Last fall, Hollie Sisk, Assistant Coordinator of Instructional Technology at Effingham County School District, attended the Chicago Google Leadership Summit with education heads from all over the U.S. While she found it enlightening to learn where other districts were in their AI journey and how they were using Google tools, one piece of the experience struck her as something to bring back to her own Southeast Georgia district of 14,500 students.

“They took us into a room of three or four stations, with Chromebooks ready to go,” says Sisk. “We rotated through, learning the basics. I just sat there and thought our teachers really need this. ‘How can we implement this in our district?’ I marinated on that and when I came back, I pitched it to our tech director. From there, it blossomed into the ECSD Gemini School.”

In ECSD’s Gemini School, attendees rotate across four sessions through focused 20-minute labs on Gemini, NotebookLM, Gems, and Gemini in the Classroom, allowing them to quickly experience real classroom value without overload.

“It's not just a traditional ‘sit and get,’” says Sisk. “It’s more about creating an environment where it clicks for every educator because they have just enough exposure to spark their curiosity, but not overwhelm them with a lengthy PD session.”

Sisk tries to keep the PD engaging and moving. Instead of having the presenters going from room to room, attendees have to boogie to each round of learning, literally.

“We play disco music in between transitions. It helps them reset and refocus,” says Sisk. “They are going from absorbing a lot of information in 20 minutes from Notebook LM to custom Gems. They really need to turn their brain off and then get it ready for the next session.”

The impact has been immediate and measurable. Forty-five participant comments included consistent themes such as, “I didn’t want to go to another PLC, but this was amazing!” and “This is the first time AI makes sense to me.”

Most notably, a 31-year veteran teacher — who self-identifies as not tech-savvy — was so energized by the experience that she recorded a ten-minute video expressing gratitude and shared that it was the most excited she had felt about teaching in years. This kind of shift doesn’t come from tools, it comes from intentional, learner-centered leadership.

“I knew these tools could help them, but I didn’t want to pull them into a drawn out traditional PD to learn how,” says Sisk, who was recently recognized for this and other efforts with an Innovative Leader Award. “We really wanted to make it an immersive experience — a hands-on experience like I took away from the Chicago summit. Ultimately, my impact when building this was to give teachers back the gift of time.”

3 Tips for Creating An AI Gemini School in Your District

Sisk offers advice for others who are interested in creating such a PD program in their district:

• Create a relationship with the curriculum to ensure buy-in from the top down. “I needed our curriculum department's trust that we could make this work,” Sisk says. “Don't just try to push it out, really build those relationships and get them on board to support you.”
• Be consistent in the marketing. “I'm partial to branding–I try to focus on that not only for our social media account, but anything we're pushing out,” she says. “I stay very consistent which helps with recognition and so teachers feel they are part of something special.”
• Make PD fun and engaging. Training doesn't have to be a traditional “sit and get,” says Sisk. “You can have movement. You can have 25-minute round table discussions and then get up and move to a different table and a different topic.”

Fuel FOMO With a Marketing Moment

“I knew if we did a really good job marketing this, we'd have bought their trust,” says Sisk. “The next time we roll out a program, they will say, ‘Hey, the last thing they did was really fun. I want to come.”

Sisk embraces that marketing mindset for instructional technology—one that reframes tech not as “another initiative,” but as a value-adding experience educators want to engage with.

“My mindset wasn’t, ‘Let's promote another professional development,’ it was more like a product launch,” she says. “One special ed teacher shared how much time she saved writing IEPs as well as writing success criteria and learning targets. Excited teachers are calling a few days later, ‘Look at this song we created with the students after the session!’ Even our athletic coaches loved the training, which speaks volumes because they often hate having to come to PD.”

Sisk consistently highlights instructional technology successes through social media, reinforcing a culture that celebrates innovation and progress.

“One of the most powerful pieces of this is learning from other teachers,” she says. “It's not technology or curriculum presenting the material, it's teachers and media specialists. April Platt, Crystal Mealor, Jack Sinopoli, and Nick Exely are a few of our rockstar presenters.To me, face-to-face instruction is always more effective.”

One of the goals was to elevate the position of her media specialists and the value they bring to schools. Sisk asked each to earn their Google Gemini-certified educator designation to become the on-site expert at their school post-Gemini School.

Her leadership is shifting perception across ECSD. Instructional technology is no longer seen as optional or burdensome, but as practical, exciting, and directly connected to improved teaching and learning results for their students.

“One of the biggest rewards this year was the blossoming of that relationship between curriculum and tech departments, because they helped us reach out to leadership,” Sisk says. “They allowed us to interrupt their principal's PLC meeting and do a version of Gemini School just for principals. That sparked buy-in. Principals saw the value in their world as a principal and wanted their teachers to have that same experience.”

This PD experience has earned a 4.72 rating out of 5, based strictly on teacher feedback. The demand generated by Gemini School has exploded, prompting plans for expansion—clear evidence that Sisk’s work is not only effective but scalable.

“We are presenting at our board retreat in a few weeks because our board members are asking, ‘What is this Gemini School and why do we have it?’” Sisk says. “Everyone wants a little piece of it. That's exactly what we wanted to create.”

Tools They Use

• Gemini
• Creating custom Gems
• NotebookLM
• Gemini in Google Classroom

As artificial intelligence continues to expand its presence in schools, the need to educate educators and support staff also continues to grow. And although many edtech solutions provide training around their specific AI tools, having a basic AI education program can be even more useful.

“Tools have their place,” says Courtney Bock, AI Implementation and Library Media & Technology Specialist for Mead School District in Washington State. “But if we don't first understand the how and the why, the tools are not as powerful.”

To help support the teachers, Bock has implemented a four-part AI professional development series in her district, from which she graduated and currently serves about 10,500 students in North Spokane County.

“It can be pretty isolating sometimes as an educator when they’re thinking, ‘Am I the only one that is not getting this?’” says Bock, who was recently honored with a Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award. “And then they go to the PD, see other teachers, and realize, ‘Oh, no, you're struggling, too. Okay, great. We can struggle together.’"

The good news is that Bock’s program has been turning that struggle into success.

Boosting AI Confidence and Literacy

Each session in Bock’s after-school program is 90 minutes and offers STEM clock hours for certificate maintenance in Washington State. Each cohort of the program has averaged 25 teachers.

• Session 1 is "AI 101," providing foundational knowledge, vocabulary (such as "LLM"), how AI works, and its capabilities and limitations, remaining tool-agnostic.
• Session 2 focuses on cheating and AI, helping teachers to redesign assignments and integrate AI into assessments, acknowledging that students are using it regardless.
• Session 3 dives into using AI with students, featuring a more tool-specific approach.
• Session 4 concentrates on using AI to improve teacher workflow, increase efficiency, and save time.

In addition to the cohorts, Bock supports teachers through a monthly newsletter, regular in-person presentations across the district’s 10 buildings, and virtual weekly AI office hours.

So far, the program’s impact has been quantified by significant gains in educator readiness. Post-training data has revealed a 50% increase in teacher confidence regarding the use of AI tools directly with students, as well as a 48% boost in preparedness to teach AI ethics.

Advice For Other Educators

For other educators who are interested in creating a similar PD program in their district, Bock recommends first focusing on AI literacy as opposed to just tossing tools at teachers.

“When I first did a version of this a year ago beforehand, it was just AI tools because that's what people wanted, and I thought, ‘Yeah, I can show you how to use those tools. No problem,’” she says. “But because I'm in the space every day, I was using basic AI vocabulary, and they didn’t understand these basics. That was a real learning moment.”

Bock also tries to make sure that there's plenty of free additional resources available to spark those who want to pursue more learning or certification for a specific AI platform. She notes that Anthropic, Google, and AIEDU, among others, all have AI training for educators.

“Some are better than others,” she acknowledges. “But I think it's good to take it all in with a grain of salt and use what's best for you, and leave what's not.”

Bock also recommends keeping parents and families informed about AI use. “When we're going to be introducing things to their students, I think It's important to have parent and student voices as part of that conversation.” She stresses that students, in particular, should be included in creating district policies as they are already interacting with AI daily, often through platforms such as Snapchat.

She also suggests involving administrative and central office staff in PD efforts as many may be interested in using AI to boost efficiency or simplify basic tasks, if they aren’t already.

“A Whirlwind Of AI”

Bock, who spent two years away from education at a friend’s startup as a natural language model analyst before returning to a district, has been able to bring that experience into her current role, which focuses on supporting district-wide AI implementation in the mornings and being a K-5 specialist in the afternoons.

“In 2022 when ChatGPT became public, it was like my two worlds just came together, which was not on my bingo card at all,” she says. “And it's just been, as you can imagine, a whirlwind of AI ever since.“

Ultimately, Bock appreciates having a community of teachers to learn from and with.

“It's harder to learn things in isolation,” Bock says. “And I'm not saying you can't, you absolutely can. But when you have that community around you to support you, ask questions, look at what they're doing as different examples–that's really powerful.”

Tools They Use

Bock’s “AI Stack”

• Claude
• MagicSchool
• CanvaAI
• Wispr Flow
• Gemini/Studio
• NotebookLM
• Gamma

Montana Digital Academy (MTDA) is a designated state virtual school in Montana, created by the 2009 Legislature to provide supplemental online learning to K-12 public school students. The Frontier Learning Lab (FLL) is MTDA’s new statewide hub for cutting-edge learning tools —a place where teachers and students can explore AI, virtual and augmented reality, and other emerging tech.

“It was a natural space for us to go into with applicability in K-12 across the state,” says Jason Neiffer, Executive Director of Montana Digital Academy. “We were early to the AI conversation because we saw an issue we would have to come to terms with at our state virtual school. In January 2024, members of our team were invited to testify about the role of AI in education. That turned into a deeper conversation about what we wanted to do to support Montana schools.”

In an effort to ensure such rural schools could offer access to interested teachers, a solution for opening exploratory spaces for all regardless of budget toward high-quality PD needed to be reached. Having awareness and a deep understanding of that state’s unique needs and challenges was critical.

“One of the things that we've been very conscious of is that the rural nature of Montana is sometimes underestimated,” says Neiffer, who notes that the state is the size of Germany with one-eightieth of the population. “We have a couple of counties that are larger than some U.S. states with a single school district. The superintendent is also the K-12 principal and substitute bus driver and has their boiler's license in case they're pressed into service.”

Neiffer, who was recently recognized with an Innovative Leader Award during Tech & Learning’s recent Northwest Regional Summit, and his team knew truly rural Montana kids were just as important a constituency and deserve to have access to tech experts and resources.

“The Montana School Boards Association stepped up this year and provided a model policy for districts across the state,” he says. “There are endless organizations, nonprofit and for-profit, that help with policy development in schools. However, they don’t always understand that a rural school doesn’t have a full-time tech person — maybe not even any part-time staff — and might have to rely on third-party vendors for that role.”

That is where the Frontier Learning Lab, under the umbrella of the 16-year-strong MTDA state virtual school, stepped in to form a core planning piece for time-challenged leaders.

Time Is Everything

Time management is an important element of any endeavor but already-stretched rural districts really feel that pinch when faced with absorbing new tech initiatives.

“The time piece is a critical factor here,” Neiffer says. “I've been in the business for almost thirty years now and I do think we underinvest in professional learning around technology. We also get that you can't spend all of your time learning about evolving technologies because teaching is a very technical job.”

Neiffer feels part of any strategy needs to be meeting teachers where their resources are.

“Is it face-to-face training, or is it asynchronous online training?” he asks. “We’ve opened up a help desk for teachers that they can email and ask for assistance because not every one of our teachers will be able to dedicate significant professional learning time. So they really do need the old ‘just-in-time’ training. Sometimes that's really just a one-on-one conversation. We want to be able to provide it however works best for their busy schedule.”

The help desk accepts emails 24/7 with someone manning and responding 9-10 hours a day. This has been particularly helpful for those teachers exploring on their own time or who may not have colleagues at their level.

3 Actionable Tips When Starting a Virtual Academy Such As Frontier

1. Need should drive everything. “One of the reasons why our program was originally created was because Montana’s vast geography needed a virtual option with stable funding and consistency in availability for students every semester,” Neiffer says. “Investment in the program is critical so funding at minimum ensures schools know when they need access to the program, they have access to the program. It can’t be dependent on an unstable funding source. You only get that consensus around need. Look at where gaps are and get coalitions together across many different political, philosophical, pedagogical views.”

2. Don't recreate the wheel. “Unless you are on the exceptionally bleeding edge of something (and if you are, great, just make sure you tell the rest of us what you did!), look at existing models,” Neiffer says. “Montana Digital Academy is part of the Virtual Learning Leadership Alliance which is a coalition of 20 state virtual schools across the United States. Instead of coming up with something from scratch, find something that's 50%, 70%, 80% of the way there and just adjust it for your locality and specific needs. Chances are someone is already doing this work elsewhere. If they aren’t far enough along to give you hints, they'll be a wonderful collaboration partner.”

3. Don't be afraid to ask for resources from others. “We don't spend enough time asking our colleagues down the street what they're doing,” Neiffer says. “Whenever you can take advantage of a room of people that agree or disagree with you about your approach, it's a real opportunity to push yourself and make your planning process that much richer.”

Looking To The Horizon In Big Sky

In an era of ever-tightening budgets — the sky is not the limit, even in Big Sky Country. Investment into innovation can be an intimidating mountain to climb.

“We are actively balancing costs, which are still significant in this space, with utility inside of a classroom,” Neiffer says. “I have no doubt that we can find lots of good, showy, fun, interesting, even pedagogically useful places for virtual reality, but it's always balanced against the cost of the hardware and the cost of maintaining those pieces.”

One pilot that Neiffer and his team is exploring is securing access to virtual dissections for online anatomy and physiology students. “There are anatomy and physiology classes available from two and four-year Montana colleges, but it can be very geography-based due to the human dissection lab requirement,” he says. “So how do we provide that access to online students?”

Stretching resources continues to be a challenge.

“We have four different departments in Montana Virtual Academy with a mix of public, private and school-based funding,” Neiffer says. “In particular, in our Business Learning Program and our Digital Learning Clearing House, we find a reasonable cost to share with schools. The legislature wants schools to have skin in the game so that they know that it's something they are investing in for access to opportunity.”

Embracing partnerships is key. For example, MTDA has access to STEM experts and research professors at the University of Montana who provide guidance on AI, virtual and augmented reality.

Neiffer believes that the lab itself — the professional learning — should be covered with a combination of state appropriation, federal grants and private foundations to help create a sustainable model to ensure access for the most rural schools when public funding might not reach that scalability down to the smallest of schools.

“With such great future-looking leadership in this space, we are now working with vendors to find the most affordable solutions for what is to come,” Neiffer says. “A previous superintendent of public instruction called Montana a frontier state. I think that that's an accurate way to describe what we do.”

Neiffer is enthusiastic about the future of education as well as the hard-working team around him.

“Find people who are interested in helping you and don't be afraid to fail,” he says. “Chances are not every new initiative will be successful so just use that as an opportunity to grow and become better. It’s a really critical part of being a design-thinking forward organization, but it's also the best way to approach teaching and learning. Institutions are learning as much as the students.”

Tools They Use

Neiffer discusses some of his go-to tech tools.

