VSTE

Virginia Society for Technology in Education

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Connected Educators: Keep the #CE16 Momentum Going

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Many of us spent the month of October celebrating Connected Educator Month.  Over the last four years, the grassroots push for educators to engage in professional learning opportunities on their own – outside of school requirements – has increased. Last month, many organizations organized and sponsored professional learning opportunities including webinars, virtual conferences, book studies, virtual field trips  and twitter chats. All were designed to help educators learn from each other and engage in collaborative activities that have the potential to transform teaching practice and change what education looks like in classrooms around the world. Now that October's flurry of activity is over, you may be asking "what next?" Or "how do those who have just begun connecting continue to move forward?"

Here are a few tips inspired by the book The Relevant Educator by Tom Whitby and Steven W. Anderson. I read the book with a group of teachers last month as part of the TeachersFirst #CE16 celebration:

  • Get in the habit of reflection. Consider starting an online journal where you can reflect on your learning experiences. Penzu is a great tool for this. With a free account you can make an unlimited number of entries and share selected entries by creating a public link. Use the public link when you want to share your reflection via twitter, Facebook or Google+.
  • Envision your PLN. Use a drawing program (such as Google draw) to create an image of what you would like your PLN to look like. Include as many details as you can – names of blogs or podcasts, communities, twitter chats, people or hashtags to follow, etc. Once you've mapped out what you have or would like to have, you'll have a better idea of how to move forward making connections and building out your PLN.
  • Find and attend an Edcamp near you. Edcamps are a great place to get involved in teacher-to- teacher collaboration. There is no pressure to remain in a session that doesn't meet your needs, and best of all you can attend for free.
  • Join an educator community. There are a number of free professional learning communities you can join. The EdWeb platform has a number of free communities where educators actively share with each other. Classroom 2.0, English Companion, and Flipped Learning Community are a few free communities that you can find on the NING platform. In addition, a number of  professional organizations, including NSTA and ISTE, now sponsor free educator communities on their websites.
  • Create a plan. Recognize that building a PLN is a process and not a race. Decide when and how you will continue the process. Plan to spend 15-20 minutes a day engaged in reading blogs, listening to podcasts, or searching twitter. Create a schedule of activities for the next month, and see how it works out for you.  You can always revamp as needed.

As you continue your connected educator journey, be sure to follow @SFLOK2Ask to learn about free  professional learning opportunities sponsored by The Source for Learning.

Ruth Okoye
Rokoye@sflinc.org

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An Educator in China: Days Two and Three

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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, Terry Lowry from Wakefield School reports on her first day in China as part of an education delegation. 

These past two days in China have been spent traveling to and visiting our sister school, Xuzhou No. 1 Middle School. The trip from Nanjing to Xuzhou was long – just over 4 hours – but I took advantage of the time to ward of jetlag and slept for most of the trip. Driving in China involves a lot of horn blowing and serious courage on behalf of the driver. I have determined that the lane dividers are really just a suggestion and by no means indicative of where one should consistently stay. I don’t think this is a distinctly Chinese characteristic – I experienced much the same thing in London last summer. In any case, I am happy to say we made it to Xuzhou safe and sound.

Upon arrival, I was graciously greeted by Grace, one of the teachers from the school, who whisked me off to my hotel. After settling in, she and one of her colleagues treated me to one of the most amazing meals I have ever had. The dishes just kept coming out and each one was wonderful! I am proud to say I did fine with the chopsticks and did not embarrass myself. I ended the day by rolling off to bed and sleeping soundly.

The highlight of my visit, though, was definitely the classroom visits I was fortunate to experience the next day. In one class, an American teacher, Kyle, was teaching the children about the US presidential election and the differences between the parties. What an amazing experience to listen to their perceptions regarding the election. They examined the experience of the two candidates and, understandably, how the election of either would affect China. In my next class, an English class, I was able to help students with their grammar assignment (it was surprisingly difficult) and then answered any questions they might have about Wakefield or the US. I think their questions were very interesting, so here are some of them (the ones I can remember, anyway)

  • Are we allowed to have boyfriend/girlfriend relationships in school?
  • If a student’s test scores indicate they should go to university, but he/she really wants to do something else, like be a bus driver, is that allowed in the US – would his/her parents be supportive?
  • If I want to be a film maker, how can I get Americans to watch my movies?
  • If a student wants to travel to the US to attend school, what is it they might have the most difficulty with?
  • If Hillary or Trump won, how did I think that would affect America?
  • What do American students have to do to be accepted into college?

