VSTE

Virginia Society for Technology in Education

Events

Upcoming Events of Interest

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Lots of events of interest to VSTE members...

CS Summit
Harrisonburg High School, Harrisonburg, Virginia
July 18, 2019
 
CS Institute
Charlottesville, Virginia
July 22 - 23, 2019
 
Clarke County Innovation Summit
Clarke County High School, Berryville, Virginia
August 9, 2019
 
ISTE 2019
Philadelphia, Pennsylvlania
June 23 - 26, 2019
 
edcamp757 For Technology Lovers
August 1, 2019
ODU Peninsula Center, Hampton, Virginia
Kick off the new school year by connecting with your colleagues across Tidewater Virginia. 
 
Leading Ed Forum 2019
October 9 - 10, 2019
Longwood University, Farmville, Virginia
A partnership between VSTE and Virginia Department of Education
Registration will open in early June for this annual leadership event focusing on topics of interest to division level instructional and technology leaders.

VSTE2019: Annual Technology in Education Conference
December 8 - 10, 2019
Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center, Roanoke, Virginia
This premier education conference features keynotes, spotlights and breakouts as well as a full exhibit hall of the latest technology innovations.
http://www.vsteconference.org

VSTE 18 Keynote with Sarah Thomas

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At the 2018 Conference, VSTE was proud to welcome Sarah Thomas as our Keynote speaker. Sarah is a Regional Technology Coordinator in Prince George’s (Maryland) County Public Schools and a long-time VSTE member. She is the founder of the #EduMatch movement, a grassroots project that empowers educators to make global connections across common areas of interest.

Sarah regularly presents at events around the world and was a 2017 recipient of the ISTE Making IT Happen award. She is also is also a Google Certified Innovator, Google Education Trainer, and a national advisor for the Future Ready Instructional Coaches Strand.

In her keynote presentation, Sarah challenged us to look backwards as a way to look ahead.

The present is a gift, the past has passed, and the future is what is to come.  Let's time travel and reminisce on our first days of teaching.  What has changed?  What lessons might we learn from our past, and how might this inform our future?  Take a trip with Sarah Thomas on this magical journey that discusses the power of reflection and community, edtech trends over the years, and...fanny packs?

Sarah is active on Twitter as @sarahdateechur, and is the co-host of the Tweet & Talk podcast.

ISTE19 People’s Choice Open Now

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While formal proposals have been sent for ISTE 19, it's not too late to be part of the selection process or even submit a new proposal. The ISTE19 People's Choice allows you to vote for sessions you would like to see added to the program. Once you have created your free login, you can vote for as many as you like. Voting ends January 22, 2019, at 8 PM EST.

Learn more here.

VSTE 18: Assistive Technology – My Early Christmas Gift

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With telescopic precision, Matt Newton used his VSTE 2018 session as a platform to spotlight one of many Assistive Technology Resources: Read and Write.  As a matter of fact, it was the only presentation which specifically focused on accommodations and modifications for the special education population.

Matt prefaced that he is not a representative for Google Read & Write.  He is a T/TAC coordinator who has witnessed the powerful benefits of the Read & Write extension.  In a matter of 60 minutes,  Matt expressed how the awesomeness of this tool could have lasting effects for students who struggle with reading comprehension.  This app is designed to help struggling readers grasp the content.  This is not to say that Read & Write is the “That’s It. That’s All Folks” app for struggling students.

As educators, we know we have to find what works best for our students.  I remember one student who was given an iPad as an accommodation.  The thing is…he didn’t like the iPad!  Regardless of its function or the number of apps which were downloaded on his iPad, he just refused to use it.

As Matt alluded to in his session, the best Assistive Technology in the world is the one that the student is comfortable with and enjoys using it.

Success is gained when teaching and learning become enjoyable and not dreadful.  So, if you have not done so already, check out Read & Write.  Your students just might thank you for it.  And if they don’t, it’s all good. There’s a galaxy of Assistive Technology just waiting to be discovered.

Matt Newton is a Technology Coordinator in the Training and Technical Assistance Center (T/TAC) at Virginia Tech. His VSTE presentation is here and more resources are linked from his conference presentation page.

This post was written by Nicci Doud, a Special Education Teacher for Prince William County.

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!