• TextExpander - “I can’t live without a text expansion app. My longtime favorite is TextExpander, which works on Windows, macOS, and ChromeOS. I use it for stock AI prompts, phrases I type all the time, such as, ‘Hello, my name is Jason Neiffer, and I am the Executive Director of Montana Digital Academy,’ and even bits of code.”
• NotebookLM - “I experiment with many fast-moving AI tools, but I keep coming back to Google NotebookLM as a dependable place to organize the large volume of information I collect for work and personal projects. That includes reports, journal articles, presentations, travel guides, restaurant recommendations, and videos about places I want to visit.”
• ChatGPT CustomGPTs and Gemini Gems - “One of the most useful things about today’s generative AI tools is the ability to create small, purpose-built helpers that work through information with you. I love building CustomGPTs and Gems to handle specific tasks, like creating alt text for images, rewriting assignment directions for clarity, brainstorming workshop materials, or helping organize drafts and ideas. They are not perfect, of course, but they can save a great deal of time and mental energy.”

From launching New York State’s first online school program to designing future-ready libraries and libraries and developing groundbreaking apps like the tether interactive whiteboard, Andrew Taylor has repeatedly set new standards for integrating technology into education.

“I'm privileged to be in a very progressive and innovative district that has some amazing programs,” says Taylor, Director of Technology & Innovation and Chief Information Officer for Chappaqua Central School District 66. “We've got a great STEM program that works with K-12 not only in coding and robotics, but also hydroponics with a greenhouse in our high school and an EV program where we're teaching about electric vehicles. They are creating two-wheelers and three-wheelers in the middle schools and they are creating an entire EV car in the high school. They're doing some amazing things.”

Taylor was recently recognized with an Innovative Leader Award during a recent Tech & Learning Regional Leadership Summit. He shares his independent work with a team of educators leading the development of EDmotionsAI, the world’s first Emotional Management System (EMS) for schools.

Inspiration Meets Need

Taylor credits being based in such an inspiring district for the motivation to really think outside the box and find new solutions in the education world. One of the most pressing needs led to the development of EDmotionsAI with a team of independent educators passionate about student wellbeing.

“I'm often surrounded by educators in both social and professional settings. The conversation often goes to the fact that we have a student mental health crisis,” he says. “I started talking to SEL experts about what we could do with technology to offer support, which is how EDmotions was born.”

Schools have a broad variety of data-driven ways to assess students academically. When considering social-emotional strengths, the bulk of data to draw on is merely behavioral.

“That's not really great data,” Taylor says. “It's not telling you whether students are struggling, it's just telling you that they're acting out. We dug into it and created this platform that is pretty unique and gaining a lot of attention right now.”

Taylor feels a data-driven EMS is a natural addition for schools.

“We have nothing that helps us manage or regulate or track these social emotional skills,” he says. “We believe that emotional regulation, resilience, and interpersonal effectiveness aren’t optional skills; they are essential for student success and lifelong well-being.”

It might seem counterintuitive to lean on AI as a human emotion and social skill helper, but Taylor disagrees.

“A study revealed that 5.4 million kids a week go to generative AI chat to get mental health support,” says Taylor. “Those systems aren't built to do that. We wanted to know, could we build a system that does that kind of support well? We're not a therapist, that's not what we're trying to do. We're trying to train kids on how to recognize their emotions and then find strategies to manage them.”

How The AI-Powered SEL Platform Works

The EDmotionsAI platform is unique in that it tracks 10 emotions, both positive and negative, in varying degrees. A student can feel a certain degree of an emotion, as well as multiple emotions at a time, for a more authentic expression of how they are feeling.

“We wanted to teach kids that you can have diametrically opposing feelings, you can be both happy and sad at the same time,” Taylor says. “It's the “name it to tame it” strategy. You name your emotions and then tame your emotions.”

Taylor’s team partnered with Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) experts Drs. Elizabeth Dexter-Mazza and James Mazza, among others, to ensure EDmotionsAI has conversations with students in a way that is helping them identify, recognize, and give strategies to deal with emotions.

The program offers a multi-prong response system, including concrete prompts for positive social interactions and a journaling component.

“It also offers a social component that gets kids off the computer, encouraging them to do acts of kindness — go open the door for five people today, invite a new person to your table for lunch, give someone a compliment,” says Taylor. “These are skills that younger kids sometimes feel uncomfortable doing, but when you do things for others, you're really doing something for yourself. You are building your own self-esteem, building your own internal compass.”

Taylor hopes using AI in strategic ways can help create a culture of belonging inside the school.

“If you are a teacher sitting in front of a class of 28 kids, who are the three kids you need to talk to today?” he says. “You might notice the student who is acting out, but you might not know another kid is sitting there silently struggling. Our system helps teachers by saying, ‘Here's three kids you might want to connect with today because something's happening in their life they might need some support with.’”

While Taylor called on his experience as a data privacy officer to meet or exceed every standard of data protection from outside entities, the platform is made to be an informational tool within the district with students being clearly informed their chats could be viewed.

“When we were testing, we wondered if that aspect would inhibit kids from using the system,” he says. “What we realized is, no, these kids want to be heard. They just don't know how to talk to you or start that conversation. No one in the school knew these things were happening to the students until they were given an opportunity to talk to this inanimate object. This chatbot revealed what was going on so that they could get support and the resources they needed.”

This insight can be lifesaving.

“Our system is built to monitor for triggers with a background algorithm that weighs the different emotions and alerts the school for support,” Taylor says. “One student seemed to just be a quiet kid. He was getting okay grades, he really wasn't acting out in any way or a problem on anybody's radar. But after doing some work with the program, he discovered that he really suffers from severe depression and actually had self-harm thoughts he was expressing in his writing.”

Once aware, educators were able to get the student proper support.

“Through simply chatting with a bot, he was able to say things he was never able to say to the people in his life,” Taylor says.

4 Benefits to An AI-Powered SEL Monitoring Program

1. Time-intensive SEL programs are hard to implement with fidelity. The best way to teach SEL is on demand when kids need it. Use microlearning opportunities — inject 10 minutes, three different times per day, instead of one whole period. This nets improved data and helps students better regulate their emotions throughout the day.
2. Academic performance is going to increase when kids feel better. SEL provides stability to help kids focus on learning. “If I'm not socially and emotionally ready to be in the classroom, I'm not going to be ready to learn or take in content,” says Taylor.
3. Improve school culture. When students feel a sense of belonging, autonomy, and that they are important and heard, their attendance is going to improve, which will improve performance.
4. Improve the teacher burnout rate in education. Teachers are leaving the profession early. During exit interviews with teachers, many say it's because the profession has changed. “They say, ‘It's not what I thought it was anymore. More of my time is spent managing emotional issues of the students in my classroom,’” Taylor says.

Creating An AI-Powered SEL Platform For Educators, By Educators

Educators felt so strongly about the need for a tool to help, they put their money where their mouths were.

”Our initial round of investment for the program raised around $600,000, and almost 90% of that was actually educators putting in money,” says Taylor. “The people in the field who felt this was a really needed product were putting in their savings, anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000. So I'm pretty proud of that. This is not just something that was created for education, it was created by educators.”

It was also not created by one bright mind. The project grew from kitchen table talks with his social-worker-turned educator wife and more than 40 educators to brainstorming with a bigger educator community on how to build something that could help students and educators at the same time. It also featured targeted use of budget funds with concrete backup for school board or community stakeholders. The full platform with all of the data components includes a data-rich backend that can help efficiently allocate resources.

“It allows you to look at how your school is comparing against different frameworks like CASEL or DBT,” Taylor says. “You can look at subgroup populations, so you can see different groups of students who might need more attention. Do the males need a specific program that is maybe different than the females in our school? Should I focus on our IEP students?”

Taylor is excited for the future of the platform, including the potential to add an audio or video component with additional social cues to the existing text-to-speech/speech-to-text accessibility feature.

“The next stage is culture and climate,” he says. “The data we have is ripe to be able to give you a picture of what the culture of your building is and how that culture changes over time. What does student to student interaction look like? What does teacher to student interaction look like through the eyes of the students and the union of the system?”

While the myriad of AI uses is hotly contested in education circles, offering creative solutions to meet SEL needs is always welcome.

“By embedding real-time emotional coaching, mindfulness prompts, and social-emotional learning into students’ daily experience, EDmotionsAI helps turn emotional growth from a ‘nice-to-have’ into a routine part of schooling,” Taylor says.

Tools They Use

Taylor discusses the tools he and his colleagues use to support EDmotionsAI:

• Classlink — "Our technology partner that helps streamline access and integration across educational tools, making sure EDmotionsAI works seamlessly within existing school systems."
• DBT in Schools — "The global leader adapting Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for K–12 education; together we embed evidence-based emotional regulation, mindfulness, and interpersonal skills into the school day.  
• Break the Hold — "A partner dedicated to helping break cycles of emotional distress, and supporting youth empowerment and mental-health awareness."
• Prompt Inversion — "Working with us to refine and tailor the prompts and AI-driven interactions so that each student’s experience feels personal, supportive, and growth-oriented."
• Lighthouse DIG — "Collaborating on social-emotional learning, data insights, and community outreach, helping us link emotional wellness with measurable student outcomes and school culture."

“Teachers only have so much bandwidth and capacity with new technology,” says Andy Fekete, the Director for Innovation and Technology for Community Consolidated School District 93 in Bloomingdale and Carol Stream, Illinois. “So we want to make sure that as we're introducing new things, we’re doing it as a ‘value add’ and not as a one more thing to manage.”

In those discussions with teachers, Fekete focuses on how new technology can increase their efficiency and improve student learning outcomes, and tries to find a match for their need.

“I try to be a tinkerer, an explorer, and why I find so much value in conference or networking opportunities,” says Fekete. “I fill up notebooks with things that I see so that I'm prepared when a teacher reaches out and says, ‘I just wish that there was a better way to do blank.’ And I'll say, ‘Actually I do have an idea for you!’ Or, ‘Hey, I have a strong PLN that I can reach out to.’”

In his role for CCSD 93, which serves 3,300 students across nine buildings, Fekete oversees technology services, including maintenance and data privacy, and works closely with the curriculum team on effective technology use to support instruction and student learning outcomes.

For this and his other efforts, Fekete was recognized with a Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award at Tech & Learning's Midwest Regional Summit in Chicago.

The Right Tools For The Job

In his work across the district, Fekete stresses the necessity of being intentional about connecting tool investments to meaningful teaching and learning.

“There's a lot of great tools out there,” Fekete says. “But everything is an investment, even if it's a free tool, right? So we focus on how do we ensure that what we're doing really is having an impact on teaching and learning.”

Fekete says the key for him is to find the right tools and resources to support student potential.

“We only have our students for so many minutes during the day and for so many days out of the year,” he says. “So one of the things that I'm really proud of is that the stuff that we have access to is really high-quality so that we can really feel confident about what students have, and that they can use it well to help achieve their goals.”

Looking Forward With CoSN

Fekete has been instrumental in supporting work with CoSN, contributing to the recent Driving K12 Innovation report, which is a guide for education leaders to help navigate an ever-changing edtech landscape. It provides a framework grounded in real-world challenges, transformative trends, and innovative solutions, and highlights three key areas of focus:

1. Hurdles - These are roadblocks that force schools to slow down, prepare themselves, and make a leap. The top ones include attracting and retaining educators and IT professionals, technology evolution, and digital equity.

2. Accelerators - These are real-world megatrends or catalysts that help motivate and increase the speed of innovation. Included are involving learner agency, building the human capacity of leaders, and fostering student voice.

“People are passionate about building the human capacity of our learners and changing those attitudes towards demonstrated learning,” Fekete says. “So what does that look like? Does it have to be an end-of-the-unit summative assessment, or can it be a video project? Can it be a podcast? What does it look like and how is this different from the way that things have been?”

3. Tech Enablers - These are “the tools that grease the wheels” to overcome hurdles and leverage accelerators. Generative AI, analytics, and broadband connectivity fall in here.

Along that line, Fekete is part of a CoSN AI task force developing guidelines for the evaluation, adoption, and ethical use of AI.

“AI is one of the first disruptors in the technology space that is happening to education where we haven't been able to have a master switch that we've turned on and off,” Fekete says. “As long as we've had technology in schools, the schools have dictated, right? ‘When are we going to buy typewriters, right?’ ‘When are we going to bring in computers, right?’ ‘When are we going to connect to the internet?’ etc. For the most part the schools have dictated the pace of those changes.”

Part of the effort to effectively implement AI involves helping to establish a baseline awareness for all educators

“Some people are latching on to it more than others, right? And so we wanted to create a floor for everyone to say, ‘Here's a starting point where everyone can be,’” Fekete says. “And then you can build upon that. But we feel like some people are in the sky and some people are in the basement.”

Fekete says he and CoSN hope to have those guidelines released later this year.

Fekete is also involved in CoSN reports concerning the future of work and ethical innovation, specifically emphasizing inclusivity, ethics, and responsible digital citizenship.

Ultimately, he notes that the challenge with edtech continues to be understanding that it is constantly changing and evolving.

“Everything is moving so fast, so it's really about trying to be progressive and supportive but also thoughtful in our approach,” Fekete says. “I’m constantly thinking about how do we embrace new technologies? How do we ensure that our teachers have the skill set and the mindset to look at the intersection of technology and learning? What does that look like in the year 2025, right? And what does that look like beyond 2025?”

Tools They Use

• Google Calendar and Fantastical - "They keep my day on track and prevent surprises," says Fekete.
• Gmail - "#InboxLife #InboxZero."
• Google Drive (Docs, Slides, Sheets) - "Shared work happens here."
• MacBook and iPad - "My core workspace."
• Moleskine notebook and Retro 51 Pens - "For quick notes when typing feels slower."
• ChatGPT and Google Gemini - "For drafting, planning, and thinking through ideas."
• Adobe Express and Canva - "For clean graphics and quick layouts."
• Spotify - "Music helps me focus."
• Apple Reminders - "Keeps tasks visible so nothing slips."
• A giant water bottle - "Hydration keeps the brain working!"

Tech & Learning is launching the Innovative Leader Report, a new weekly newsletter for education leaders and decision makers. Just as the name implies, this resource will feature actionable education leadership advice, edtech news, best practices, school leader profiles, information about upcoming T&L leadership events, and much more.

“The Innovative Leader Report will be your weekly go-to for everything school leaders need to help their schools and students succeed,” says Christine Weiser, content and brand manager for Tech & Learning. “It’s also a wonderful opportunity to showcase and share the experience and expertise of our longtime advisors, our award winners, and our readers. The content is for school district administrators, by school district administrators.”

By highlighting education leaders from across the nation, the Innovative Leader Report can help in looking beyond your own silo for advice and inspiration. To that end, readers can submit story ideas and news to share–for example, a new book, award, speaking engagement, etc.--and more. SUBMIT YOUR IDEAS HERE.

The Innovative Leader Report will be in inboxes every Tuesday.

SIGN UP HERE TO START RECEIVING INNOVATIVE LEADER REPORT

In her time as Director of Technology at Episcopal School of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Michelle Chenevert has learned that opportunity sometimes arrives in unwelcome company.

“In some cases, disasters have driven what we've had to do,” Chenevert says. “Hurricane Katrina didn't affect Baton Rouge, but it affected nearby New Orleans. We had to open a night school for displaced students from New Orleans who lost their homes, but needed to finish school.”

Chenevert and her team worked overnight, adding computer accounts to make sure students could login and access the wifi so they could graduate, and gain some sense of normalcy.

“These experiences definitely said to us we have to be mobile and ready to pivot at any time, whether it's Covid, whether it’s a hurricane, whatever happens,” Chenevert says. “We need to be ready.”

For her work, Chenevert was recently recognized with the Innovative Director of Technology Award at the Pre-ISTE Summit in San Antonio, part of Tech & Learning’s Innovative Leader Awards.

Chenevert shares how she uses creativity and clever planning to get the most tech bang for the buck, with six tips on innovating on a budget.

Disasters Offer Learning Opportunities

The aforementioned Katrina incident helped galvanize the school board, Chenevert says. “They got together and asked, ‘How are we backing up our files? All those people in New Orleans lost everything. What can we do better if something were to happen here?’”