After a morning attending classes we went to the school cantina and were joined by their school principal, Madam Chen, for another amazing meal. Everyone went out of their way to make me feel very welcome and special. Later, Grace and I explored the second campus and then took a tour of the city, the highlight of which was traveling down a willow tree lined boulevard beside an extremely large man-made lake. The rain that started couldn’t dampen my spirits but rather made the day feel fresh and new. All in all, the visit was incredibly memorable and definitely a highlight of my educational career.

Terry Lowry | terrylowry@vste.org Wakefield School Director

Board director Terry Lowry is Director of Technology Integration and Curriculum Coordination at Wakefield School located in The Plains, Virginia.  Terry serves as the chair of the VSTE Awards Committee. Find her on Twitter @tekkieteacher.

An Educator In China: Day One

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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, Terry Lowry from Wakefield School reports on her first day in China as part of an education delegation. 

Holy crap! I’m in China! Back in my IT consulting days, I thought it was glamorous that I got to travel to California or Louisiana on my company’s dime. When I decided to return to the world of education back in 2004, I assumed that my days of travel, other than the occasional cheese-wagon field trip to DC, were over. But here I am, in friggin’ CHINA! I am so incredibly fortunate to have this opportunity.

Why me? (Great question – even though I ask it of myself) I am blessed to work at an independent school that emphasizes global awareness and involvement as one of its strategic initiatives. Having said that, the international educator’s forum that I am participating in is not just for independent schools. It is open to school leaders throughout the world. Yep – that’s right – THE WORLD! And here is another crazy thought (at least to me) – I’m visiting here as a school LEADER. While I am part of my school’s leadership team, I consider my primary role as that of a classroom teacher. While my direct teaching time is limited, nothing makes my happier nor do I find anything more rewarding than the time I spend working one-on-one with children. I do not consider myself an administrator, even though I make administrative decisions. I am fortunate to have a blended role where I can both directly interact with children while also guiding and leading the school in its vision and goals. I am hoping that, given that I am most comfortable advocating for the child and teacher, I fit in with all the other “school leaders” in attendance. I have been labeled a bit of a rebel in the past.....just ask our VSTE chairman of the board, Keith Reeves.

Tomorrow I visit our partner school, Xuzhou No. 1 Middle School. I have gifts to bring from one of our teachers who visited last spring and other gifts from our school to theirs. I couldn’t be more excited, but at the same time nervous. I am embarrassed that I do not know any Mandarin while most of the folks I have come in to contact with speak at least rudimentary English. My knowledge of the Romance languages is fairly good. Put me anywhere in Europe and I can figure things out fairly well. Here, however, is a totally different story. I encourage all schools, parents, and their children, to expand their language offerings and skills beyond those that may be typically available. Today’s world is much smaller (figuratively) than the world that we or our forefather’s knew. It is to our advantage to know as much about it as possible.

Last thoughts (before jet lag overcomes me):

  • The Chinese are incredibly kind and gracious.
  • The cities I have seen (Beijing and Nanjing) are crazy polluted. I was literally smogged in on my connecting flight.
  • The jet lag one experiences from traveling from the east coast of the US to China is killer.

NOTE: Check back here for updates as Terry continues to share her insights. 

Terry Lowry | terrylowry@vste.org Wakefield School Director

Board director Terry Lowry is Director of Technology Integration and Curriculum Coordination at Wakefield School located in The Plains, Virginia.  Terry serves as the chair of the VSTE Awards Committee. Find her on Twitter @tekkieteacher.

Digital Conversion, homework on the bus?  What do we need to know?

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With the 1 to1 initiatives and the distribution of ipads, chromebooks, and laptops, how do your students get the use out of them during their daily travels?

Well first, let’s define a connected bus.  A connected bus isn’t just a Wi-Fi signal for the student.  You can’t just plug in an access point with a 4G card.  Well you could, but you wouldn’t do it in a classroom without proper security and management, so why would you do it on the bus?  The “infrastructure” on the bus needs to be planned and managed just like it would in the classroom.  Protecting the student is first and foremost.  Protecting them not only from bad sites and cyber security hacking but also, once you have Wi-Fi on a bus, there are so many things to consider!

