VSTE

Virginia Society for Technology in Education

VSTE Partners

Featured Resources from #GoOpenVA, August 31, 2020

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Swirl with word Go Open VASince its debut in January 2020, #GoOpenVA has been building its collections with the help of Virginia educators. This collaborative initiative enables educators and others throughout Virginia to create, share, and access openly-licensed educational resources (OER, also known as open education resources). OER are free digital materials that can be used or modified to adjust to student needs; they are openly-licensed unhampered by many traditional copyright limitations.

Jean Weller, VSTE Board Member and VDOE Technology Integration Specialist, leads this effort. We asked her to periodically curate a few of the resources to give a sense of what is available. Start with these but stay for so much more! And be sure to follow Jean on Twitter.

 

Featured Resources

Pratiquez les numéros

Aliya Headley from Hanover has been adding several lessons for World Language teachers.  This one is an idea for practicing numbers using student-owned technology and can be used in any language class!

https://goopenva.org/courseware/lesson/1550/overview

Virtual Field Trip in Scratch

Kim Wilkens provides a full story-based computer science lesson using Scratch, with lots of great helpful resources for teachers.

https://goopenva.org/courseware/lesson/1393/overview

AND THEN, Leslie James of Albemarle did a REMIX of the lesson, Virtual Field Trip in Scratch Remix (Regions of Virginia)

https://goopenva.org/courseware/lesson/2102/overview

You can choose which version works best for your students!

VA Copes Outreach Program Available

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The Virginia Crisis Counseling Program (CCP) was launched in June by the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Services. Our service provides an outlet to those facing stress and uncertainty in these trying times.The

Virginia CCP is called Virginia C.O.P.E.S. which stands for compassionate, optimistic, person-centered, empowering support. Crisis Counselors are available during the following times to take calls. Monday-Friday 9am-9pm and on Saturday-Sunday from 5pm-9pm. VA C.O.P.E.S can be reached by phone or text at 877-349-6428.  Spanish speaking counselors are available. flyer about counseling program

VA C.O.P.E.S is available to all Virginia residents who may be struggling to cope with the effects and circumstances such as isolation, fear, grief and anxiety around COVID 19. VA C.O.P.E.S. counselors are prepared to refer and provide additional information for callers as well but should not be utilized as an emergency or suicide hotline. More information can be found at: vacopes.com and on our Facebook page (VA COPES).

Featured Resources from #GoOpenVA

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SSwirl with word Go Open VAince its debut in January 2020, #GoOpenVA has been building its collections with the help of Virginia educators. This collaborative initiative enables educators and others throughout Virginia to create, share, and access openly-licensed educational resources (OER, also known as open education resources). OER are free digital materials that can be used or modified to adjust to student needs; they are openly-licensed unhampered by many traditional copyright limitations.

Jean Weller, VSTE Board Member and VDOE Technology Integration Specialist, leads this effort. We asked her to periodically curate a few of the resources to give a sense of what is available. Start with these but stay for so much more! And be sure to follow Jean on Twitter.

Featured Resources:

Decimal Rounding Podcast Episode (Mic Drop Maths Podcast): Two teachers (Lindsey Paulson and Whitney Wells-Corfield) in Hanover County collaborate to bring you their cool ideas on Mathematics SOL for 5th graders.  Broken into segments for easy “digestion,” it’s a way to get your own creative juices flowing. https://goopenva.org/courseware/lesson/496/overview

 

Blended Content Studio: This resource, created by Mike Caulfield of WSU Vancouver is full of great tips and videos to help teachers new to online learning.  Just one of the resources outside of Virginia that can be useful to Virginia educators trying to stay current during this crazy time.

https://goopenva.org/courses/blended-content-studio-emergency-online-teaching-at-wsu-vancouver/view

 

I Can Forecast the Weather Remix: Adrienne Sawyer of Chesapeake created a remix of a pretty simple lesson about recognizing clouds and made it much more robust for students, adding a great downloadable “Weather Journal” for students to use.

https://goopenva.org/courseware/lesson/1283/overview

Leading Ed Forum 2020: Collaboration in the Cloud

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logo Leading Ed Forum 2020: Collaboration in the Cloud: Innovations with Remote Learning
#explore-learn-innovate

Register Now

Schedule

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

Register Now

Extending Wireless to Your Community

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Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Aruba Networks has been helping K12’s in the state of VA during the COVID-19 pandemic. Aruba’s leadership team came up with the idea to offer outdoor wireless solutions to k12’s during this time of transition. We understand that not every child may have the accessibility to internet or broadband at their home for remote learning. We decided to donate outdoor wireless kits to schools so they are able to “drive up” to the school parking lot and connect to free wireless.

Washington Co Public Schools has shared with us how they are currently utilizing their outdoor wireless today.

“When we went to a remote learning situation in March, we quickly realized that there were students who did not have adequate access to the Internet at home.  We installed Aruba 377 outdoor access points in a parking lot at each school.  When school was still in session, we were seeing around 80 clients connected over a 24-hour period.  That has gone down to 20-30 per day now since we have closed out the school year.  We also allow community access through our guest wireless network.” –Washington Co Public Schools

This is just the many ways that Aruba is helping K12’s during this time. We are currently working on a solution to allow connectivity and wireless to project from school buses. More to come!

Some of the schools systems we have been helping in the state of Virginia below:

Isle of Wight County Schools
Franklin Co Public Schools
York Co Public Schools
Montgomery Co Public Schools
Washington Co Public Schools
Newport News Public Schools
Hampton City Public Schools
Lynchburg City Public Schools
Campbell Co Public Schools
Botetourt County Public Schools

Written by Lindsay Scott. Lindsay is the Greater Mid-Atlantic-Southeastern VA Territory Manager for Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company. Contact her to learn more about how Aruba can help your school today!