Chenevert counted herself lucky they started asking questions then when she found herself in a dire situation a decade later.

“We had a flood in 2016–a storm just sat on top of Baton Rouge for days and days,” she says. “It was a slow-to-rise flood, but people still lost their homes. Our school sits in the middle of a neighborhood. We had four buildings flood and had to pivot really fast. We set up temporary classrooms all over campus. The fourth grade was on the visual performing arts stage, split in three classes by the show curtain and the backstage area.”

Fortunately, the nature of the flood gave Chenevert time to move computers on top of tables, so the main issue from rising water was the outlets.

“That fast pivot—we scrambled to provide network, provide wireless, set all these teachers up in temporary classrooms until the damage was cleaned up,” Chenevert says. “It just underlined the need to protect our equipment and our backups. We started a slow shift away from physical servers to the point of moving even our software to cloud backups.”

This move made Chenevert’s job easier in not having to update the physical server because the host company provides updates. And which positioned them well later when the pandemic hit.

“By that time I had moved my middle and upper teachers onto laptops with a plan to finish the lower school that summer,” Chenevert says. “The only desktops I still had on campus were two computer labs. However, everything was shut down March 13, 2020. Luckily, I had enough spare devices and iPads laying around for the lower school teachers to teach from home.”

Keeping an Eye on the Bottom Line

Pivoting also becomes an important skill in tight economic times, or when funding freezes interrupt a well-thought out plan.

“When you think of future forecasting and budgets, it’s all about how to move the needle on this campus and stay current with the times,” Chenevert says. “We have EEF, the Louisiana Educational Excellence Fund, that helps fund and replace my Promethean hardware in the classrooms every few years. We take advantage of Rate Category 1 and 2 to pay for our Internet and any special projects firewall that qualifies.”

Chenevert had relied on Title II and IV funding in the past, but that funding has been frozen.

“So we are pivoting and evaluating our software,” she says. “What are people still using? What are they not using? What can I fund from another budget, what can we live without it until we're unfrozen.”

One of the key solutions to stretched budgets is to maintain a strict schedule on the health and wellbeing of your tech to avoid surprises.

“It’s crucial to make sure devices and tech is kept up to date,” Chenevert says. “We manage our iPads through JAMF and our laptops through Intune. If we see that a teacher’s iPad hasn’t been updated through JAMF in 30 or 60 days, we start reaching out to that teacher. Most often, they just didn’t plug it in. But that also tells us they must not be using it.”

Monitoring usage helps start conversations.

“‘‘Are you using it, is it helpful? Do you need training in that device—is that why it’s sitting on the desk? If you're not using it, I can give this device to someone else who may have a need,’” says Chenevert. “We’re not just dishing out devices just to have them.”

Once the devices are in hands that need them, Chenevert keeps an eagle eye on her replacement schedule. If critical items suddenly reach “end of life” status, being unprepared leads to rush fees and costly purchases without time to vet for best deals.

“I’m always looking at my technology and what we need to update,” Chenevert says. “At one point I can see that none of our hardware is expiring because it still has warranty, but we have this money available, so what can we do?”

Because Chenevert was aware of funds available and the lull in her “needing replacement” schedule, she was able to invest into a decent security system.

“The cameras are so much better quality and the software works with AI searching,” she says. “I can search, ‘child in red shirt with backpack,’ and it instantly pulls all the kids in red shirts with backpacks. Quickly finding an incident on campus and archive footage can make a big impact in an emergency.”

Even with that win, Chenevert continues to look for upgrade opportunities.

“‘What's the replacement life cycle of this item?’” she asks. “You can often go to the vendor's website to get the answer. ‘End of life’ means end of life. You need to make plans to replace that tech in advance and keep track so you’re not falling out of date.”

6 Tips to Innovate on a Budget

Chenevert offers advice to get more out of your tech budget.

1. Long Range Plan: Don’t Break, Fix

Make a plan for five years and understand it may change in three. “Things change fast,” she says. Make a replacement schedule to see at a glance when you have periods of heavier hits to your budget and when you have upcoming lulls that can accommodate upgrades or new programs.

2. Rightsize Your Devices and Software

Run access reports for your tech to discover unused devices or licenses that could be put to better use. Ask questions to provide training, if needed, to help educators make the most of tech.

3. Timing is Everything

Stay on top of expiring back-end hardware. “It’s not pretty,” Chenevert says. “No one cares that you changed out switches or an access point, but they do care that you are giving them internet that works.”

4. Train Yourself

Consider earning microcredentials for relevant software programs. Once you learn everything it can do, you can help teachers in the classroom in a targeted way without pricy PD or outside training sessions.

5. ‘End of Life’ Means End of Life

Don’t waste time and resources putting duct tape bandaids on devices that really need to be replaced or upgraded. Check vendor sites for how much life is left to avoid unexpected interruptions or expensive rush fees.

6. Attend Conferences

Stay up to date by attending conferences, talk with vendors, and participate in mini trainings. Many offer 20 minute sessions during which you can learn what is out there that your school could use. Attend sessions even for tech you already have as you can learn new features to make it work even better for your students.

Tools They Use

• Aruba Cloud (to manage APs & Switches)
• Fortinet (Firewall)
• Verkada (Security Cameras)
• Gage Cloud Voice (Phone System)
• JAMF (iPad Management)
• Microsoft Intune (Windows Device Management)
• Managed Methods (Cybersecurity & Safety)
• PowerSchool SIS
• Canvas LMS
• Seesaw
• Clever
• Adobe
• Microsoft
• Google
• Discovery Education
• BrainPop
• EdPuzzle
• Book Creator
• Gimkit
• IXL
• Apple Classroom
• Canva
• Copilot
• Gemini
• Magic School
• ClassVR

Although basic users of generative artificial intelligence tools can access this technology for free, colleges and universities making big strides in AI must invest in hardware and software. One would expect R1-classified higher ed institutions to be taking those steps, but AI labs—both physical and virtual—are popping up at a number of colleges of all types.

What do in-person AI labs look like and how are they being used? Following is a glimpse at what the AI action is like at four institutions: Pace University, Foothill College, Sacred Heart University, and Bryant University.

How Do Institutions Describe Their AI Lab?

AI lab descriptions can lean explanatory or conversational.

Pace (New York City) and Bryant (R.I.) take the explanatory route:

• Bryant's AI lab main page describes the lab as “a hub for students and faculty to collaborate and explore the potential of AI in business. This dynamic space serves as a showcase for Bryant’s data-driven and innovative culture and promotes the Data Science and Information Systems programs to prospective students and corporate partners.”
• The top of Pace’s page notes, “Students, faculty, and staff come together to research and learn about artificial intelligence—from machine learning and natural language processing to powerful prompts for generative AI.”

Foothill College (of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District in Calif.) and Sacred Heart (Conn.) use the more conversational approach:

• “Welcome to the Foothill College Artificial Intelligence (AI) Lab – The AI lab is where we explore and learn about Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Robotics.”
• “Immerse yourself in the latest AI technology and the chance to collaborate on useful, new applications in our state-of-the-art facility,” beckons Sacred Heart’s AI Lab page. The lab “offers the cutting-edge tools needed to tackle new and arising challenges in our modern world.”

What Needs Do AI Labs Meet?

Pace’s lab, according to an associate dean in a March 2024 announcement, allows the university to “consolidate, strengthen and extend the existing AI initiatives and create exciting new ones in education and research-leveraging partnerships within and outside the university.”

Bryant’s “why” involves allowing students and faculty to collaborate and explore what AI can do in business, plus showcasing how the university has a data-driven culture as well as promoting its data science and information systems programs to prospective students and corporate partners.

Sacred Heart describes its lab as a collaboration to address issues in the world and “collectively drive the contemporary run into digital revolution.” In the process, students learn “how to manage a project and bring a project to completion,” says Bob McCloud, a computer science professor. “In AI, the most important thing we teach them is, what is good data, what is reliable data, and how to structure data so you can use in AI process.”

Foothill, meanwhile, is one of dozens of community colleges collaborating with the American Association of Community Colleges, Dell Technologies and Intel to grow the AI Incubator Network and Intel’s AI for Workforce programs.

Who Can Use AI Labs?

These labs are typically billed as open to all faculty, students and staff. Pace calls it “the central hub of AI for the Pace community, offering training and opportunities to learn, grow and collaborate.”

Internal (students in related courses, the esports club team at Sacred Heart, the student-run Google Developer Group at Pace, for example) and external (like the New York tech community at Pace, invited to network with students) groups are more targeted AI lab users.

What Equipment Do AI Labs Have?

Students and other visitors at Pace bring laptops and connect to the high-performance computing (HPC) and Nvidia GPUs in the lab, says spokesperson Sean Coughlin. Additionally, three Alienware workstations are available. In the same building, the separate Robotics Lab offers hands-on training using a Clearpath Humanoid robot, a mobile manipulator and Clearpath Jackal devices used in computer vision education and research. Plus, Coughlin says, “the lab sports a Shadow Robot Hand.” Ph.D. students conduct AI research, using the robots for experiments and to develop models.

Bryant’s AI lab has a dedicated space for robots and includes two humanoids (Pepper and NAOv6), two vehicle robots, and robotic arms. It houses five collaborative GPU workstations with chips manufactured by NVIDIA, plus movable whiteboards (for more workspace and as privacy partitions) and large-screen monitors. “The AI Lab is designed for students to experiment with machine learning and its applications in robotics,” says Chen Zhang, an associate professor of information system analytics.

Forty Alienware computers with advanced processing capabilities and 24 separate workstations that can access three dedicated servers for student and faculty research are found in Sacred Heart’s lab, which also has object recognition equipment and eye trackers.

What Are Some Ways AI Labs Are Used?

Foothill’s AI lab has supported the college’s Tools for Transition and Work program supporting neurodivergent individuals. Four students in a winter 2023 pilot program spent their academic quarter building autonomous robots and learning engineering and coding skills. The number of participants has since grown to at least nine. Meanwhile, staff and faculty provide AI exhibits and demos at college events, including those for youth from local organizations.

Sacred Heart’s lab has helped the local community, too. In one project, professors and students studied how to improve a municipal tree planting program between the town and homeowners, explains McCloud. The study identified the best tree types and providers for various circumstances.

In another project, Sacred Heart students, professors, athletes and coaches looked at the correlation between time played and performance. The work involved monitoring training, statistics, sleep minutes and game minutes to predict optimal training levels.

“It seems as if some players are playing too many minutes for optimum performance,” says McCloud. “The idea of AI is to be able to look at reliable data and learn from it and then keep learning.”

And in an ongoing study, convolutional neural networks are being used to show how fraud can be detected in painting attribution.

Pace students’ experiential opportunities have included the AI Internship Experience Program. Using the lab, student teams developed AI models that could classify and generate images of butterflies, flowers and Minecraft-inspired visuals. Also, faculty developed a module for a Design Faculty Global Network course, covering equity-centered AI design. About 15 Pace students took the online course, taught by professors from Columbia, Finland, Portugal and the U.S.

Bryant data analytics students have used the AI lab to research a project involving AAA travel booking data and how it can predict whether and why some people cancel their trips. Corporate partners can use the AI lab for meetings, presentations and research, with the hope that students with expertise in AI, machine learning, analytics and robotics could participate, plus serve as a recruitment pool.

When students have opportunities to work with AI, they’re not only building technical skills but also becoming skilled in project management and bringing new information to the world.

“Students learn how to define scope, they learn how to say what they’re going to do in a project at the beginning,” says McCloud. “We focus on constructing or importing accurate, reliable data sets and then figuring out how to use those data sets to increase knowledge.”

“When you dream of something, you are really putting what your wants are into reality,” says Terri Webb, Manager of Instructional Technology at Georgia’s DeKalb County School District (DCSD).

So rather than guess at the needs and wants of students when it comes to the education technology they might learn with best, Webb and her team went directly to the source.

“Instead of the district pushing devices, the students created videos telling us what their dream device looks like, the different features within, how it should be used and carried,” she says. “All the things your parents would tell you, but you don't listen because you're listening to your friends who are much smarter than adults.”

The result was the Digital Dreamers program, which launched in 2018 when the district instituted their 1:1 initiative for middle to high schools (2:1 for elementary).

Webb, along with Instructional Technology Coordinator Natasha Lawyer, were recently recognized for their efforts with the Innovative Educational Technology Specialists Award at the Southeast Regional Leadership Summit as part of the Tech & Learning’s Innovative Leader Awards.

Webb and Lawyer discuss their impressive Digital Dreamers program and their other edtech efforts, plus offer three tips to create your own student focus group to inform tech choices that resonate.

Ambassadors Take Charge

Enlisting student input has long been key in the district, including starting a student AI Cohort and a Hackathon focused on the school portal design.

“It was so impressive! We said, ‘Let's stop asking the leaders what they want, the students will empower us to give them what they need to have fun while learning,’” says Webb. “Accessibility features, AI, cybersecurity—they even spoke about empathy between one another in the classroom. They wanted us to recognize that not all students can afford Apple devices and flashy tools.”

Insight from students refocused the team to help students with the tools they had.

“We saw students teach one another what a certain tool is, the purpose of the tool, and how we maintain a safe digital playground,” says Webb. “These students in turn became our ambassadors.”

Then a surprising thing happened. The ambassadors decided they didn’t really need much school leadership.

“We were trying to start a club to help students fix the Chromebooks. The students said, ‘We don't need to fix the Chromebooks, we need to teach the teachers how to use the Chromebooks,’” says Webb. “It was really cool—‘In Ms. So-and-so's class, we have to show her how to share her screen or a document.’ They shared what we need to know to support them.”

Tech for Littles

Reaching students when they’re young helps start their tech journey in a positive manner.

“We built Magical Moments with Microsoft—a virtual summer program that allows second-to-eighth grade students to play with tech,” says Webb. “They use Microsoft to build apps and games. We wanted to expand and give the ‘littles’ a taste so we chose Digital Game Design, Robotics, Video Production, Multimedia Apps and Graphic Design categories. We asked the schools to try it out, hoping for 30 students. We got over 300 applications. We now have pre-K students podcasting, first graders building video games—creating serious projects and presenting their work to judges.”

Holding tech-celebratory events can lead to big things in the district and beyond.

“Our Tech Competition is a wonderful opportunity for students (grades 3-12) to have their own voice and choice in sharing their knowledge,” says Lawyer, who co-directs the event. “They showcase their tech skills from the classroom, gaining real world experience of presenting in front of a judge to show how they have transformed over this school year.”

“When I led the Tech Competition, we were excited to get 200 students to register,” says Webb. “Natasha looked at the data to see which areas of the district we were missing and personally went into the schools to explain the event. To expand it to over a thousand students in three years is phenomenal.”

“Equity was a big component,” says Lawyer. “We saw disparity with some schools who weren't being represented, so we targeted that group to say, ‘Hey, you deserve to be a part of this as well!’ We knew they were doing the work. When you hear ‘tech competition,’ it can seem so abstract or complex you feel like your students can't do it. Once we really got in the trenches, it opened teachers’ eyes.”

The district enlists digital learning team liaisons and volunteer teacher sponsors. Interested students visit a sponsor who works between the school and parent to make sure they get the work done through an appointment system or in computer labs with a dedicated teacher.

“It’s amazing to still get teachers passionate about teaching and learning without putting a dollar amount to it, because they care so much about the students,” says Webb. “Busy principals are overwhelmed, so we approach them with a ‘wow moment’ in their building. They get excited, ‘Oh! my school is doing this?’ They then support us even more.”

At Techpalooza, the district brings in vendor partners to share what’s new with students and community stakeholders.

