VSTE

Virginia Society for Technology in Education

VSTE Voices

Virginia Students Featured at Speak Up Congressional Briefing

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I was fortunate to attend a special event to share the results of the Speak Up 2016 survey, http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/speakup_congress.html.  This is a survey published by Project Tomorrow, http://www.tomorrow.org/ , It is an online tool that  gives students, educators, administrators, and parents an opportunity to provide feedback about the use of technology for learning. The data from this survey has helped many districts develop and implement new strategies to address the needs of all learners and  prepare them for their future.  I have always been impressed with Julie Evans, CEO Project Tomorrow,  She has been such a strong advocate for technology in education.  She is a true believer in the positive impact of technology on learning. I would encourage you and your division to participate in the 2017 Speak Up Survey opening on October 16. You can access the survey here: http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/

At this event, we heard from students about their experiences with technology and why it is important for them to have ubiquitous and equitable access.  One student shared that their one-to-one program has provided equal opportunities to all students providing them an “equal start to the future of their education, because we live in a digital world.”  She  mentioned that they are able to use  all of the tools that adults use in their work environment.and  shared  the importance of collaborating with her peers.  During one project, she got to know other students in her class as they worked together on a project.  She shared that members of the group had ideas that she never would have thought of on her own.

If given the opportunity, students will go beyond the standard and far beyond our expectations. How can we empower our students, take them seriously and trust and support their thoughts about their own learning? The students on the panel all described the learning environment at their schools as one that

  • gives them a chance to be heard
  • promotes having a strong foundation that they can further build upon - referring to learning how and when to use technology resources to demonstrate their learning
  • encourages collaboration
  • exposes students to new tools, resources, and ways of thinking

All of these students were confident and well spoken about their school experience. They were able to articulate what they need from school and why their school works.  I have to guess that these schools have created that culture of trust that we have heard about so often.  It is easy to see when it works, but not an easy thing to develop. But I do know that  giving students that voice, the ability to be heard and a part of the conversation about  their learning is a very important step in the process.

Diane Harazin is a member of the VSTE Board of Directors and Supervisor of Instructional Technology for Prince William County Schools.

Learning Together at the VSTE Conference

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Attending the VSTE Conference is a great learning experience.

Attending with a team from your school or district can make that experience even better.

VSTE member Margaret Sisler came to the 2016 Conference in Virginia Beach with more than fifty of her colleagues and reflected on those three days in this post from last December.

Learning Together

Last week each school in our pyramid sent a team of educators (a mix of admin, teachers, tech coaches, and tech specialists) to the Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE) annual conference.  This is our state conference, attended by over 1200 educators from all parts and regions of our state.  Presenters are educators, administrators, tech coaches, vendors and cover so many topics I couldn’t even list them all here!

I’ve been to VSTE many times and serve on the Outreach Committee.  I usually attend on my own and present a session or two.  Attending with a team was both awesome and sooo different than what I was used to!

Divide & Conquer: When I’ve attended on my own (or with a friend or two from another school), I’m usually very conflicted about what sessions to attend.  I was presenting 4 times this year, so that meant 4 sessions that I couldn’t attend and there were so many great offerings!  When there was a session I was super interested in, I asked if someone on my team could present.  It was incredible to work together this way because it meant we learned and gathered the resources from all of the sessions that anyone on our team attended.  We used a note-taking template that I got from my #TOSAchat friends.  I made a copy of the template for our team and we all added our notes to the template as we went.  My team took notes on one google slide deck.  Other teams from our pyramid took notes collaboratively in google as well and we all shared those notes.

Relationship Building: Being together with teachers, admin, tech coaches and tech specialists from my school and these 9 other schools allowed us to relax and really get to know each other and build connections.  THIS is what going to these conferences does for me.  I’ve now got this huge network of people that I can reach out to.  I KNOW that I don’t have the answers to every question, but I bet someone in this group does!!   We were also able to connect with folks from around the state who are deep in the work we are all doing.  It’s so interesting to hear this wider perspective.  We often get bogged down by the district way of doing it and this helps us to open that up view of things!

