essential.

Job purpose misconception ---- Often the misconception is that if tech is in the job title then the person only deals with the cables and cords. The reality is that an ITC is a teacher at heart whose job is to help other teachers learn how to better support instruction and learning with technology. The learning has to come first, not the technology. This mind-set can be a hurdle to quality conversations and support. It’s important that you sell yourself as an educator, and that you are all on the same team.

As a new ITC in an elementary school, here a few tips to help you navigate change:

Observe: Do a lot of observing for the first few months. Sit in on grade level PLC meetings, observe student/teacher interactions. See how the school operates and how the humans in the building function.

Be open minded: Be open minded to change. It may be tempting to jump right in and put into practice the procedures, or PD established at your former school, but every staff and school is unique. Stay open minded to try new things.

Patience is a virtue: You won’t be able to get every single thing on your To-Do list checked off as fast as you always want to. Getting to know the staff and understanding how the school runs takes time.

Get to know everyone: The front office staff and the custodians run the school so get to know them. They will be your biggest allies. Having a candy jar in your office space is a great way to get people to stop by and chat.

Have good sense of humor: Smile, laugh, and have fun with staff and students.

Photo of woman with reddish hair, smiling
Meredith Allen
Photo of woman with short brown hair and glasses, smiling
Marie Hone

Meredith Allen and Marie Hone  are Instructional Technology  Coordinators from Arlington County Schools. They are also members of the VSTE Conference Committee.