VSTE

Virginia Society for Technology in Education

CoSN

Vote Now for Virginia’s NextGen: Emerging EdTech Leaders

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Two Virginia educators--Chanel Alford-Campbell from Alexandria City and Scott Lewis from Frederick County--have been nominated for the NextGen Emerging EdTech Leaders award, an annual recognition developed and co-sponsored by CoSN and EdScoop. This award is meant to recognize and support emerging leaders who are passionate about K-12 education technology and committed to taking their career to the next level.

Finalists are selected via online voting, and you can help select the NextGen: Emerging EdTech Leaders by casting your vote today. Voting ends at midnight, February 19, 2019. Click here to learn more and cast your vote.

Here's a bit more information about the outstanding nominees from Virginia:

CHANEL ALFORD-CAMPBELL

In just a few months with Alexandria City Public Schools, Chanel Alford-Campbell, a Technology Integration Specialist, has helped to create a professional development plan that includes both digital and in-person components. She also works with a group of girls after school teaching block coding, JavaScript, and coding with sphero robots. With a passion for programming languages, she says she aspires to further the field of instructional technology by conducting research, writing articles, and designing a nationwide professional development model.

SCOTT LEWIS

From Middle School Dean to Instructional Technology Coach, Scott Lewis from Frederick County now mentors and offers feedback for 80 teachers as they figure out how to incorporate technology into their lesson planning. As part of this role, Lewis worked with co-taught and self-contained special education teachers who teach students with learning and physical disabilities on online portfolios and coding. Lewis, along with a teacher and student, were invited to speak before Congress on this work. In addition to his day-to-day work, Lewis founded a weekly Twitter-based edchat centered around instructional leadership called #fcpslearn. He also created the district's first podcast that shares innovative teaching practices and lessons.

Click here to learn more and cast your vote.

Please Vote Now: Three Virginia Educators Nominated for NEXTGeneration Awards

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Each year, CoSN and edscoop recognize NEXTGeneration leaders who are making a difference in K-12 educational technology. To qualify for the program, candidates had to be employed by a K-12 school, district or education service agency; have worked five or fewer years as an education technology professional; and have demonstrated leadership in the schools and districts they serve.

Three Virginia educators have been nominated for this prestigious award. The final selections are made based on vote tallies. You do not have to be a member of CoSN to vote so please consider taking the time to review the candidates and vote.

http://edscoop.com/nextgeneration/2018/

National Day of Action for Education

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Join CoSN, ISTE, and SETDA on May 11, 2017, for a national Day of Action to advocate for the policies that could significantly impact educators, their schools and the students they serve.

What You Can Do on May 11th

On May 11th, we ask that you please join educators and advocates all across the nation by taking one (or all) of the following extremely critical actions:

1. Send a prewritten letter to Congress

Use our easy advocacy tool to send this pre-written letter to Congress about the effectiveness of E-Rate and the Title IV, A block grant, which houses the ed tech provisions in ESSA.

2. Tweet #ERateWorks, #MoreTitleIV, #Act4EdTech

Here are some sample tweets you can use:

  • Millions of students are connected to the internet at school because #ErateWorks @AjitPaiFCC
  • Personalized and digital learning is possible in schools because #ErateWorks to provide broadband in classrooms @AjitPaiFCC
  • Give schools the funding to provide Students with a well-rounded education @[Congressperson] #Act4EdTech #MoreTitleIV
  • Every school benefits from #edtech funding @[Congressperson] #Act4EdTech #MoreTitleIV

3. Call your members in Congress!

Unsure who your Representative is? – Visit the Find Your Representative tool. Unsure what to say? - Here is a script you can use when speaking to staff member of the office.

  • I am a [insert title and organizational affiliation] and I am calling to urge Senator/Representative [insert name here] to support full funding of the Student Support and Academic Enrichment grant program under Title IV, Part A of the Every Student Succeeds Act. Congress authorized Title IV Part A of ESSA at $1.65 Billion to ensure that each school district received funds to support access to a well-rounded education, improve student’s physical and mental health and improve conditions for learning, and to increase the effective use of technology. Unfortunately, the current appropriation bill falls far short of full funding.
  • There is a wealth of evidence that supports the needs for students to have access to a diverse academic curriculum that includes science, arts, foreign language and civic education; programs that support students physical, mental, and behavioral health, and the improve school safety; and modern, classroom based technology. All of these areas are critical to ensure all students graduate from high school ready to enter.
  • ESSA consolidated most of the programs that support student health and safety, well rounded academics and education technology into this new flexible block grant.  Without a significant investment in Title IV Part A, districts will be faced with the unnecessarily difficult decision of choosing which area to invest in. Full funding of Title IV Part A will ensure that each district is provided funds to invest in each of these critical areas.
  • I urge Senator/Representative [insert name] to support the full funding if Title IV Part A.

We hope you can join us on May 11th to support edtech policies!

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