“We feature interactive presentations, with new tech students can touch and feel to really get their curiosity going,” says Lawyer. “Inviting the community fosters conversation with parents. grandparents, cousins, siblings—everyone comes to support their students.”

Pipeline to Profession

Engaging a larger audience can result in unexpected benefits.

“One ninth grader has been a Tech Competition first-place winner for three or four years,” says Webb. “He emailed me with a business plan. He recreated an app we use for our event visitors in a way that the students can log in and be notified when it's their time to present. He knew he couldn’t get paid for the tech, so he negotiated to have his own professional table as a featured person at Techpalooza. He presented to vendors and leaders, sharing his resume and LinkedIn information.

”The kid is a businessman at ninth grade, a professional before he can even drive! After the Techpalooza, vendors and tech companies were begging to come in and support our students saying, ‘How can I create a scholarship for this kid?’ They want to nurture and prepare him for possibly working with their company. That’s what I call ‘pipeline to profession.’”

Webb says it all stems from open communication and listening to students.

“When you go to a restaurant or shop in your community, you know that that's a student that came from your school,” she says. ‘I’m always talking to everybody, ‘What school did you go to? What did you learn? What do we need to do next?’ And they tell us.”

3 Tips to Create An Impactful Student Focus Group

Webb and Lawyer share their advice for how to use students to support students.

1. Embrace the personality of the student. Allow them to just talk. Listen to the frustrations, listen to the excitement, listen to everything. Then validate their feelings and concerns by showing interest and feedback on at least one piece of what they're saying, so they understand you support them and that their thoughts matter.
2. Be open minded. Sometimes students can surprise you with the depth of their knowledge and observations in the classroom regarding tech that works and when it could work if handled better by teachers. Let them give you advice and then navigate that advice with the students.
3. Offer space and opportunity to share. Give students the opportunity to talk to leaders and decision-makers. A lot of times people making tech choices don’t have the opportunity to sit in front of students. Creating a student advisory committee space where kids can speak—about the tech, the devices, what they would like to see in the classroom—can change the game. We can learn from them.

The Tools They Use

• Microsoft
• Ignite U
• Chromebooks

• Innovative Leader Award

When Laurie Dale started her role as Senior Leader of Assistive Technology Solutions at Ability Beyond, she knew she had to get creative when it came to providing technological assistance to young adults with disabilities.

“It was me, myself, and I,” Dale says. “So I looked around and thought, 'Well, who am I going to trust to help me with this project?' And the only people I really trust, as far as their opinions go, are the people using the technology for themselves. So that's how we came up with the TIP Squad.”

The TIP (Technology Innovations for Peers) Squad provides young adults with disabilities the chance to learn technology skills and build adaptive solutions to barriers they and their peers face.

These days Dale and the students she works with are quickly and cheaply building adaptive tools with the help of 3D printers. It’s been a very successful program at Ability Beyond, a nonprofit with locations in Bethel, Connecticut, and Chappaqua, N.Y., that educates and assists people with disabilities. The organization recently received $32,000 in grants from Verizon for the TIP Squad.

Dale says that educators looking to start similar accessibility programs with the help of 3D printing should remember it’s easier than it looks and that students benefit in many ways.

3D Printing and Accessibility: Listening To What Those With Disabilities Need

3D printers are amazing devices, and designing accessibility tools can sound high-tech, but the process itself is straightforward.

“We just make what's needed,” Dale says. “Somebody has a need. And they say, ‘What about this?’ Or ‘How could we help this person with that?’ And we just make it from there.”

The types of tools they make with 3D printers include a device that makes it easier for someone to hold a pen or crayon, and another tool that can steady a key so someone who might not otherwise be able to open a lock now can. Another tool is a device that rolls dice, which can allow for more accessible gaming.

Sometimes Dale and her team design their own tools, while in other instances they find existing designs at Makers Making Change, a nonprofit that provides open-source 3D printing designs for assistive tech tools.

Starting a 3D Printing Program and Jobs Training

If you’re an educator thinking of starting a 3D printing program with students, Dale’s advice is: Go for it!

“It's easier than you think, and you just have to do it," she says. "The only way to really understand it is when you start printing it, and you go. 'Well, why did it do that?' And then you can figure out why it did that.”

Her program has been designed as a job-training program as well.

“The TIP Squad has always been about getting an honest opinion from someone with a disability and using the technology and working toward soft skills for employment,” she says. “The TIP Squad members have to come on time. They have to wear specific clothes. They have to be neat. They have to work together as a team, all those beginning steps that make for successful employment.”

AI and The Future of 3D Printing

Dale says that while many new tech advances are not designed with accessibility in mind, “the byproduct is, people with disabilities can be more independent.”

That’s very true of AI technology, which will help bolster assistive technology in many ways and could make 3D printing easier for everyone.

“Within a year or two, you're going to be able to say, ‘I need a hand brace.’ Just say it, and it will print it,” Dale says, which isn’t as far out as it may sound since 3D designs are already available on the internet. AI might also be able to help guide students through the 3D printing process.

“A large part of the difficulties TIP Squad members face is communication,” Dale says. “Reading, understanding certain things, understanding how people are talking to them. AI can really help change that.”

• Best 3D Printers For Schools
• Teaching Robotics And STEM With The Help Of 3D Printers

Many of us struggle with deciding whether AI is a good thing or a bad thing, but most understand that it’s here and it is not going anywhere. Schools are also grappling with how best to implement AI into their classrooms and curriculums. Students, however, may tend to stumble upon AI themselves without understanding how it can be used or how it should be used.

Here we speak with Eric Lawson, Director of Technology and Innovation at York School Department, about a unique method of introducing students to AI while also providing subtle guidance in its use and information about best safety practices.

What is AI “Speed Dating”?

The need for AI-focused learning is apparent, but there still is no overall agreed upon method of how to best teach children on its use. As AI continues to evolve, so too does the need to update what we know and how we teach.

While it might seem like a daunting task to keep up with an everchanging goal post, a solution may have been found: An AI lab specifically designed for student exploration and experimentation.

“It kind of grew organically,” says Lawson of the approach to introduce AI in bits and pieces. “We had a bunch of sixth grade teachers say that [they know kids are using AI and they need to get out in front of it]. How are we going to do this? About three years ago, they asked what we could do to explore different AI tools and to interview people in our community who were using AI for good work. That’s how we started.”

Although teachers were showcasing AI, Lawson says they wanted to create a situation in which students could hands-on experiment with it. Thus, a sort of AI speed-dating lab was born.

“I dreamed up this idea of having an AI lab, where we had 10 different stations with different tools all over the place,” says Lawson. “I created generic accounts. We read the students a riot act (don’t enter any personal identifiable information). ‘We’re not going to be using your accounts, so that information being fed into these AI prompts isn’t going to be yours necessarily. It’s just an experiment.’”

With a strong understanding of safety practices as well as parental consent, the students were able to explore the AI tools in short intervals.

“We had this kind of tool that they would go through and speed date different AI tools around the room, constantly switching every 10 to 15 minutes,” says Lawson. “Then they would reflect at a later time how a tool could be used appropriately. How a tool could save time. How it could enhance learning. They would also reflect on if a tool had any hiccups or concerns. How could that AI tool be used inappropriately, or how it could be harmful to students. They went through that in two different rotations to see everything that they could.”

Alongside well-known tools such as Magic School and School AI, each station that the students had access to provided a different form of AI interaction. These prompts would introduce an aspect of AI, ranging from how AI can be detected in imagery to using AI to create animation, video, and sounds. Students would then be asked to note how they would use these AI tools and what they learned in doing so.

Concerns with AI Use

Introducing students to AI can have benefits, but making sure they stay safe while using it is important.

“We didn’t want to use any AI tool that hadn’t signed our statewide student data privacy agreement,” says Lawson. “We were also very cognizant about any terms of services for any tools. Because these kids were right in that 12 age range. That’s why we got parental consent on some of these tools. That was a big reason for creating generic accounts. There was no information being passed through.”

What about the oversight of AI use for the students?

“Before we did the AI labs with the students, we had the staff run through it so that they could see what the tools look like, see if there were any hiccups,” says Lawson. “We even forced them to do an inappropriate prompt to see what the output might be. Then we had four adults in the room during the lab that were just walking through so that if [there was a technical issue or an output issue], we could come in to make sure that we redirected students to the appropriate use.”

How to Implement AI Speed Dating for Your Students

Keeping up with AI can be an arduous task, but approaches such as an AI lab can make it easier and fun to do. Here’s a few best things to keep Lawson says to keep in mind if you want to create something similar in your school.

“You need guardrails ahead of time,” says Lawson. “If you do not have an AI policy, there at least needs to be something spelled out. Parental consent was necessary for us, and the parents weren’t going to sign off until they saw where the guardrails were.”

Protecting student information is paramount.

“Ensure that you have enough generic accounts signed into all the tools ahead of time so that students aren’t accidentally going to sign in with their accounts and make it unsafe,” says Lawson. “Having that figured out ahead of time [is important].”

Knowing what the students wanted to learn about is key as well.

“We did it with a survey because we wanted to find out students' needs and interests,” says Lawson. “We then curated different tools based on those themes. The staff then went through them to understand which tools were going to be legit.”

By asking students about their AI related interests, vetting and learning the AI tools themselves, and creating a safe and secure learning environment, educators were able to introduce learners to a broad spectrum of AI-related tools able to help prepare them for the future.

• AI Starter Kit for Teachers
• AI Resources for District Leaders

In the realm of education, innovation has been a sought-after spark to help evolve how we teach our students. In recent years, technology has evolved in leaps and bounds, creating new ways for how education is delivered.

This month, CoSN has released the Top Hurdles, Accelerators, and Technology Enablers Shaping K-12 Innovation in 2025. This is a comprehensive list of the obstacles, initiatives, and tools that will shape our technological year going forward.

What are the Hurdles, Accelerators, and Technology Enablers?

For 2025, technology in education is primed for innovation the likes of which we have never seen before. CoSN has identified tools that will be majorly impactful, areas that will help push us forward in educational technology, and areas that we can tackle to make the educational space better overall.

Tech Enablers for 2025

- Generative AI: Artificial intelligence is becoming more commonplace in schools as well as in our general lives. Finding safer and more effective ways to implement generative AI is a goal that will help both students and teachers.

- Analytics & Adaptive Technologies: Data can be a powerful tool, and the data from education can be used in many ways, including helping educators make more informed decisions on their interactions with students. Meanwhile, adaptive technology can bring us closer to personalized education that caters itself to the needs of each individual student and brings them closer to recognizing their full potential.

- Untethered Broadband & Connectivity: In order to keep up with the evolving trends in education, a steady and stable internet connection is required. Being able to consistently access the internet without the need for wires and cables can increase our mobility and open up a world of new possibilities.

Accelerators for 2025

- Learner Agency: Giving students the ability to take control of their education can have a profound impact on engagement, improving the overall quality of the instruction they receive. This idea breaks a student out of the typical idea of school, turning them into learners and giving them more freedom in how they learn. This also would fundamentally change the role of the teacher, giving them the opportunity to evolve their instruction to better suit the needs of all their students.

- Building the Human Capacity of Leaders: In the same way businesses invest in their employees, schools investing in their educators can improve the educational environment. Providing the opportunity to learn new skills through PD can spark innovation in teachers and break through the stagnancy of current education models.

- Changing Attitudes Toward Demonstrating Learning: If the question “Where am I going to use this information?” has ever popped up, then there might be a need to reexamine how we understand and assess student learning. Finding and promoting connections between K-12 learning and higher education or the professional world can better inform how we teach and help students relate to what they are learning.

Hurdles for 2025

- Attracting & Retaining Educators and IT Professionals: Both school teachers and IT professionals are seeing obstacles when it comes to working in an educational environment. These can range from daily stressors to inadequate compensation. Teachers may specifically deal with more stress due to academic numbers and interactions with students, while IT professionals might find it hard to work in a school when they may have better opportunities elsewhere.

- Evolution of Teaching & Learning: As the world around education continues to evolve, so too must the world of education evolve. In order to best prepare students for the road ahead, schools must be able to keep up with trends. This includes breaking from older forms of teaching and learning, enabling students to learn in ways that suit them best, and empowering teachers to better understand how they can play a role in a student's formative years.

- Digital Equity: Students are better able to succeed when they have the tools necessary to do so. This can mean physical tools such as laptops and Chromebooks, or this can involve the attention and detail provided by educators to enhance their understanding of the technology of the times. Students will also be primed to succeed in education when they are properly represented in the tools they use and experiences they have. Finding a way to achieve this outcome may have a profound impact on education.

How These Topics Were Chosen

Preparing for the world of tomorrow is an ongoing task in an everchanging education landscape. While these nine topics are each important individually in helping education ready learners for the future, there are overlapping themes.

“These are the nine topics that a global board of 130+ educators and technologists identified as most important,” says Laura Geringer, Driving K-12 Innovation Project Director. “At the end of the day, it’s not about telling you the answer, or predicting the future, but rather about the future(s) we’ll create together.”

As the years have gone by, the topics we see as being important may fluctuate, but the overall message remains the same. To achieve the educational environment we want to see, we must remain vigilant in pushing the space forward in all aspects.

“The Advisory Board identifies the most important topics for driving K-12 innovation in the coming year, but we also look for bridges that span multiple topics,” says Geringer. “This year, ethical innovation was a theme that appeared time and again in our conversations: the ideas that the why of innovation or change matters, as does who’s included in and served by the process. We also saw themes of personalization, the future of work, and critical media literacy arise with several of the Top Topics.”

It’s clear that education is in a different place than it was decades ago, but for educators and decision makers, there is still plenty to do to ensure that the future of education and our young learners will remain at the forefront of innovation.

For more information on the Top Topics Driving K-12 Innovation, click here!

• AI Resources for District Leaders
• New School Leader Starter Kit

Since the pandemic, many schools have been struggling to implement ways to audit their STEAM-related tech. Whether their laptops are broken, their microscopes are missing, or they have equipment in boxes in a closet somewhere, many STEAM tools of the trade go unchecked. This can lead to unnecessary funds being used on tech that may already exist in a school or at another school in your district.

Here we speak with Kerri Wall, Senior Digital Innovation Administrator for the School District of Indian River County in Florida, about her innovative STEAM Checkout system, how it helps keep tech organized, how it helps save money, and how you can do something similar.

STEAM Checkout: How it Works

Keeping track of the sheer amount of STEAM tech in your school can be a daunting task, even for a dedicated inventory specialist. Even if you believe you know everything about what your building is housing, you might be surprised at what you find (or don’t find). Having a system in place makes for easier inventory and accurate record keeping, and that is the essence of Wall’s STEAM Checkout program

“I took over this position in visual integration and we were looking for LEGO spike robots for a class,” says Wall. “A teacher had requested them. We knew we had them in the district and they were somewhere. So we started looking for them. We still had classroom carts, and so we were going through the classrooms looking for computers that might have been stowed away. There was just an enormous amount of materials that were in closets. It was truly shocking.”

And thus, STEAM Checkout was born.

“What we did was we said, ‘We want to gather all of the resources that are in the district and put them in a centralized location and manage them,’” Wall says. “I had to do a lot of promising to schools that [if it’s your equipment, you’ll get first dibs]. We’ll make sure we get everything back, and then we will expand what you have access to. And I had several schools that I had a really good relationship with, so they were really all about that collaboration.”

Being able to pool resources district wide and have a multitude of devices at district disposal enriches the experience of each school involved, simplifies the organization process, and helps to reduce overall spending.

Another aspect of the STEAM Checkout system is the inclusion of professional development to ensure that educators are well-versed in how all available technology works. One aspect of school technology not being used, as Wall points out, is that teachers shy away from what is unfamiliar.

