VSTE

Virginia Society for Technology in Education

VDOE

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

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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

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#GoOpenVA and Sharing In The Time of Crisis

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#GoOpenVA launched in late January, which turned out to be just in time. As Virginia educators move into several months of building closures due to COVID-19, we at least have a place to share and connect with other educators.

Although #GoOpenVA is designed as a repository of educational materials that teachers can edit and share, it is most importantly a community where teachers can rely on each other for help. That’s especially important now that we are all struggling to figure out a new way to help our students learn. The burden is so much lighter when we can share our ideas, rather than having to develop them all on our own.

So, now is the time for you to participate in #GoOpenVA. It is an open site, so if you are just looking for ideas, you can browse and download without any other action. However, to be a part of the community of sharing, you need to become as a registered user. For security reasons, Administration determined it was best if educators signed on through their school division, using a single-sign-on software.

Each school division has made their own determination about how to get to #GoOpenVA from their system, so check with your local tech support to find out the way you can get access. If your division does not have any sort of single-sign-on software, please contact us (info@goopenva.org) to request an account.

Once you are able to login as a registered user, you can do lots of things—add resources you’ve created, take someone else’s resource and tweak it to fit your students, participate in discussion groups about topics near and dear to your heart, and collaborate with your fellow educators to create something that’s bigger than just one person could do.

#GoOpenVA has a new User’s Hub, which will provide you with helpful tips and screencasts on how to do specific things on #GoOpenVA. This is a new space, so expect it to continue to grow over time. You are invited to add to this community, using the various Group message boards to share your own tips and insights.

We also have a 4-hour online self-paced course that you can take if that suits your learning style (sign up at Virtual Virginia; it may take a day or two to get your account set up). We also have our VSTE-supported Workshop in a Box materials for those who want to conduct a professional learning session for other educators. The latter will be expanding soon to incorporate new modules.

It’s a natural thing for educators to be sharers. After all, that’s what education boils down to – sharing our expertise and knowledge with students to help them grow (in all ways). It’s good thing that Virginia now has a place to support that sharing when we can’t get together physically!

Written by Jean Weller. Jean is an Educational Technology Specialist in the Virginia Department of Education's Office of STEM and Innovation. She also serves as the Department's representative on the VSTE Board of Directors.

#GoOpenVA Professional Development Resources

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Go Open VA headerThe Virginia Society for Technology in Education has been working closely with the Department of Education to support the #GoOpenVA initiative, a collaborative initiative that enables educational entities throughout Virginia to create, share, and access openly-licensed educational resources (OER, also known as open education resources).

As part of the opening of the #GoOpenVA platform, where educators across the Commonwealth can create, share and remix openly licensed resources, VSTE has begun development of a Workshop In a Box to help technology coaches and other trainers introduce the platform to their faculty. The first module, which provides an overview of the platform, is available now. Subsequent modu les focusing on more detailed use of the platform are in development and will be available this spring.

While the Workshop is designed to be used directly by divisions, VSTE may be able to provide support for face to face and online trainings. Please contact Karen Richardson (karen_richardson@vste.org) with requests or questions.

Free Webinar: Federal Reserve CRA Funding for Broadband

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The Virginia Department of Education is providing a free webinar presented by Jeanne Milliken Bonds, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, and Jordana Barton, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, on the role of the Federal Reserve Community Development in digital equity and inclusion, including best practices for financing broadband in underserved communities.

The webinar will be presented twice:

  • Friday, July 12, 4-5:30 PM
  • Wednesday, July 17, 10-11:30 AM

To join the meeting via webex:  https://frbmeetings.webex.com/join/jeanne.bonds
To join the meeting via phone: +1-415-527-5035, Access code: 903 429 655

VDOE: State Broadband Achievement in K-12

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In October of this year, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) released its first comprehensive broadband connectivity report. The 2017 K-12 Learning Infrastructure Program (KLIP) Broadband Connectivity Capability Survey (BCCS) report can be found on the VDOE’s KLIP Web page. Both a full and one page report is now available. It is  Important to note that the report represents only one set of known data in which the department uses to better understand the technology landscape in Virginia’s public schools,  monitor our progress, and identify areas of need for additional analysis and resources.