  • Consider a solution that can integrate with other technologies on the bus. As technology evolves  GPS, video Surveillance, Telematics, Virtual Routes, Driver tracking, Emergency Services Integration are all pieces to consider and making sure all of your solutions integrate and are secured equally.  If the technologies are implemented in silos, it not only becomes a management nightmare, but also a cyber security one.  Your student’s safety will depend on the security of the bus overall, and just one unsecured system could lead to disaster down the road.
  • Student Safety. Wi-Fi on the bus leads to op
    tions that can enhance the safety of the students and communication to the parents and staff.  Options include:

    1. Video Surveillance that can be accessed when neededgeotagging
    2. Geo-Tagging with an App that can track the bus and give the ability to see where the bus is.

 

  • Swipe cards when the student gets on and off the bus. Alerts can be set up to go to the parent when a student does not get on the bus or gets off on the wrong bus stop.  This can save critical minutes in a missing child case.
  1. The driver takes roll when they get on the bus with their tablet. This is especially good for K-2.

students

  • Plan for the future. You probably are wondering where the budget will come from?  You are budget bound, but sitting down and planning the future of your student's connection is very important for when funding can be planned.  Consider a workshop with the key players in the room, this not only includes the schools but even the city and public safety.  How can the connected bus play into your community?  How can the technology integrate with the city/county and Emergency services?  It can even generate revenue with cameras that can record and Geo-tag offenders that don’t stop for the bus.
  • Lastly, don’t expect the world! Connected Wi-Fi in the bus means a Wi-Fi connection for the student to do homework, not to watch Netflix and play PokemonGo!  Devices are connected to support the students in their homework effort.  These devices should be an extension of the classroom and part of your extended network and security.  Planning for a future solution is key, if not the pieces may not fit or be secure.  It’s the Internet of Things (IoT)!

As the Digital Conversion progresses and the students day gets extended, utilizing their daily commute as a resource is a good move.  Presidio can help with that first workshop to determine what the future may hold.  We look forward having the discussion!

Monica Curry

mcurry@presidio.com

www.presidio.com

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Speaking Up for Digital Learning and Digital Learners

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Are you “Speaking Up” about digital learning this year? If not, you are missing a unique opportunity to provide your opinion and your voice in a conversation that is shaping learning today and education in America. Make sure that your perspective as well as the views of your peers, students, their parents and the local community members are included in the increasingly important U.S. national and state discussions on digital learning policies, programs, and funding. This year’s survey is currently open and will run through December 16th.  NOTE: The survey has been extended to January 13, 2017. 

As a Speak Up participant you can be a part of a growing movement that values and uses stakeholder opinions to inform K-12 educational decisions. There are many reasons to weigh in. Your participation helps leaders to collect unique data from their local district, assess needs and create a vision for 21st century learning. Local, state and national leaders use the data to inform technology goals or create strategic plans, communicate technology needs to the community and measure the success of their own technology initiatives.

I am are encouraging all school districts to get started in the Speak Up National Research Project. All teachers, students and parents have something to say and should speak up by participating in the annual Speak Up Survey. The project provides participating schools, districts and nonprofit organizations with a suite of online surveys and reports to collect authentic feedback from stakeholders on important education issues. Input from all stakeholders will help inform our leaders and communities. Survey results will be made available to educational leaders at the state and national level as well as participating school districts. This allows the local districts to use the date to inform decision making and planning. My school district has used the data for the past four years and is excited about increasing participation for SpeakUp 2016.

The Speak Up Survey provides an easy way for students, parents, educators and members of the community to participate in the school division’s decisions regarding technology as well as contribute to the national dialogue about educational technology. This is the fifth consecutive year that we have participated in the Speak Up Survey. The local results are used to help guide the development and refinement of our Educational Technology Plan as well as the implementation of projects such as our 1:1 device initiative.

To learn more about the survey, getting started or to view previous findings, http://www.speakup4schools.org/speakup2016

 

Rod Carnill is the supervisor of instructional technology for Frederick County Public Schools in Winchester, VA. Rod has participated in a Speak Up panel discussions at ISTE, provided student participants for Speak Up congressional briefings and logged into to many SpeakUp webinars and Twitter chats. He currently serves as a member of the VSTE Board of Directors and is a past-president of the Shenandoah Valley Technology Consortium. Rod has worked with Lord Fairfax Community College and VSTE to organize the regional GooglePalooza event in Middletown, VA for the past three years. Find him on twitter @rodcarnill or learn more about his work in Frederick County by visiting http://learningtoday.fcpsk12.net