“We purchased our K-5 laptops, lab discs…and teachers weren’t using them,” says Wall. “They didn’t know what they were. So with creating the central checkout, we also had to provide PD. We’re really lucky that our district does a district-wide PD day as our kickoff to teacher planning. At that PD session we did an entire half-day session on all the equipment that was available on STEAM Checkout. They called it ‘tech tapas’. You spent 20 minutes and you put your hands [on a piece of technology], you did a little activity, and then we handed them a lesson plan.”

With this process in place, no one person holds all the information about the technology available in a classroom, school, or the district. All teachers involved in the PD session are able to use all of the tech available through the STEAM Checkout system.

How Can You Create Your Own STEAM Checkout?

Putting together a program such as STEAM Checkout is no small feat, but the payoff is clear when an entire district can share its resources. As Wall explains, getting everyone on the same page–or spreadsheet–is a good place to start.

“So the first step is we created a shared file,” says Wall. “We had a STEAM coordinator, and what they wanted to do is they wanted to know what the schools had. So they created a shared file. Here’s a tab for every school you have. Tell us what you have.”

What happens if a school misreports their inventory?

“You have to be boots on the ground,” explains Wall. “You have to be hands on the doors. Open the doors and look through the closet and take pictures and write it down. It’s laborious, but it has paid off so much for us…we did it. It was 22 days because we had 22 sites, and we just went all hands on deck. We went room to room, closet to closet. We documented, we wrote, we took pictures, and then we compiled a full list. That was such a financial savings because the district was buying supplies that the schools had. That was year one.”

After you compile the list, what next?

“Year Two was ‘Who will share,’’’ says Wall. “Let’s at least get some things that we can share [among the district]. Then Year Three was the true STEAM Checkout and organization. But you do have to have someone who centrally manages the equipment and the sharing of the equipment. I’m blessed that we have the space, that we have a location where we can house everything and can move it around the district. We have a delivery guy whose whole job is to pick up broken computers and return repaired computers. We just added STEAM Checkout to his route.”

Inventory, organization, and logistics are essential to getting a system such as this off the ground. And as Wall mentions, don’t be dismayed if it takes a while to get started.

“If somebody truly wants to do this, it’s at least a three-year process,” says Wall. “Year One is inventory. Year Two is the baby steps of getting buy in and participation. Year Three would be actually taking ownership of the supplies and figuring out how to organize them, house them, move them, and load them out.”

If you’re intent on changing how your district uses and shares its tech, a STEAM Checkout system can go a long way in achieving that goal.

• Best STEM Apps For Education
• Best Practices for Implementing STEM Resources

Teachers are tasked with educating students to the best of their abilities. Sometimes that ability is impeded by the amount of work a teacher has to do outside of the classroom.

However, with the advent of AI, new tools now have the unique ability to take care of many time-consuming tasks teachers face on a daily basis. It can be difficult to know what tools can be used for or whether these should be used in a professional educational setting. If implemented in the right way, however, AI has the opportunity to lighten the workload and create more time to reinject humanity into their interactions with their students and the community they serve.

Here we speak with Brett Roer (CEO and Founder of Amplify and Elevate Innovation), Maximillian Re-Sugiura (principal of High School of Art and Design in New York City), and Dr. Andy Szeto (Academic Policy, Performance, and Assessment Lead for NYC Department of Education) about how AI can have a transformative impact on educational leadership.

These gentlemen originally presented this topic at the NYC Tech Summit 2025.

Knowing What AI Can Help You With

In order to understand what AI can help teachers accomplish, it is important to understand what help is needed. Tasks such as creating curriculums and lesson plans, assigning seating for students, making quizzes and tests, etc., can all be challenging at times. Roer suggests that the best way to introduce AI into a teacher’s professional life is by identifying general problems to start.

“I push past any skepticism people have about AI by saying, ‘What if AI doesn’t exist, what are the problems you’re facing as a district, as a school, or in your personal work-life balance?’” says Roer. “These problems probably existed pre-AI, so let's start naming the problems. Is the issue that you don’t have enough time, you don’t have enough capacity?”

Re-Sugiura agrees it makes sense to start by identifying the pain points, suggesting a self-audit. “It’s really helpful for folks to do some kind of activity tracker for a standard work week,” he says. “How many hours you’re using, how it’s cutting into your own time, and then you have to pare down the things that you know you can automate, as opposed to the things that you don’t know how to do, because there’s going to be a learning curve.”

Understanding the Ins and Outs of AI

Once you have a clear understanding of the problem you’re trying to solve, knowing whether you can use AI to solve it is the next step. AI tools are extremely popular, and many of them solve similar problems, so it helps to gather as much information about these tools as possible. Knowing the capabilities as well as the limitations of any platform can help to inform you on what would be the best ways to have AI help.

“There’s a commitment to knowing what AI can do for you and what AI cannot [do],” says Szeto. “I think there’s some fearmongering with AI these days. Some teachers will tell you that AI can’t [be used] for a lesson plan.”

With so many variables, taking the time to perform due diligence on the tools you mean to use in the educational space is time well spent.

How to Implement AI in Your School or District

When it comes to introducing an AI into your school or district, there are many factors to consider in the process. Knowing your state’s AI policies and guidelines as well as your district’s is the first step.

“Make sure you’re allowed to [implement AI],” says Re-Sugiura. “This is good [because you need to have] an open dialogue with state municipalities and then, ultimately, district leadership when it comes to what kind of programs schools are saying they are comfortable working with.”

Knowing what’s acceptable to use and whether it's covered under any guidelines is key, especially when it comes to data privacy. Platforms should be COPPA- and FERPA-compliant as well. Once an AI solution has been properly vetted, you can then attach it to the problem you’re trying to solve. And with an AI solution to your problem, you’ll be able to recover significant time that you can put into other endeavors.

Professional development can conjure images of dry, ineffective meetings for teachers, ice breakers, small talk, and time lost that could be spent doing anything else. Now some districts are exploring a more engaging way to develop their teachers without the typical monotony of PD.

Aimee Bloom, Supervisor of Instructional Technology for Buffalo Public Schools, discusses her work in transforming traditional PD into instructional technology coaching rounds and bringing it into a more communal space.

Teachers Learning From Teachers

As students have been expected to learn subjects in one grade and bring that knowledge into the next grade, teachers are expected to continue this cycle without knowing whether the students are going to seamlessly integrate into a new curriculum. In short, an imaginary barrier exists between grade levels, curriculums, and teachers, and navigating that can be a challenge.

Bloom has integrated a system of instructional technology coaching rounds that operate similar to medical rounds. It creates a structure that eliminates that barrier and helps teachers learn from each other without feeling judged.

“Instructional rounds are nothing new to education,” says Bloom. “They’re very similar to when doctors go on their rounds with their residents, and they learn how to do medical procedures, how to talk to patients, and how to learn the medical profession.”

Bloom notes that teachers are observing students all the time, so translating that to an instructional round allows teachers to observe and learn from one another.

“You don’t get a lot of time to work with peers and learn from one another,” she says. “So I had the idea a few years ago to do these instructional rounds with our teachers, and five or six of us went to each other’s buildings. They just carried on their normal classroom [routines]. We would [then] get together, talk about norms, how we see each other fit in our everyday [lives].”

Having these sessions gives teachers a stress-free environment to collaborate with one another about what and how they teach. With the amount of intangibles that exist in education, learning how others conduct their classrooms can help to bridge the gap between curriculums and grade levels, potentially leading to more well adjusted students.

Benefits and Detriments of Instructional Rounds

When creating new approaches to educational collaboration, such as a new approach to PD, there are bound to be benefits as well as obstacles to overcome.

“The Buffalo School District is a large school district,” Bloom says, “Not every single one of my instructional coaches have been in each other’s [schools]. There’s so much to learn from. Like, one of the schools I went to, a [multilingual] school, 47 different languages. We learned so much about making sure that there’s equity among programming. So there’s so much to be learned, especially in this role, because you never know where we are going to be placed next year.”

What about any potential blowback or adverse comparisons to traditional PD? What does a district need in order to implement this system among their schools and teachers?

“I’ve made this completely voluntary,” says Bloom. “I explain to them that there’s going to be a set of norms. They have a preliminary sheet that they have to fill out [about what to expect within the program]. Most of this is going to be that authentic learning experience. This is not prescribed. This is all what you would be experiencing just like if you’re a doctor with a resident doing your rounds.”

If your district would like to have a similar system in place, Blooms says that having volunteers over mandatory participation is key to generating the kind of interest you’d want. As an organic experience, letting teachers know they will be learning from one another (and not judged on their performance) is also important.

Bloom adds that having a core group of believers goes a long way toward getting a program such as this off of the ground.

“Start small to go big,” says Bloom. “Pick your front runners, pick the ones that are volunteering, and once it catches on, start from there. That’s the best way. Ideally, I would love to see this setting within a building where third grade teachers are going into fourth grade classrooms just to bridge that gap of curriculum a little bit, not for judgements. Just don’t force people to do it.”

What Tools Aimee Bloom Uses:

• Google
• Microsoft
• Schoology
• Adobe
• Canva
• Infinite Campus
• Clever

• Best Sites for Educator Professional Development
• Tips for Tech-Savvy Professional Development

As time has passed, education has seen various changes that have created innovative moments throughout the years. While some jump to embrace these changes, others wonder whether most innovations are necessary to enhance the impact of the educational process for students.

Here we speak with AJ Juliani, Instructor for the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education and bestselling author of Adaptable. Juliani explains how AI has made its way into education and its potential impact on the future of education.

Juliani will be delivering the keynote at the upcoming Georgia Educational Technology Conference.

AI In The Long Line of Edtech Advancements

While AI is the latest form of technology to spark an almost endless amount of innovation in the educational environment, it is far from the first impactful advancement the space has seen. Whether we recognize it or not, there have been a steady stream of technological innovations in education, and AI is no different.

“Our previous two [advancements] have been computers and the internet,” says Juliani. “They have led us down this path of some amazing uses and tools. But we are also living in a world of continuous partial attention due to it. So we ask, ‘How do we handle this kind of teaching and learning in this era of distraction, and then add in this new hinge of history with artificial intelligence? What does that look like right now for the future? How are we going to not only adjust education for this reality, but also think about how we can create the best path forward for us and our students?’”

Much like computers and the internet, AI in its infancy has produced many questions about its use in education. Most popularly, AI has been referred to as a way for students to circumvent normal school work. But as we move forward, more constructive ways to apply AI in education have been found, including methods that help students express themselves as well as ways for teachers to offload menial, time-consuming tasks. AI has produced many innovations, and, as Juliani points out, it has had a much bigger impact in a much shorter time frame.

“It’s on all the devices we are already using, right?” he says. “It’s built into the things we already have access to. All these kids in schools already have the devices, and then here comes AI. I think it’s going to be very impactful in a lot of different ways, both good and bad. We’re less than two years since ChatGPT came out and think about how much has changed just in that short amount of time.”

Keeping an Open(AI) Mind

At this point, AI is unavoidable for students, teachers, and anyone else with a connected device in their hands. The question now becomes how involved AI should be in our learning and teaching processes.

“One of the big focuses of my keynote, and a lot of the work that I do, is us, as educators, really deciding what do we value as human in the educational practice,” says Juliani. “Because AI shouldn’t be used for everything. There are so many things that need to be human, social – meaning centered, language-based – that we don’t want to replace with something that is technology just because it’s easier.”

What’s an example of where such a choice would come into play?

“We want kids to have productive struggle, right?” says Juliani. “We don’t want just AI to solve [problems] and not have that productive struggle. We know that doesn’t help in learning environments. We want kids to have messy conversations back and forth. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows.”

He also points out that there are still questions about AI involving ethics and bias. “Education is a very human practice. What do we value about that where we want to keep [certain things] human and make sure [these things] aren’t just taken over by robots?”

As the shiny, newest form of innovation, many look to how to use AI instead of asking if AI should be used at all. Knowing how to adequately implement a blossoming form of educational technology can help maintain the core values of the educational process while keeping innovation at the forefront. But we cannot forge ahead successfully without first having important conversations such as Juliani raises.

• AI Starter Kit for Teachers
• How AI Can Make Individualized Learning Easier for Students and Teachers

As we send our children to school, we provide them with varying levels of data that, if left unchecked, could cause unnecessary problems for students late on in life. Plenty of ways are available to try and protect information, but should schools be collecting and holding onto that much data in the first place?

Beverly Miller, Assistant Director of Schools for Administration/Chief Technology Officer for Greeneville City Schools in Greeneville, Tennessee, and recent winner of a Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award for Best Implementation of Data Privacy, discusses how much student information schools should keep and the questions we should be asking about collection policies.

‘Why Are We Collecting So Much Data?’

Thousands of students attend hundreds of schools every year, and each one has data collected in some way in the process. Miller saw this practice as a disservice to students and wondered whether schools should be collecting all of the data that they do.

“As a forty-year technologist, about 15 years ago, I really started to become concerned about the massive amounts of information that we had on both students and the adults who work in a school district,” says Miller. “Long before the real focus on data security and data privacy became such an industry focus, we started working in my little school district in the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee. I started assembling a team of district leaders and district employees. We started by conducting a paper data records inventory. What I became immediately concerned with is the records we had.”

Gathering information on students and teachers isn’t out of the ordinary for a school or an educational system, but Miller took issue with what kinds of data schools were collecting and how long they were holding onto it.

“Along the way, what I started to realize was that we had social security numbers on people all throughout our community because so many had graduated from the Greenville City school system (including our existing students),” she says. “So I really started digging at that time saying ‘Why in the world do we even collect student’s social security numbers?’”

A Two-Pronged Approach to Data Security

Collecting data for a school might not be alarming, but keeping it forever might pose a significant risk to anyone who has attended or is attending that school. The same goes for former and current employees.

To protect both former and current students and staff, Miller led a district-wide initiative to limit access to critical data and bolster security.

“[Our school] became one of the very first schools to completely eliminate student social security numbers,” Miller says. “We went so far as to delete them electronically. We no longer ask parents for that information. But then we went back through all of those historical paper records and shredded all instances of the social security numbers coming up. It just put the district and the individuals at such risk. We made sure that if we were ever breached that the data would include only the absolute minimal data that we needed on people.”

The district also partnered with Scribbles Software to convert roughly 50 years of paper records into a digital system, only accessible in a secure cloud. This streamlined the records management process and made it easier for designated staff to find what they were looking for quickly, and significantly improved security by eliminating the concerns that come with paper-based records systems, such as data being accessed by unauthorized personnel.

The multiple security measures embedded into the cloud-based system also reduces the likelihood of sensitive information falling into the wrong hands. Both of the initiatives above are examples of how Miller’s proactive approach is ensuring student and district data remains private and secure.

Using Data Mitigation to Reduce Risk

As technology continues to evolve, our information becomes more susceptible to breaches everyday. Yet no matter where your school is, controlling the data you keep can be an attainable goal.

“Even though we’re a small rural community school district in eastern Tennessee, I think we have built a model that could very well be replicated and scaled up or down based on school district size,” Miller says, noting her two-pronged approach. “From this point forward, we will have this process in place. It’s just a matter of how dedicated people would be in order to take care of the data. I think of things from a corporate standpoint. People always have a need or use for [information], so they’re always going to find a way to dig information out of you. But from a school standpoint, where things like ransomware attacks are so rampant, having less information to give would actually be more helpful.”

Personal information needs to be protected no matter what. With a template like this in place, students can learn in peace without fearing their data will fall into the wrong hands.

• Innovative Leader Awards
• Keeping Student and Teacher Data Safe and Secure

Data security is a big concern with the amount of technology being introduced to schools in recent years. Knowing how to keep information safe and secure is important, but how can that happen with so many advances in technology being made on a regular basis?