Read the rest of the post on Margaret's site, Edutechnically Speaking. VSTE thanks her for allowing us to share her experience with our members.

Margaret is an Instructional Technology Coach in Chantilly, Virginia.  She works in a large high school with over 3000 students and is passionate about building relationships with staff and students, engagement, Google Apps for Education and innovative teaching ideas! She is a former elementary teacher and has been a Tech Coach in both Elementary and High Schools. In addition to her blog, Margaret frequently shares her thoughts on Twitter: @TechyMargaret.

Registration for the 2017 VSTE Conference, December 3 - 5 in Roanoke, is filling fast. Plan now to join us.

If you write about learning and technology on your blog, related to the Conference or not, and would like to share one of your posts here at VSTE.org, we would love to hear from you.  Send us the link and your email address, and we will get back to you very quickly.

#GoOpenVA Development of Resources Initiative

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In October 2015, the US Department of Education launched #GoOpen, a campaign to encourage states, school districts and educators to use openly licensed educational materials. Open licensed educational material is more commonly known as Open Education Resources (OER).

In August 2016, a group of interested parties from across the Commonwealth of VA met informally at the VDOE offices in Richmond, VA to form a task force for the purpose of exploring the OER landscape in Virginia and identifying existing practitioners and models. The task force eventually included leaders from Virginia school divisions, Virginia CommSwirl with word Go Open VAunity College System, Virginia Department of Education,, WHRO’s eMediaVA, and Amazon Education. #GoOpenVA came into existence as the result of actions taken by this task force. Find more information on the #GoOpenVA vision, mission and goals at the #GoOpenVA website.

On April 20, 2017, VDOE held a Kickoff Meeting for #GoOpenVA’s OER development goal at the Monroe Building in Richmond, VA. In attendance were 18 teachers from across the Commonwealth and 22 other educational professionals who are active in the OER community of users. The purpose of the meeting was to educate and inform the participants on Open Education Resources (OER) and to give guidance on how to curate and identify education resources that are truly “Open”.  The following link is a video from the #GoOpenVA Development Educational Resources KickOff Meeting:

As the summer progresses the teachers at this workshop will work on curating open education resources with a focus on three content areas: Algebra I, World History I, and Virginia Social Studies. This is an exciting opportunity for learning and collaborating. These teachers and their supporting staff are working to define the processes for curating Open Education Resources that align to the Virginia Standards of Learning. The goal is to identify open resources that are validated to be of high quality, that support personalized learning, that promote critical and creative thinking for teachers and students and are effective at accelerating learning.

Below are comments from two of the teachers who are engaged in the #GoOpenVA Development of Resources initiative: 

Daina Campbell, Henry County Schools, VA Studies

 

Catherine Pace, M.ED, Chesapeake Schools Social Studies Teacher

 

Author: Elsie Dawson, Lead Project Manager, Virginia Department of Education

Contributors: Daina Campell, Henry County Schools, VA Studies; Catherine Pace, M.ED, Chesapeake Schools, Social Studies Teacher; Jean Weller, VDOE Education Technology Specialist; Dr. Deri Drapper, Director Integrated Learning, Old Dominion University

 

Lord Fairfax Community College’s HigherEd.org Search Engine and Learning Portal = A Tool for Educators

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On October 1, 2014, Lord Fairfax Community College (LFCC) was awarded a $3.25 million TAACCCT grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to develop competency-based education (CBE) programs and promote the use of free and low-cost digital resources wherever possible. In conjunction with the creation of their Knowledge to Work (K2W) program (competency-based education programs in information technology, health information management, and administrative support technology), LFCC created the HigherEd.org search engine and national learning portal.

Students Learn Free Online at HigherEd.org

HigherEd.org offers free and low-cost learning resources for personalized learning tied to competencies using OER (open educational resources). HigherEd.org features learning resources from numerous providers such as YouTube, Saylor Academy, and Microsoft. Resources are tied to competencies and aligned to national frameworks in a variety of topics. All resources are curated by a digital librarian for accessibility and adaptation.

