VSTE

Virginia Society for Technology in Education

Online Events

Learning for K-12 Leaders: Cybersecurity and Student Data Privacy

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Are your students safe online? Are you a division leader with responsibilities related to privacy and security? Don't miss this opportunity to connect with state leaders around these timely and important topics.

Brian Gibbs-Wilson, Chief Data Security Officer from Virginia Department of Education, and Tim Tillman, Director of Technology and Learning (CIO/CISO), Colonial Heights Public Schools, will lead this webinar about cybersecurity and student data privacy being held Monday, March 25, 2019, at 4 PM. Panel participants will include Jim Siegl, Fairfax County; Rachel Johnson, Loudoun County; and Louis McDonald, Fauquier County.

Attendees will learn more about Virginia's Student Privacy Alliance, a collaboration of Virginia school divisions that share common concerns around student privacy, and how they can get involved. This webinar is free and open to the public. Join us live on March 25, 2019, at 4 PM.

Joining the Meeting:

Topic: Learning for K-12 Leaders: Cybersecurity and Student Data Privacy
Time: Mar 25, 2019 4:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 148 262 112
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/adpKdnPVRm

Learn More About Game Engines, VE PLN, March 11, 2019

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Logo for Virtual EnvironmentsThe Virtual Environments Professional Learning Network (VEPLN) will be hosting Dr. William Schmactenberg on Monday, March 11, 2019 on VSTE Island In Second Life discussing Unity 3D. More schools are using modern day game engines to help student create digital projects in programs such as Unity 3D. Unity 3D can be used to create high quality Educational games and Virtual Reality simulations. We can also have a general discussion of what games should be used in schools.

Second Life is free to access. You need an account and software to access the virtual world.

We recommend setting up an account at the Rockcliffe University Consortium's Gateway here: https://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/ Download and install the software. While your Second Life viewer (software) is open click this link http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VSTE%20Island/61/104/22 and voila! Look for an avatar on VSTE Island and say, "Hey, I'm new!" We will take care of the rest.

Award Winning Coaches Say Relationships Are Key

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Krystle Demas, Patrick Hausammann, and Timothy Signorelli, the 2018 Tech Coach of the Year winners, will be featured in VSTE's Digital Day Learning Webinar, Thursday, February 28, 2019, at 7:30 PM. They will be highlighting innovative practices and answering questions about technology and coaching. You can use this link to join us live. 

VSTE asked these leaders to share their best coaching tip and, perhaps not surprisingly, they all focused on the importance of empathy of relationships:

Krystle: One size doesn’t fit all. Working with teachers is similar to working with students in that we can’t expect everyone to be at the same place at the same time. Teachers appreciate a coach that understands and empathizes with their needs and celebrates their successes! I have found that building relationships first and offering a helping hand open the door to allow conversations to start about teaching and learning.

Patrick: When coaching teachers, administrators, or even students… start with empathy. Think back to when you started your journey or align to where your colleague is in theirs. Innovation for each person is different and can be a small step or a giant leap. Taking the time to empathize and build a relationship ensures that you know better how to scaffold your help and how much you can push outside of comfort zones for growth, stopping short of frustration or overwhelming.

Tim: Relationships are key. Empathy helps to build those relationships, and is a learnable skill. Krznaric claims, "Our personal empathy quota is not fixed: we can develop our empathic potential throughout our lives.” Knight suggests that, to build this skill, we need to look back (consider interactions we’ve had with others and how we can be more effective in the future), look at (reflecting on action and identifying when/how we demonstrate empathy), and look ahead (make plans for our interactions in the future).

Join us on February 28, 2019, at 7:30 PM, to learn more about how these award-winning coaches have built those kinds of relationships. And, learn about other Digital Learning Day events here. 

 

 

Digital Learning Is…

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logo for eventWhat IS Digital Learning? VSTE wants to know!

woman holds up sign

We're making it easy to share your answers with us...download the printable, fill it out with your students, and take a picture just like Heather Hurley, VSTE Board Member and Outreach Chair, demonstrates.

Tweet out the pictures with the hashtag  #DLDAYVSTE and we will retweet them!

You don't have to wait until Digital Learning Day to get started. Just print, complete, and tweet! Don't forget the hashtag #DLDAYVSTE!

Speak Up Webinar, Tuesday, November 13, 2018

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The Speak Up Research Project for Digital Learning – the free research tool districts use to learn what students, educators, parents and the community have to say about education issues – is open for participation now through the end of January 2019. This year, Speak Up is offering a number of new options including a Mobile Learning Impact Snapshot tool and a Teacher Professional Learning Snapshot tool.

Project Tomorrow is hosting a webinar on Tuesday, November 13th at 3:30pmET/12:30pmPT to introduce districts to these new Snapshot tools covering how they can be used and what to expect. And, they will save time to answer your questions during the webinar. Register here: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/6791b89b877f94037510d14dfea9e911

The Mobile Learning Impact Snapshot - While there has been huge growth in technology investments in schools, relatively few schools or districts have conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the impact of all of these mobile devices in the classroom. Building on more than a decade of evaluation studies and insights from Speak Up, this new Snapshot is a research-based tool designed to help school leaders get beyond just “student engagement” as a level of success (or failure) of their mobile learning initiatives to better explain the ROI of their investments. This tool offers every school and district an easy and cost effective (free!) way to assess the impact of their mobile learning projects.

The Teacher Professional Learning Impact Snapshot - The top issue facing school principals today – relative to the use of technology within learning – is how to motivate and train their teachers to change their instructional practices to more seamlessly integrate technology into instruction. While teachers are using more digital content than ever before and have greater access to digital tools including mobile devices in their classroom than ever before, there still is a gap between usage and effectiveness. And, teachers tell us they need and want more professional learning experiences to be able to use technology more effectively. This new Snapshot tool allows administrators to learn more from their teachers about their preferences and interests in professional learning experiences to support more effective use of technology.

This year, schools and districts can choose to 1) participate in Speak Up by selecting one of our annual question decks (current or longitudinal) as needed to collect feedback from their students, staff, parents and/or community, 2) use one or both of these new Snapshots as stand-alone tools or 3) use all the Speak Up tools: annual Speak Up questions, Mobile Learning Impact Snapshot and Professional Learning Impact Snapshot.

Learn more about Speak Up and get started today!