Christine Jones, Coordinator of Educational Technology for the Palmdale School District in California and recent winner of a Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award for Best Implementation of Data Privacy during the Denver Regional Leadership Summit, discusses the ways she has upgraded data safety practices in her school and how educators can keep student and teacher data safe from outside threats.

Data Threats Are Not New

When it comes to protecting students’ data in and out of school, the threats they are exposed to are not a new occurrence. Breaches in security have been happening for years.

“Our district, back in 2016-2017, had a ransomware attack. That was shortly after I joined the district and it was not a pretty sight,” says Jones. “It was a moment where we realized that our security had been set up for physical events very well. We had offsite [areas] where our records were being kept. There were multiple locations in anticipation of fire, earthquakes, and that kind of thing. But we hadn’t done an excellent job of thinking about a digital attack or event.”

On the heels of this event, Jones and the district made a concerted effort to improve cybersecurity efforts.

The Influx of Apps and the Need for Data Privacy Agreements

Previously, computer security was a simple addition of one or two programs to thwart outside interference. Many programs that were used on computers were known to be safe. However, with the ever-growing influx of programs, data is increasingly at risk.

“The risk is higher because everything is installed digitally or comes from the internet, and you’re loading everything up into the cloud,” Jones says. “The bigger issue started happening when a lot of these apps started requiring accounts. You had to have an account to participate or to play. It took a little time to understand what was happening, how that data was being transferred to the application and how it might be used. And that’s when I started carefully reading their policies and their agreements and wondering [what’s happening with our data?]”

Many people tend to sign up for a service or give our information without a second thought. This kind of behavior can put their data at serious risk. But there are some regulations in place meant to safeguard that information.

“In California, we became aware of the NDPA, the National Data Privacy Agreement, and so we started to take a closer look at that and at the same time CITE, California IT and Education, started to lead the charge for how carefully we look at the programs we’re adopting,” says Jones.

As a result, Jones has developed a curated list of “Approved” resources that can be found on the district website that helps to guide staff to digital resources that have been reviewed and have been deemed “high quality.” To receive this designation the resources must have current data privacy agreements (DPAs) in place with the district, have appropriate fully ad-free content for students, and are not connected to social media, blogs, or any other type of social sharing.

The list is updated monthly as DPAs are updated. New resources may be added and current resources may be removed if any fail to adhere to district guidelines.

Implementing Security Measures at the Cost of Convenience

Keeping student information safe is critical, and to do so means making access to devices more challenging.

“We just implemented multifactor authentication this past school year, and we did get some pushback,” says Jones. “So we gave them multiple ways to authenticate. One was through YubiKey. The positives with this method is that you’re the only person with access to the USB device. The negative was that the physical device could be left at home or misplaced. Using MFA, teachers could authenticate with their devices. I’d say that 90% of our staff choose to do it through their phone or their iPad because they found it simpler.”

Even though it might take a little while longer to log into an account or access some sensitive information, having MFA implemented can be the difference between keeping your data safe, and leaving your data wide open for a breach.

Tools Jones Uses

• Classlink
• YubiKey

• Innovative Leader Awards
• Gamifying Cybersecurity Training

Playing a video game is, for most people, a form of escapism. But, as we play these games, we also learn–we learn what the game wants from us to succeed, how to avoid potential pitfalls, and even how to manipulate the system inside the game so that it gives us what we want. Throughout the entire process, we are learning.

This approach is the essence of gamifying the learning process.

Dan Ryder, Director of Design and Innovation at Community Regional Charter School in Maine, believes that making learning more like gaming can have a profound effect on students and how they interact with their work. Ryder was recently honored by Tech & Learning during a recent Regional Leadership Summit with an Innovative Leader Award for the Innovative Director of Design & Innovation.

Using Game-Based Learning to Reach Students 

Students, not unlike working adults, may or may not find pleasure in their work.

“What I tried to do with learners is use their love of gaming in whatever way–card games, video games, role-playing games–find the angle in, and then have them become creators of games that demonstrate deeper knowledge [of a subject],” Ryder says. “Instead of writing a book report or preparing a boring project, I’ll have you design a game. I’ll give you the parameters on it for design. And what we’re asking of the kids is to connect the dots between all these things.”

In the gamification process, having a deeper understanding of the subject matter comes across in how well a student can translate it in game form. Adapting characters as historical figures, portraying historical events as environments in a game, and implementing certain rules to provide certain outcomes can all be a part of the learning process. The student creating the game can also demonstrate expert knowledge of the subject being used as the basis of the game, making the gamification process potent as a teaching and learning model.

Raising the Stakes 

One of the hallmarks of gaming is the addition of stakes as having a reason to play is extremely important in becoming the driving force behind your progression. Understanding what the stakes are in game-based learning is important, but it isn’t the only factor necessary to bridge the gap between education and gaming. Knowing what your margin of error is holds equal importance, while being allowed to make those errors can influence growth.

Ryder explains that students need to have a wide berth when it comes to the learning process as it helps them through their educational and professional lives.

“Every game has trials and errors. You try things, you make mistakes. The only way you learn from it is by screwing up, right? Games that don’t have that aren’t really games,” Ryder says. “[And] if the stakes are so high that you can’t afford to lose, then it’s not really a game. It’s gambling, and I would argue that gambling isn’t a game at all. It’s more of a risk-taking exercise. You can’t really game it because you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Systems, Rules, and Mechanics 

Knowing the stakes is important, but overcoming an obstacle is the main reason you play. Students know about overcoming obstacles throughout their time in school. In order to overcome these, understanding what the world is asking of you plays an important role. Ryder equates this to the mechanics and systems found in any game we play.

“Every game has mechanics and systems. Like Mario, right? There’s a reward system. You get 100 coins, you get a free play. There’s a system to it,” he says. “Then we have rules and guidelines, but rules are different from mechanics. You not being allowed to do something is different than how something works. All of education is one gigantic game system.”

Choice and a narrative (or lesson) are necessary in game-based learning.

“You’ve got choices and consequences in every game. You have the choice you make, and then you have the result of making that choice,” Ryder says. “And finally, you have stories and quests. When I see things get gamified, [people] don’t create stories. They create the most basic system of reward. Maybe there’s a rule involved, but it’s basically a mechanic of performing an action, earning a point, and turning in points for a reward.”

The process of integrating education with gaming is a novel idea that can help open students up to a new side of learning, becoming more accessible and inclusive while also adding an element of fun.

Related:

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The Tech & Learning Regional Leadership Summit is a unique opportunity for educators from various backgrounds to come together for a collective purpose: to find uncommon solutions to common challenges. Educational leaders not only have the chance to network as well as innovate and create solutions, they also are given a voice to share strategies they have tried in their schools or districts.

The Connors Center in Dover, Massachusetts, provided a beautifully lush backdrop of trees and grass that held fast against the ongoing conversation between educators, edtech partners, and other attendees about the advent of technology in schools. As part of a professional learning experience, those in attendance were tasked with creating an action plan based on the various activities they would take part in throughout the day.

Getting Our Feet Wet 

Throughout the summit, there was a concentrated focus on AI, which was bolstered by a fearless and entertaining introduction made by Carl Hooker, the emcee for the event. After being split into teams, attendees were tasked with coming up with a two-minute presentation that encapsulated one action plan to be incorporated in the next school year.

Throughout the day, while some attendees made time for one-on-one meetings with vendor partners, others participated in roundtable discussions based on common educational challenges that were facilitated by experts in multiple fields.

The roundtable talks covered subjects that impacted educators, students, and parents, and included:

• AI Media and Literacy
• Personalized Learning Coaching
• Creating a Personal Wellness Plan
• Integrating Technology into the MTSS Structure
• PD In the Age of AI
• Addressing Chronic Absenteeism
• Data Privacy and Cybersecurity

Chronic Absenteeism Prevention 

An in-depth conversation about chronic absenteeism was led by Michael Hale, Director of College, Career, and Citizenship at Casco Bay High School in Portland, ME. Hale divulged the alarming rate at which high school students who miss school regularly are prone to miss graduation: 30%! Hale also elaborated on other potential detrimental effects of chronic absenteeism, such as diminished health and low future employment prospects.

In order to address the issue of chronic absenteeism, Hale discussed how his district employs a multi-tiered support system designed to help and incentivize regular attendance for students. The system involves support, prevention, and intervention if necessary, designed to help eliminate obstacles keeping students from attending school.

Implementing AI Across a District

Kerry Gallagher, Assistant Principal of Teaching and Learning for St. John's Prep in Danvers, MA, and Kelley Papa, Instructional Coach at St. John’s Prep, discussed how their district prepared a comprehensive plan to integrate artificial intelligence in a way that helps foster an accepting culture among students, teachers, and parents. The process acts as a cycle that will constantly gauge the opinions of all participants to know what direction to take with AI.

Gallagher presented an action plan that worked with existing school policy. The plan is designed to evolve as the needs of the students and educators evolve. The main idea behind the process is not only to educate students, teachers, and parents on the potential of AI, but also to demystify AI from the established reputation it garnered through early media coverage. Approaching AI with understanding makes its use more palatable, and Gallagher and Papa have paved the way for a roadmap for the ever-changing landscape AI in education.

Gamifying Schools, Looking Forward to What’s Cool 

Dan Ryder, Director of Design and Innovation for Community Regional Charter School, presented a game-based and human-centered problem-solving model to help reimagine how to tackle educational challenges. The presentation was accompanied by a brief activity in which participants divided groups of two, learned about game-play styles, and ultimately, each created a game that their partner would enjoy playing.

After the presentation, attendees were given the opportunity to get an advanced look at cutting-edge technology companies. This provided some quality time with industry innovators to get a glimpse of what the future of educational technology could look like.

Artificial Amateurs are Absolutely Amazing 

Once the day reached its final moments, the original teams organized at the beginning of the summit reconvened and, equipped with the knowledge gained throughout the day, created endearing proposals for introducing AI to a school. Some groups had used AI tools to craft and sing unique songs about the benefits of students and teachers using AI. Other groups used AI to create artworks to emphasize the helpfulness of artificial intelligence.

Innovative and Celebrated 

After the team presentations, Tech & Learning recognized the innovative leaders in attendance for their achievements. The Innovative Leader Award winners were:

Innovative District Instructional Tech Specialist: Russell Levendusky

Innovative Director of Design and Innovation: Dan Ryder

Innovative Assistant Principal: Kerry Gallagher

Best Example of Virtual Learning: Jacqueline Gardy

Tech & Learning Regional Leadership Summits offer a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with passionate educators from across the nation. Whether organizing unique solutions to complex and ongoing challenges, or being on the cutting edge of the edtech space, the connections made and time spent here become indispensable in helping to further educational endeavors for students, teachers, and parents.

When the media center at Sebastian River High School in Vero Beach, Florida, needed renovation, Kerri Wall went much further than a new coat of paint. 

Wall is the Senior Instructional Technology Administrator for Sebastian River High School and she created a high-tech, state-of-the-art learning environment that puts students first. For her efforts, she was honored by Tech & Learning during a recent Regional Leadership Summit with an Innovative Leader Award for the Most Innovative Learning Spaces. 

The media center upgrade grew from the idea of creating a central hub for students to explore their educational possibilities. The furniture in the media center is mobile, able to be rearranged to suit the needs of the students when necessary. The center houses 3D printers, a coffee shop (students can eat food in the space), and accommodating chairs and tables.

Student Input Made All the Difference

Input from the students was critical to Wall’s efforts.

“Some of the things they wanted to be able to be in there before and after school–they wanted to be able to eat in there, they wanted their computers. And they wanted to see other groups. They wanted it to be like a hub,” Walls says. “And so we took those points, then we paired them with our renderings to show them, ‘These are the things you want. And these are things we’re going to make happen.’ Then we paired it with the final images and they were able to see exactly what [they] asked for.”

Having input from the students was a major selling point for the useability of the media center. With ideas implemented from student suggestions, students then felt as though they directly impacted their school. “Once you have that input, they’re committed, they’re with you 100%,” she says.

Students even came up with some innovative ideas themselves.

For example, CTE classes can now be seen from the media center, giving students a first-hand look at potential options for their professional futures. This stemmed from the students wanting to have an almost open-air concept for the space.

The renovated media center represents more than just a fancy space for students to work, says Wall. It represents dedication toward the impact students can have regarding their educational and professional futures.

The Blueprint for Student Advancement and Engagement

Seeing the success of the space, the input from the student body, and the support from educational leadership coming together to create something innovative, other schools can use this media center as a blueprint for their own renovation projects.

“Leadership and support is important. I would say you have that kind of perfect recipe,” says Wall. “I have friends in other districts that are already branching out and trying some things because it’s like, ‘Really, we really can do it.’ You don’t feel like you know much about furniture, but, you’d be surprised what a couple phone calls can start to get happening.”

Wall made a concerted effort to create a comfortable space for students to explore educational options and make decisions on their futures. She was empowered by the overwhelming support she received from her leadership group as well as the student input that helped mold the space into the ideal environment for learning and growth.

Now that the media center is fully functional, more students have felt empowered to make it their own, using it for varying purposes.

Wall had a simple purpose for creating this space: give students the tools they need to succeed. With this media center, students can thrive in their educational endeavors and other schools have a blueprint for ways to engage students in their educational futures.

• Collaborating with School Librarians and Media Specialists on Lessons
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In the fast-paced world of educational technology, IT professionals find themselves perpetually inundated with tasks, demands, risk management, crisis mitigation, and other challenges. From troubleshooting technical issues to managing complex systems and budgets, their days are bustling with little time left over for the kind of deep thinking and innovation that drives progress in the field. 

These school district employees are responsible for the very foundation of the educational institution’s technological infrastructure, and they play a crucial role in impacting the teaching and learning process. However, the need for more margin – more breathing room in their days and in their lives – has become increasingly apparent. 

Making Professional “Me” Time 

I left a corporate IT career after ten years to serve in public education and never looked back. After being a public school technologist for the past thirty years, I will retire this year from serving students and teachers to the best of my ability in the same central office of the same school district nestled in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains in beautiful Eastern Tennessee.

I have often talked about one day writing a book about the many best practices that exist in both the private and the public sectors. One thing that I believe the corporation I worked for did much better than the field of education was making time for me, as an IT professional, to grow, learn, and expand my knowledge base within the confines of my regular work schedule. In addition, any continuing education, including advanced degrees, workshops, or conferences, was encouraged and funded, fully or partially. Imagine my surprise when I first questioned the school district human resources team about continuing education cost-sharing opportunities and was told there were no such options! 

The same goes for “thought time” built into the work schedule. As a corporate IT employee, it was acceptable to take a few moments during the workday to read and reflect on an industry article or seek the advice of a colleague about a software tool. 

But if I wanted to do this in my district, I had to be intentional about creating these professional learning and development opportunities. 

If you’re an education IT professional, here are a few suggestions:

• Seek out other like-minded colleagues and professionals for collaboration, brainstorming, and thought partnering. 
• Attend conferences outside the district and seek out workshops, training events, and other opportunities to learn and grow. 
• Sign up for professional publications and spend time vetting articles and ideas. 
• Schedule time in your calendar outside work hours to conduct research on emerging trends and technological advances. 
• Spend time at home reading professional journals and books to stay abreast of the rapidly changing technology field. 

Corporate America careers can be demanding and exhausting, but so can public education jobs. It is almost unimaginable to me when I consider the changes I have witnessed during my own career in edtech. 

If I could leave public school districts with one piece of advice as I retire, it would be to build in time for innovation, deep thinking, and rejuvenation for your people. They need some margin in their professional space. Not only will your employees be happier, more productive, and more content, they will likely be healthier as a result. That must be win-win! 