For educators, HigherEd.org provides modules that can be adapted to the classroom for teaching, student presentations, and learning aids. HigherEd.org continues to grow. There may even be tools in the future to allow educators to create a digital classroom for their students within the site allowing independent, directed inquiry work.

Students can find links to resources that can assist them in receiving badges, certifications and even information to help acquire employability skills. For those that register for a free MyHigherEd account, they enjoy many learning tools, such as:

  • Create a personalized learning plan to track their progress
  • Set a custom goal and/or choose a credential to locate learning resources tied to competencies
  • Search resources useful for learning competencies and achieving their custom goal or credential
  • Save their searches and review their complete search history
  • Save and comment on resources
  • And so much more

Visit HigherEd.org

Guest post by 
Lyda Costello Kiser, DA, Director, Office of Transition Programs, Title IX Coordinator
Eric Simons, Knowledge to Work, DOL TAACCCT Grant
Lord Fairfax Community College

Leveling Up Student Learning with a Global Inventors Course

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Oak Grove students with their global partners

This year, we tried something completely new at Oak Grove Elementary in Roanoke County. Fifth graders have just finished working with Global partners in Nicaragua, Argentina, and Honduras through a Global Inventors course run by Level Up Village--and what an adventure it was.  In this course, students exchanged video messages with their partners and collaborated on designing the case for a solar flashlight using CAD software and a 3D printer.  They also examined the differences between electricity production in the United States and that of their partner’s country and discussed renewable and nonrenewable resources.  Best of all, students made a global friend, and shared aspects of their lives with them, while learning about a different country in a very personal way.

Here are some of the highlights from the course:

Involving the Community

Because we were trying to meet a district initiative to teach Spanish in elementary school, we requested to be partnered with students from Spanish-speaking countries.  High School Spanish students then visited our Fifth graders to teach them basic Spanish phrases they could use in their videos.  They planned the lessons, created handouts, and developed Quizlet games for our students to use as they learned the language. This helped both the Fifth graders communicate with their partners and the high school students practice their Spanish.

Sending Video Messages

Students exchanged video messages with their partners through the Level Up Village platform. In these videos they answered questions posed by the course itself, but also could ask their own questions. It was in this way that the two partners really began to know one another.

Learning CAD Software

In order to learn to use computer aided design (CAD) software called Tinkercad, students first designed nametags. Once they had learned the basics, they began working with their global partner to design the case for a solar flashlight.  They were provided

Student designed solar flashlight

with the electrical components, but had to make sure their measurements were correct so that components would fit in the finished case.  We printed some example solar flashlights about halfway through the project.  Students analyzed these and then used what they learned to finish their final product.

Connecting Live

We had the added bonus of being able to Skype live with our partners.  While this does not always happen, we were lucky enough to be in similar time zones as our partners so were able to work out this experience. Students gave up lunchtime with their friends and recess to be able to talk to their partners 3,000 miles away. They had fun talking, asking questions, and joking with the class in the other country.

Reflecting Using Blogs

After we finished working our way through the curriculum, students used Kidblog to reflect on the project.  When I read their posts, it was evident that they walked away with not only a better understanding of 4th and 5th grade math and science SOLs and an understanding of Central and South America, but also having developed the softer skills of communication and collaboration.

As an Instructional Technology Resource Teacher teaming this project with the classroom teacher, I can definitely say it was one of the best projects I have helped facilitate. The organic learning that took place could have never have happened just by studying these topics in isolation.  By building a relationship with someone in a completely different country, our students made connections and realizations, and developed understanding and empathy that could not have been taught otherwise.  The personal growth I have seen in our students over the past eight weeks has been extraordinary, and I am so proud of them and so grateful for the chance to be part of it.

Smiling woman with award

 

Tina Coffey is an Instructional Technology Resource Teacher for Roanoke County Schools. She is also the Level Up Village US Teacher of the Year for 2017. Connect with her on Twitter @elemitrt.