Virginia Society for Technology in Education
The draft schedule for VSTE 2020 is available now. Check it out to see the wide variety of opportunities to learn, share and grow.
The conference has two parts: sessions on Wednesday, December 9 - Friday, December 10 are free and will be streamed so anyone is able to join.
Beginning Friday evening and through Sunday, December 13, sessions will be available to paid registrants only. Registration is required for the paid portion of the conference.
The Virtual Environments Professional Learning Network is hosting several fall activities for fun and learning.
Halloween Social
October 26, 2020, 7 - 8 PM ET, the VSTE crowd will dance and network in costume to “DJ Thunder’s” Halloween tunes at VSTE Space in Second Life. Come chat and laugh with us. Let your hair down and leave the stress at home for an hour.
Costumes are optional but if you want help with one, come visit Jazmemo and Thunder at VSTE Space during office hours any Saturday morning between 9 and 11 AM ET. We are always there ready to help. You still have time on Saturday, October 24 so don't miss out!
Report from the Front Lines
The VE PLN is starting a new segment called Report from the Front Lines. This series will be held at VSTE Place in Second Life once a month. The next meeting will be Monday, November 9 at 7 PM ET. This is an opportunity for teachers from across the state of Virginia and beyond to share data from teaching online, hybrid (AABB model), or fully in class. We will discuss strategies for improving grades of students, problems teachers are having, and new tools for teaching online. We had an organizational meeting on Oct. 12 that went well. Please join us as we continue to learn and grow in this new environment. The conversation will be led by Dr. William Schmactenberg, High School Earth Science Teacher at Franklin County High School, AKA Dae Miami (sl).
Minecraft Mondays
The first Monday of every month the VSTE VE PLN meeting is held in Minecraft on VSTE’s own server.
On Monday, November 2, 2020, at 8 PM ET, we will have a basic lesson in building with redstone, Minecraft’s own “electricity.” Experienced redstone builders are invited to create something ahead of time to show off what they can do to inspire the beginners! The server is online all the time.
How to Connect to the VE PLN via Second Life and Minecraft
Join the Facebook Page to keep up with the VE PLN
Leading Ed Forum 2020: Collaboration in the Cloud: Innovations with Remote Learning
#explore-learn-innovate
Join the Virginia Department of Education and VSTE for the 4th annual Leading Ed Forum being held online on Tuesday, October 6, 2020, from 8:15 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Registration Cost is $50.00. This annual conference is designed for Virginia school division technology leaders and provides opportunities for technology leaders to learn more about issues related to both information technology and instructional technology. The 2020 Forum focuses on remote learning, digital learning, and network infrastructure.
Entrepreneur Andrew Ko will provide the opening keynote for the Leading Ed Forum 2020.
Andrew has spent the last 25 years of his professional career driving sales, business development, consulting, strategic partnerships and new product offerings for the most prominent management consulting and technology companies in the world.
His industry experiences include education, auto, banking, defense, counterterrorism, and health and human services where he has received various awards in every company. Focusing on his passion to improve education with technology. He founded Kovexa in the midst of the COVID19 pandemic to shape and lead the restructuring of education.
During COVID19, he was asked to advise Fairfax County Public Schools, Los Angeles County Unified School District and several universities and realized that the gap between technology, policy, and actual use by frontline educators was too great. As a father, he realized the importance of equity, special needs, and English language learners have an insurmountable gap with online learning.
As an appointee to the Virginia State Board of Education, he assisted in setting statewide curriculum standards, establishing high school graduation requirements, determining qualifications for classroom teachers, and establishing state testing and assessment programs.
Because of the nature of this event, registration is limited to Virginia public and private school leaders who fall into the audience below. We encourage schools to send a leadership team.
Audience: Technology Directors, Division Level leaders involved in Instructional Technology or Information Technology, Technology Coordinators, Supervisors of Technology, Directors of Information Technology, Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, Coordinators of Instructional Technology, and Directors of Innovation
Join VSTE and Filewave for a free webinar being held Wednesday, August 5, 2020, 3 PM ET, related to managing devices outside the school.
The need to manage devices outside the schools walls and network has become a necessity. FileWave Officer Stephen Mirante will share how district staff can manage all OS types from the outside to ensure student, admins and all other staff continue to receive the support they need while ensuring they remain secure.
You will also learn how FileWave has been empowering district IT staff for over 20 years. FileWave continues to lead the industry providing education institutions around the world with enterprise level, multi-platform device management software to assist IT teams throughout the lifecycle process of imaging, deployment, management, tracking and maintenance. FileWave’s all-inclusive, highly scalable software solves the many challenges of managing a diverse and growing population of users, devices, and content by ensuring IT teams have a comprehensive solution that supports both client (desktop/laptop) and mobile devices across Windows, macOS, iOS/iPadOS, tvOS, Android, and Chrome.