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With the plethora of new and diverse edtech tools available for teaching and learning, it is an exciting time to nurture innovation in our classrooms. Innovation is connected to the creation of novel ideas that have meaningful societal impacts, and involves essential skills that all students should master, such as the 4Cs of critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration. 

As we prepare students for careers that do not yet exist, curating innovative learning environments will provide the space for them to develop their creative capacities. Many ways that we as teachers can approach fostering innovation are available within teaching and learning spaces. Here are four practical and actionable ideas to get you started.

1. Nurturing Innovation in the Classroom: Cultivate Entrepreneurial Mindsets 

Our mindsets impact the ways in which we think and act. And while successful entrepreneurs have different business and goals, they usually have similar mindsets in terms of thinking outside the box, trying new and different ways of approaching problem-solving, and being relentless in working toward making their dreams realities. 

We want our students to think in this way too, and to do, it is important to cultivate that entrepreneurial mindset as we nurture their creative spirits and encourage them to innovate while learning. This means designing learning activities that ask them to solve problems, question existing approaches, and create different ways of doing things.

2. Focus on Digital Fluency 

Technology has made innovation possible in ways that were once not even imaginable. We are already using generative AI use in the classroom with many more developments each day. 

Many of our classroom learning activities focus on helping students develop their digital literacy skills, which is great for growing their understanding of what digital tools are and how to use these. However, in classrooms that nurture innovation, we must move from digital literacy to a focus on digital fluency, which is necessary in building students’ capacity to use digital tools to create what does not yet exist. 

Students who are digitally fluent produce new, original, and exciting creations that are at the heart of innovation.

3. Leverage Design-Thinking Stages  

Many stages in the design process allow for the space and time to reflect on problems, think of ideas and test any, and come up with a final product. By leveraging similar design-thinking stages in our classrooms, we can nurture innovation in a systematic way, while using tried-and-true principles. 

Start at the problem setting stage where you ask students to reflect and think about their environment, what they would want to create, and who that creation will serve. For example, Siri and Alexa were developed to provide humans with information based on questions they have, eliminating the need for manual research of the weather, traffic conditions, recipes, etc. 

After students come up with a problem, they can engage in the ideation phase, in which they brainstorm and think through ideas for solving it. What would follow is prototyping and testing, and through all these design-thinking stages, innovation can evolve naturally. 

4. Motivate through Mistakes 

With so much focus on grades, assessments, and standardized tests, students are often stressed about perfection. This can stifle creative thinking as students may focus on doing only what needs to be done to secure an “A” grade. 

To provide an environment for students to truly innovate, they need to be encouraged to take risks and try something new, even if that means they make mistakes along the way. 

You can model this approach, showing when you make a mistake and using it as motivation. Students can then think about doing something in a different way, taking away or adding a component, or using alternative digital tools and materials in a design. This is what learning is all about, and what better way to approach it than using previous experiences and outcomes as a base for improvement?   

I hope you will be able to try one or all four of these ideas to nurture innovation in your classroom. Not only will cultivating entrepreneurial mindsets, focusing on digital fluency, leveraging design-thinking stages, and motivating through mistakes help build students’ interest and engagement inquiry, they will also have a stronger stake in the lesson, which will result in meeting learning outcomes.

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You know the leader who is the loudest, most brash, and polarizing personality. They have a chip on their shoulder, and a take-no-prisoners approach, demanding compliance. Yet a host of research shows how toxic and destructive this leader is, especially in schools. Humility is indeed the driver that produces far greater outcomes for school and student success. 

A classic on this subject, Good to Great, characterizes successful leaders by their modesty and openness to feedback. Unpretentious leaders prioritize the collective success of their team over personal glory, fostering a positive and collaborative work environment that ultimately leads to greater outcomes and student achievement. 

Leading With Humility: It Starts With Everyone Else 

You may wonder if this brand of leadership remains relevant, especially since more bombastic leaders seem prevalent today. The answer is a resounding yes. Why then do toxic egos persist in leadership? It comes down to basic psychology. 

People find comfort in leaders who are ego-driven because they appear confident. These individuals are likely to emerge and obtain leadership roles due to charisma, and a willingness to take risks. Crisis or volatility may delude us into thinking these leaders can conquer our problems. Unsettling circumstances attract arrogant, self-assured individuals who project the perception of strength and certainty. 

The danger lies in these leaders’ tendency to thrive on surrounding themselves with individuals who reinforce their self-interest and do not challenge the detriments of their excessive pride. Consider how dangerous this is. Unquestioned leaders can cause drastic consequences if unchecked by narrow viewpoints.

Schools are reliant on the kind of strong leadership that produces a positive student atmosphere and subsequently, greater outcomes. Marzano's meta-analysis of 69 studies found principals profoundly impact student achievement, with highly effective school leaders associated with 10-15 percentile point gains. Skilled principals focus on key behaviors, such as supportive instructional guidance and relationships that drive improved student outcomes.

Principals who exhibit humility by consistently seeking input from others, focusing on teacher development, and admitting mistakes rather than projecting superiority are perceived by teachers as more effective, and project confidence. This style contributes to greater student success by enhancing teacher commitment, innovation, job satisfaction, and instructional quality, all signs of motivating school cultures.

Transformational approaches that challenge egotistical school leadership are discussed in Radical Principals, which points to evidence that embracing inclusive, democratic values and actively working to dismantle oppressive power structures within schools brings much more effective outcomes. These approaches, plus culturally sustaining pedagogy, drive these school leaders to become agents of social justice and systemic changes, fostering schools that empower diverse students and communities.

A 2017 study revealed that humble leaders prioritize service, build trust and loyalty, and foster openness. Leader humility positively influences team creativity and performance, with the strongest impact occurring when a constructively competitive climate is at work. Indeed, humility's critical significance in promoting trust, understanding, and collaboration in leaders is clear. 

Feedback Loop 

Educational leaders face immense challenges guiding schools to success. While confidence and drive are valuable, ego and arrogance undermine leaders' effectiveness in building success. Leadership built on openness and self-awareness benefits schools through increased teacher commitment, innovation, and learning. Openness and self awareness can be gained through shared feedback.

How do we get and act on feedback?

DO THIS: Offer faculty surveys, and be sure to respond to their feedback with actionable solutions. This doesn’t have to be all-encompassing but showing effort to address their concerns demonstrates follow through and responsiveness.

Additional evidence reveals that leader humility promotes beneficial behaviors like workplace care and innovation. By modeling openness, curiosity, and recognition of the faculty’s strengths, school leaders foster motivation and engagement in the school community.

DO THIS: Celebrate your faculty and students in big and small moments. Simple, practical feedback such as a post-it with phrases of encouragement, or certificates relating to teachers achievement, are effective methods. Engaging the school community in positive recognition through programs such as PBIS helps the school community thrive. These have powerful and far reaching results in setting the tone and contributing to a safe, learner friendly environment. 

The evidence shows how humble leaders who can balance confidence and strength, honesty, courage, and commitment to growth set their schools up for success. These factors lay the foundation for empowering students, faculty, and the school to reach full potential. Understanding your school community’s perspective and responding to their needs is critical.

The Benefits for Student Success 

Humble leaders create an environment optimized for student success. By valuing teachers' perspectives, administrators gain insights that better support their faculties’ work and morale. This translates to more effective instruction and nurturing classrooms where students can thrive.

Multiplier leaders also avoid insular decision-making and prioritize collaborating with families, students, and the community. This approach ensures all voices are heard in serving students’ well-being and growth. 

Ultimately, through humility, trust, innovation, and collective wisdom, educational leaders can fulfill their central purpose: helping every child maximize their success.

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In this era of recapturing the attention of students, engaging spaces are another tool to help learners’ minds connect with the material and one another to boost excitement over learning and results. 

Encouraging the use of an active learning classroom is a focus of John Kerrigan, Director of Curriculum & Instruction at Middletown Township Public Schools in New Jersey and recent recipient of a Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award for Innovative Curriculum Director. Kerrigan has an active learning classroom in his district and believes the concept can be an inspiration to others.  

What Is An Active Learning Classroom?  

The active learning classroom model that Kerrigan uses is a concept developed by Rutgers University. It features an alternative classroom arrangement with wall-to-wall whiteboards, collaborative seating, and the teacher's desk in the middle of the room. Students can also use personal whiteboards and laptops in the room to research and collaborate.

“This type of classroom promotes a ‘guide on the side’ approach to teaching and learning, making the instructor one with the students rather than the sole dispenser of information in front of the room,” says Kerrigan. “I have been using these spaces with a flipped classroom model to really leverage deep mathematical discourse and learning in person that I can support. We took this room layout and brought it to our secondary math spaces, employing a variety of seat types, movable desks and tables, personal and wall-to-wall whiteboards, etc.”

While it may seem that a classroom “reno” project would only be possible in the land of deep pocket districts or schools able to take a hit to the budget, the design philosophy is based on proven results and studies that have shown the benefits of this type of collaborative learning. It can also be accomplished through innovative budgeting, grants, and professional development, or even appealing directly to companies who specialize in educational supplies.

“Our district supported this initiative to help increase students' achievement in mathematics,” says Kerrigan. “We have also applied for grants through various local resources and classroom furniture/school supply companies to offset costs.”

It Adds Up to More than just a Pretty Place 

These impressive spaces, combined with the technology-enhanced flipped classroom model, have led to significant gains in both scores and engagement. 

“We have purposefully arranged for these spaces to be used by all grades 6-12 mathematics courses, including inclusion and Advanced Placement courses,” says Kerrigan. “We have seen consistent increases in the percentage of students earning a three or higher on AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, and AP Statistics exams. We have also seen a positive trend in the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment (NJSLA) scores over the past two years since we have resumed testing.”

Reimagining the classroom also allows for additional attention to be paid to equity concerns and ensuring accessibility for students. 

“We continue to decrease the opportunity gap by allowing all learners to use this space to participate in personalized learning activities,” Kerrigan says. “These spaces have also led teachers to buy into the ‘Building Thinking Classrooms’ model, which is currently popular in mathematics education.”

Welcome Visitors, Welcome Results 

History buffs might have heard stories of early America and the pineapple. Across the pond, the fragile nature and long delivery route made it such a status symbol that English gentry would rent the fruit as a table centerpiece to impress guests. George Washington became quite a fan while visiting Barbados. Being much closer to the growing region, presenting the fruit in colonial America was used as a sign of hospitality, displaying it outside the front door as a symbol that the host had returned from a journey and would again be welcoming guests. 

This bit of historical trivia and tradition has lent itself to a new school symbol in Kerrigan’s district that also supports active learning.

“We are big advocates of teacher leadership and learning from classroom experts,” says Kerrigan. “The ‘Pineapple Chart’ method involves teachers willing to have visitors in their room place a pineapple outside their door. It is a symbol of hospitality. Then, each participating teacher shares a time range for an interesting part of their class (bell ringer, activity, technology implementation, active learning, etc.). Teachers can sign up to attend and watch for a short amount of time (pending coverage). This allows teachers to learn from their peers in the moment in the authentic live classroom environment.”

The district also offers job-embedded PD and open EdCamp-style PD sessions during which teachers propose topics and those interested participate in discussions. Encouraging connection and next-level educational enhancement continues in and out of the active learning classroom. 

“We have seen more interest in STEM and taking risks in these spaces' classrooms,” says Kerrigan. “In my conversations with teachers and students, they have said these spaces make them feel comfortable and more connected to their teachers.”

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In a time when educators are struggling to reconnect students to their studies and reignite the joy of learning, the Leyden High School District 212 outside Chicago has discovered the perfect blend of personalized learning and interdisciplinary teaching through their innovative freshmen co.lab. 

The Leyden co.lab Identify Unit allows all freshmen to participate in an interdisciplinary curriculum that connects English, biology, global studies, health, and digital literacy. 

Using a design thinking process helped propel the Leyden co.lab, says Superintendent Nick Polyak and Brian Mahoney, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, who also believe this project-based learning concept can inspire students and serve as a model for other districts.

co.lab — A Paragon of Connection 

The Leyden co.lab helps students make their education dynamic while also connecting their studies to themes such as identity, community, and wellness.

“This process took several years of planning and investment,” says Polyak.”We allowed this amazing team of teachers to dream big, visit other programs around the country, and build something unique to our students and our community. When the hard work is being done at the grassroots level, it's easy to provide the funding and the support necessary to help them be successful.” 

Drawing from personal experiences and community involvement are key, but tech also helps facilitate the program. 

“When you walk into the co.lab classrooms, you will see wall-mounted video monitors with group seating. Any student can plug their chromebook in and share the screen with the group,” says Polyak, whose district has enjoyed 1:1 Chromebook use since 2012. “The technology and the furniture are intended to drive collaboration, public speaking, creativity, etc. During Covid, like every other school district in the country, we saw higher rates of failure. However, even during remote learning, the failure rates in co.lab were incredibly small. That community feeling and deliberate empowerment shone through in student success rates during that difficult time.”

Sharing their success created a lasting impact on students and their families. An exhibition is the culmination of the work learners have participated in throughout the year. Attendees can hear poetry, watch animated videos, and learn how a student’s family recipe can provide nutritional value for the human body. Sharing these student “artifacts” is a core tenet of the co.lab interdisciplinary education. 

“Our teachers and administrators spent countless hours brainstorming, researching, and conducting site visits to develop a program that brings several disciplines together in a unique way to build community, give students a purpose, and also provide significant academic outcomes for our students,” says Mahoney. “Providing the best project-based learning opportunities to our students in line with the curriculum is both an exercise in creativity and research.”

Support Starts at the Top 

“At Leyden, we have a district commitment to develop confident problem-solvers by providing students relevant and authentic experiences,” says Mahoney. “We let this commitment drive the vision of co.lab. The interdisciplinary nature of this program, along with the field trips and project-based learning, allows our co.lab teachers the ability to ‘check the boxes’ of the required content and standards while also extending that learning with real-world examples and experiences.”  

A supportive administration is key to pulling off such an impressive endeavor. At Leyden, co.lab teachers are provided substitutes to free up their schedule for full-day team meetings and common planning time.

“Leyden has a Board of Education and a school community that embraces and celebrates innovation and experimentation,” says Polyak. “We have clearly seen higher levels of personal confidence, community connection, public speaking and more. At the same time, our co.lab students have continually performed as well or better than their peers on state and national assessments. That program analysis has helped sustain and support this program.”

Results as Impressive as the Students 

Not only are students making their mark in the classroom, but Leyden is often contacted by community agencies—park district, township office, etc.—with reports of students taking positive action in the community. When asked about their motivation, they cite their time at the co.lab. 

“co.lab allows our students to interact with their community and tie their education to the towns they live in,” says Polyak. “They are not only learning their core academic competencies, but they are also understanding how they fit in their world and how to help give back.”

The end goal for an educator is to send students on to the next level as best prepared as possible for what life might bring.

“Our co.lab teachers are often approached by their colleagues who have former co.lab students,” says Mahoney. “A common refrain is ‘I knew they were a co.lab student because they were so prepared for… (fill in the blank).’ That is the dream for every teacher.”

How to Create a co.lab at Your School 

1. Assemble the Team. Find a well-rounded group of teachers and a supportive administrator not afraid of hard work. 
2. Write your Mission, Vision, and Standards. Use design thinking and resources such as NGSS, Common Core, and NHES. 
3. Gain Support from Administration and Community. Create a presentation and pitch to your Board of Education. 
4. Develop the Curriculum. Brainstorm, use outside resources such as Buck Institute for PD and ABCD framework, and team review instructional outcomes. 
5. Develop a Schedule and Committees. Divide time blocks aligning with class sessions, consider committees for roles such as resource, scheduling, secretary, agenda master, liaison, eagle time, and recruitment. 
6. Recruit Students. Connect with prospective participants and their parents. 
7. Launch the Program. Reflect, revise, and be flexible and ready to make tweaks along the way. 