So, an important question to raise is: What were Virginia’s K-12 broadband connectivity achievements in 2017?   With the help of EducationSuperHighway data, we found that the percentage of school buildings connected to fiber increased from 82% in 2014 to 99% in 2017. And, nationally, this places Virginia in the top 29 states with school buildings connected to fiber (EducationSuperHighway (ESH) 2018 State of the States (SOS).  An increase in fiber connections also helped us achieve one of our KLIP goals of getting fiber to the schools that need it.  As a state, we further achieved the 2014 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 100 kbps per student connectivity targets with many school divisions surpassing this target! Again, Virginia is one of the top 27 states meeting the minimum bandwidth targets set forth by the FCC (ESH 2018 SOS). Another significant broadband achievement came from school divisions that were approved for E-rate and Virginia Public School Authority (VPSA) matching funds to build their own fiber networks. The reason this is a significant achievement is because of the complexity of the E-rate application for self-provisioning and what it actually takes for schools to construct this type of network. The divisions that constructed their own networks saved thousands of dollars while scaling to very high bandwidth!  

As a state, we have also achieved more affordable Internet pricing. As the demand for more bandwidth increased, the price decreased. We view this as a positive indicator of the direction that the telecommunications industry is taking in education and school technology leaders negotiating for better pricing using price transparency tools (see Compare and Connect K-12).  Because of the decrease in bandwidth pricing, we are making progress toward meeting another KLIP goal of helping divisions secure more bandwidth for their budgets. Although the affordability data is trending in a positive direction, we still have concerns about rural school divisions paying more for Internet access because of the geography and lack of provider competition. The VDOE is addressing these concerns and we are working with the new state Chief Broadband Advisor to the governor on rural broadband. Additionally, the data in the BCCS report suggest that more resources are needed to support network infrastructure and information security needs. We are seeking support and funding from the VDOE and budget processes for these requests.  

The VDOE also wanted to learn more about what divisions could tell us about student Internet access at home. A map in the report depicts how divisions responded to the question about the extent to which a lack of Internet access at home is limiting teaching and learning. To learn more about this issue, I have been contacting technology directors to find out more about the challenges you face and the solutions deployed in addressing out of school Internet access for students. You should be hearing more from the VDOE as we plan to develop strategies around digital equity.

Another significant achievement is our partnership with VSTE to establish the KLIP Work Group (WG). The purpose of the KLIP WG is to provide the VDOE with input, feedback, and guidance, on broadband connectivity issues. The entire list of members of the WG are listed on the KLIP web page. It includes school division technology directors, Internet and Wi-Fi service providers, the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT), the Library of Virginia, private technology companies, and Virginia Tech. Technology directors from each of the eight Superintendent’s Regions were selected to participate on the WG (see below). The WG assisted us in developing the 2018 KLIP BCCS. The report on the data collected from this survey will be available sometime next year. The WG also provided input into the topics and sessions offered at the annual Leading Ed Forum. The VDOE encourages greater regional collaboration among division technology directors. This will provide a conduit for the KLIP WG to provide your input into state discussions about bandwidth, Wi-Fi, Leading Ed conference topics, and other priority areas.

School Division Technology Directors participating on the KLIP Work Group:

Region 1: Timothy Ampy, Dinwiddie County Public Schools

Region 2: John Littlefield, Suffolk County Public Schools

Region 3: Vacant

Region 4: A.J. Phillips, Prince William County Public Schools

Region 5: Kevin Perkins, Rockingham County Public Schools

Region 6: Dan Smith, Roanoke City Public Schools

Region 7: Scott Kiser, Wise County Public Schools

Region 8: Brook Hatcher, Mecklenburg County Public Schools

 

We should be proud that Virginia continues to make significant progress in meeting federal Internet targets and state KLIP goals. We should also be proud to be in the top states in a national report for getting almost all of our school buildings connected to fiber.  All of the state’s achievement markers can be contributed to your technology leadership and commitment to supporting an increasingly digital education environment. Lastly, any constructive feedback on broadband or infrastructure issues, concerns, or ideas and suggestions are welcome and can be directed to me at susan.clair@doe.virginia.gov, or (804) 786-9281.

Sincerely,

Dr. Susan M. Clair, Learning Infrastructure Coordinator, VDOE