VSTE

Virginia Society for Technology in Education

Online Events

Connected Education Month 2016 Activities

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VSTE, along with schools and organizations all over the world, will be celebrating Connected Educator Month with activities throughout October sponsored by the Education and Outreach Committees of the VSTE Board of  Directors.

Check out the information and then keep an eye on the newsletter and our social networks for specific times.


Slow Tweet Chat Book GroupSlow Tweet Book Group:

VSTE is thrilled to be welcoming Rafranz Davis as our keynote speaker at VSTE2016 in December. In preparation for her visit, we'll be reading her book The Missing Voices in EdTech: Bringing Diversity Into EdTech and then sharing our ideas and insights through Twitter. Guest moderators will lead us through a chapter each week. Grab a copy of the book, start reading and look for the first questions on Monday, October 3. Register ahead of time for reminders and the chance to win VSTE swag!

Classroom Snacks: 

As educators, we spend lots of time talking about students but not much time talking to them. VSTE is working to change that by providing virtual visits to classrooms across the Commonwealth. We made several visits on Digital Learning Day 2016 and will continue the tradition on Thursdays in October with visits to classrooms in Prince William County, Frederick County, Roanoke County and Wise County. We'll meet and talk with students about how technology is impacting their lives and their learning.

 

VE PLN: Upcoming Events

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The VSTE Virtual Environments PLN continues its tradition of Monday night professional development with two upcoming events:

VSTE Game Night
Monday, September 26, 2016, 8 PM

Join the VSTE Virtual Environments Professional Learning Network at 8 PM Eastern time on VSTE Island in Second Life for an hour of games and fun. There are games scattered all over VSTE Island, such as Greedy (think Farkle on Facebook), Scrabble, Pentadee (think Kismet), SLmopolis (think Monopoly), Galaxy War (a 3D strategy game), En Garde (Fencing), and Parcheesi. We will teach you how to play and you will meet some fun educators.

If you don't have a Second Life account get one, it's free, at http://secondlife.com/. 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.

Minecraft Monday
Monday, October 3, 2016, 8 PM

Calling all Minecraft builders, we need your help! Join the VSTE Virtual Environments Professional Learning Network at 8 PM Eastern time in VSTE Place, VSTE's Minecraft server. We will be working together to create a Hogwarts type of castle for the Virginia Children's Book Festival. On October 15 some of us will be traveling to Longwood to attend this festival and share Minecraft with the children and their parents. Young attendees will be able to add to our Hogwarts build while they visit our booth. Won't you help us help the kids?
You must have a computer Minecraft account from https://minecraft.net/en/ to join. There is a one time fee of $26.95. Download and install the software. Choose multiplayer and add a server: Name VSTE Place IP 69.175.17.26:25565 We will open it up for this event. If you want to be whitelisted to enter anytime you want to continue building this, or anything else, email Kim Harrison at kvharris@vbschools.com from an educational email address with your real name and minecraft name.

Digital Equity Discussion

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We all can attest to the need to help bridge the digital gap that exists for our students. As more content and instruction moves online, the need to provide access to digital resources grows.

The VSTE CoSN Council is pleased to sponsor a free discussion related to digital equity. This webinar will be held Thursday, September 22, 2016, from 8 to 9 PM.

Featured speakers include:

  • Dr. Elizabeth Hoover; CTO, Alexandria City Public Schools
  • Diane Doersch; ‎Chief Technology & Information Officer at Green Bay Area School District
  • Rod Carnill; Supervisor of ITRTs, Frederick County Public Schools
  • Cheryl Wood and Kim Fields; Project Managers on Digital Equity, Fairfax County Public Schools
  • Tom Lundquist, Director of Technology, Staunton City Schools

Speakers will address digital equity issues faced by their school divisions and their current approach. They will describe the alternatives they explored and how they are evaluating their return on investment.

You can view the archived recording here: http://vste.adobeconnect.com/p6kugdkfl32/

 

Webinar Event: District Strategies for Achieving Digital Equity

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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. 

 

Free CoSN Webinar: Trusted Learning Environment (TLE)

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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