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Educators are savvy when it comes to understanding the value of collaboration. Websites and blogs by generous teachers are loaded with tips and tricks to run a fun and engaging classroom. It’s simple math — two heads are better than one. 

Recent Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award winners Jeni Long and Sallee Clark, who together form the unique and inspiring partnership Jenallee, have taken collaboration to the next level through their mission to “evangelize” the use of edtech.

The Birth of “Jenallee” 

Perhaps the first step in forming a perfect partnership starts with an openness to connect with others. 

“We met on the first day of work seven years ago,” says Jeni Long, edtech consultant, author, and speaker. “It was an instant connection. We knew we had so much in common and we were destined to be best friends, but we had no idea where that friendship would take us!”

Connecting as friends with mutual respect and a similar mindset and attitude became a great first step in creating a powerful professional team. 

“As we began to get to know each other, we realized that each of our individual visions for implementing technology use in the classroom aligned, and that we had similar passions and beliefs regarding technology,” says Sallee Clark, edtech consultant, author, and speaker. “My brain always works better when brainstorming and learning alongside someone. The power of educators working together to solve problems and meet scholars’ needs is very impactful in the world of education.”

The Benefits of A Dynamic Duo 

“We always say, ‘Two brains are better than one,’” says Long. “Different perspectives are important and we believe it’s better to work together to produce a more powerful outcome.”

Indeed, splitting duties and making the most of disparate skill sets doubles the resources at hand to find the highest level of success. Jenallee’s first step in making the most of their partnership was to determine who could best shine in which area.

“We completed a Strengths Finders survey, which revealed a lot about who we are as educators and partner teachers,” says Clark. “There were some challenges when first collaborating and working together. Most of the time, we wanted to be like each other. The Strengths Finders survey taught us that we can rely on each other and leverage our unique strengths to work more effectively in serving educators. For example, we found that Jeni is strong at arranging content, communicating, and wooing people. While I am strong in ideation, strategy, and connecting with people. Our strengths complemented each other very well. When we started leveraging these different strengths we were able to create content to help teachers much more efficiently and offer a better product to our teachers.”

Knowledge is powerful. Rather than causing division, understanding their innate talents strengthened both the friendship and working relationship.

5 Steps to Create and Maintain a Partnership, According to Jenallee 

1. Communicate: Know one another’s passions, vision, and goals.
2. Trust: Treat one another with respect, listen to each other, and lift up each other.
3. Know each other's strengths: Leverage each other’s strengths to become efficient and produce an outcome that is better together.
4. Checklists: “We love checklists,” say Jenallee. “It helps us stay on track, communicate, and make sure that all of our goals are being met.”
5. Have FUN: This is key! “Having fun is what makes learning happen for us,” say Jenallee. “We have fun learning, planning, and creating together.”

Going Global for Innovation 

What started as a friendship with common professional goals quickly blossomed into an innovation-fueled mission to put the spotlight on edtech and what it could do in the classroom.

“As Jeni and I started sharing edtech tips and tricks, we realized that many of the teachers had the same questions at different campuses,” says Clark. “It made us see that we needed a way to share this information to all of our teachers because we saw that if one teacher had a question, another teacher probably did as well. So, the Jenallee YouTube channel was born. We loved how it was serving our community of teachers and also the grand community of teachers around the world.”

The success of the Jenallee YouTube content quickly expanded into webinars, videos, social media posts, live speaking engagements, blogs, and even books.

“Our ultimate goal is to create an accessible and FUN learning experience for both educators and students,” says Long. “We firmly believe that when students are engaged in their learning, they are more likely to retain information. Making learning fun is one effective way to achieve this.”

The duo loves sharing content, ideas and solutions with a global community of educators. Bringing professional development to the next level by offering resources that are easy to understand and immediately implement is key. 

“Tutorials are short, but useful,” says Clark. “We hope to empower educators with practical-use videos and ideas for making learning fun and accessible—tools they can turn around and use in their classrooms tomorrow. We have seen happy tears fall because educators have found solutions that help every student to succeed within their classrooms.”

“We’ve been overwhelmed by the positive feedback,” says Long. “Teachers consistently express how helpful our resources have been. This is our passion— their satisfaction is what brings us joy!”

• Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Awards
• How to Cultivate Strategic Partnerships

The world constantly evolves, and schools must adapt to keep pace with societal and technological changes. Innovative leaders can help schools stay relevant and prepare students for the challenges and opportunities of the future. 

Innovation in school leadership can lead to the development and implementation of new teaching methods, curriculum designs, and educational technologies. These innovations can enhance the quality of education and improve student outcomes.

To prepare for the future job market, students need to develop adaptability, creativity, and digital literacy skills. School leaders have to introduce programs and initiatives to nurture these skills. 

Innovative practices are also required to generate creative solutions for those hard-to-reach students who don’t fit the mold of regular schools. As important is the modeling of these practices for teachers to embrace the need for education to perform differently than in the past to fit the present and future needs.

With more than 20 years of district leadership experience under our belts, here are some of our leadership actions to consider to promote innovation.

Supporting Innovation: Embrace Technology & Promote Blended Learning 

Embracing technology is essential for both leaders and students if both are to find success in an era focused on the importance of individual needs. Leaders should make use of data akin to a marketing strategy when meeting the needs of both staff and students. This could include using digital tools, online resources, and innovative ways to hold meetings.

Encouraging a blend of traditional classroom instruction and online learning provides flexibility that allows students to learn at their own pace and style while providing teachers with data to personalize instruction.

Feedback for Teachers

We have found a tool such as Voxer to be of great use when it comes to feedback, based on its ability to reach teachers more effectively in a manner that avoids defensiveness. Gone are the days of reading between the lines on evaluative checklists or skimming reports too dense (or boring) to read. The recorded voice or video allow messages to be absorbed on demand as they move through their other tasks.

Individualized Instruction

Rather than failing students and making them attend summer school, we decided to help students who struggled to pass their courses by instituting what we call Winter School. This has students reviewing critical concepts they fell short on via an online platform and at their own pace. They can enroll through the year as usual by successfully completing those concepts. Online platforms also serve as avenues for exploration in courses for which no teachers or when students cannot attend school for medical reasons. Google Classrooms are now the norm, but they are only the first step in truly using technology to innovate for the benefit of students.

Support Professional Development 

It's key to invest in PD for teachers and staff, focusing on innovative teaching methods, technology integration, and new educational trends.

The most meaningful PD is relevant, ongoing, and job-embedded. It is key for leaders to discover creative ways to hit these three markers of success. 

For example, we held a staff-created and -run conference on a district PD day. Staff members submitted proposals for sessions they would run and then individuals attended based on their needs. There was a high level of personalization, and sessions included current issues needing support, topics for deeper discussions as we move forward, and every staff position, from paraprofessional to nurse to art teacher. This event created an environment that allowed exploration of current topics, consistent follow-up with presenters, and the ability for teachers to coach one another in their areas of expertise.

Create Flexible Learning Spaces 

Redesign classrooms and learning environments to be flexible and adaptable to different teaching and learning styles. This can foster creativity and collaboration.

It’s not just that everyone learns differently, but students also can maximize their learning based on their surroundings. 

For example, knowing and understanding this, we changed the structure of our library. We removed large, stationary desks that once housed desktop computers and bookshelves that occupied most of the floor space. These items were replaced with a large center area containing high-top bistro-style tables and chairs on wheels. We also put all the bookshelves on wheels. The result has been an area that houses mini concerts, lunch, multiple classes, afterschool programming, and more. And we now have a flexible space that can be reconfigured to meet the many different needs of students and staff throughout the day and evening. Students can consistently collaborate or work individually based on their unique needs.

Stay Informed

School leaders should stay up-to-date with the latest educational research, trends, and best practices to identify opportunities for innovation.

It is also essential for leaders to hear multiple perspectives on every aspect of the educational experience so they can help make it what it needs to be in the future. Besides reading non education-based books on leadership, consider being part of a professional growth organization such as Better Leaders Better Schools Mastermind. 

Innovation comes from surrounding yourself with other leaders who will challenge what you are doing, support you through obstacles, and hold you accountable for ensuring the success of all those you serve by creatively meeting their individual needs.

It’s important to know and understand that innovation does not just appear. It is the result of transforming current ideas into a reality that achieves the goal of continually moving forward in a way that effectively supports, engages, and empowers students and staff to reach their highest level of success. 

By fostering a culture of innovation and providing the necessary support and resources, school leaders can contribute to developing effective and forward-thinking educational practices.

• What Schools Leaders Need to Know About Embracing AI
• Creating a Culture to Support Student Voice & Choice

Mike Afdahl thinks the SAMR model may have run its course. 

SAMR stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition, however, these days technology is so widespread in classrooms that the model itself may need some substitution and modification. 

“I don’t know that the SAMR model has to die necessarily, or if we [need to] look at different models,” says Afdahl, Coordinator of Technology services for Northwest GA Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA). “You can walk into any classroom in America and they're using technology to some degree.” 

Rather than examine this technology use with the SAMR model, Afdahl thinks the focus should be on the student experience. “'Are the students engaged?' 'Are the students creating or are they consuming?' That's the new model I might want to look at if I were a classroom teacher,” he says.  

Afdahl was awarded Best Implementation of Data Privacy & Cybersecurity at a recent Tech & Learning Regional Leadership Summit in Georgia. In his position at RESA, he supports 17 school systems in technology, data technology, data analysis, and instructional and operational planning.

Afdahl went into teaching after graduating with a math degree and quickly developed a passion for the profession. “I fell in love with a vision that math education didn't have to be just sitting in a desk solving problems on worksheets but there was a story of mathematics that can be told through multiple disciplines, but also by interacting with the world around us,” he says. 

Afdahl wants to make this story of mathematics more accessible to all students. “Not all students are going to have dreams of being a math major or a mathematician, but they can see the world around them in the language in which the universe is written,” he says.  

This same passion and creativity can be applied to topics beyond math by focusing on applying new technology to creativity in the classroom. Afdahl shares tips and advice for how educators can encourage students to become engaged creators rather than passive consumers of knowledge. 

Foster Creativity Rather Than Perfection 

Afdahl says educators should encourage students to create new work using the skills they’ve learned in class, even if these creations are not always perfect. 

“Early on as an educator, I kind of thought that if I was having my students create something digitally, that it had to be a polished product at the end,” he says. “I think what teachers need to understand is that they don't have to be perfect or even proficient at what they're creating. I have a four-year-old daughter and she's learning to write her name. As she's writing her name, am I criticizing the way her ‘S’ is backward? No, I'm not because she's progressing along this continuum.”  

Digital Native Doesn’t Equal Creative Ability 

“We feel that our students are digital natives, but they're native consumers of digital products,” Afdahl says. “You may see a two-year-old working on an iPad, and knowing what apps to push. But they're not creating, they're just knowing how to consume it. So I think we assume that our students know how to do these things because they've consumed it.” 

However, that’s like assuming someone from an earlier generation could make a TV show because they watched a lot of TV, Afdahl says. 

Get Creative With Real-World Applications  

While he was a math teacher, Afdahl had his students use leftover cardboard from the cafeteria to build boats on which a human could float. “Yeah, it took a while to build, but now when I needed to talk about volume, or I needed to talk about density, when I needed to talk about averages, there's a whole lot of things that I could tie back to that experience,” Afdahl says. 

Today, there’s a lot of conversation around effective vs. efficient teaching practices. “It's not always efficient for me to do experiences like that, but it's really effective because now they remember it was 35 degrees in December and we took them out to the ponds and one guy fell in, and that was the experience that now they won't forget, and so when I need to attach knowledge to and we have an experience that’s there.” 

Model Learning 

To foster this creativity, educators should acknowledge that they don’t have all the answers. “It's okay for a teacher not to know everything and it's okay for your students to learn alongside you,” Afdahl says. “Where we have an opportunity is for our students to see us model, what does it look like to be a lifelong learner? And to invite them into that process of 'I'm an adult, I don't know everything, but here's what I do to learn new things.' And I think that modeling can be a powerful learning tool.” 

• Is SAMR Dead?
• Updating Bloom’s Taxonomy for Digital Learning

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Innovation is such a nebulous word. When I changed my title to “Director of Innovation” my wife’s first comment was, “What exactly do you do?” My response was, “well….I innovate!” 

The truth is it’s been nothing more than a buzzword-y phrase that schools and districts like to use to label their actions without actually doing the work. It’s a necessary first step on their journey toward truly being innovative, but the true work that goes into it requires leadership, vision, and modeling. 

The World Economic Forum recently updated their “Top 10 Job Skills of the Future” to reflect abilities that future employees would need in 2025. Critical thinking, creativity, resilience, and complex problem-solving have been on their list for several years. Their most recent update now also includes “Analytical Thinking and Innovation” as the top skill for future employees. 

Knowing the importance of innovation to the future employment of our students should be a motivating factor for schools to change the way they do business. But the truth is schools are less about innovation and risk-taking and more about conformity and compliance. We are teaching students how to walk in a straight line down the hallway and the right way to answer a math problem. Sir Ken Robinson famously spoke about how schools are designed around factory model. Through our actions and organization, we are pushing our kids away from innovative and creative thinking, even though we know it’s important. 

The importance of risk-taking and failure 

Recently, I’ve been traveling the globe speaking to schools and leaders about risk-taking, failure, and the role these play in our own creativity and innovation. Many of the schools have enjoyed some level of success when it comes to test scores, graduation rates, or the implementation of a one-to-one device program. This perceived success can lead to a feeling of ‘Why change and take a risk if I’ve already been successful?’ 

Ed Catmull (former CEO of Pixar) talks about this regularly in his book Creativity, INC. He remarks that one of the greatest barriers to risk-taking is success. If you’ve been successful at something, it’s actually harder to change than someone who is not successful. 

Continuing to do school the way we’ve always done hinders our students for their future. Every day, innovative new technologies (such as ChatGPT) are being introduced that make the worksheet model of learning more and more obsolete. 

Whenever I ask a crowd to raise their hand if they’ve ever failed, every hand in the room goes up. Failure makes a great teacher. It teaches resilience, creativity, and motivation while also building courage and character. However, failure is not a positive word in education. 

If we truly want our schools and students to be innovative, our first step is acknowledging that failure is acceptable.

Roadblocks to creativity and innovation 

Creativity generally does not happen in programmatic and risk-averse cultures. Students who thrive playing the game of school struggle in more open-concept, project-based learning environments. Educators also struggle with this way of thinking initially because it demands many things and offers a level of risk. 

When I ask educators what stops them from being creative, the answers usually always fall into the following camps:

Time - Educators feel as though they are living in a time famine. So many initiatives handed down from the state, and the perception that state-testing is the ruler of all their time, puts them in a stressful situation. It’s hard to be creative when you are stressed or don’t feel like you have the time to truly dedicate themselves toward a creative or innovative concept. 

Support - The ideology of growth mindset has been spouted by many administrators the past decade or so. The truth is many of them have what I call a “False Growth Mindset.” Yes, they love Carol Dweck’s work around the subject but they rarely actually put action behind their own words. To truly encourage teachers to try new things and take a risk, they also must be willing to do so. If a teacher is in a structured, compliance-forward environment, they likely won’t be willing to encourage innovative thinking in their own classroom. 

Fear - This is probably the strongest reason why people don’t change and try new things. Fear that they will be judged or exposed for thinking differently. Fear that they may mess up and lose their job. Fear that they will waste the already precious time they have trying something new that doesn’t work. Ultimately, in the words of H.P. Lovecraft, it’s also the oldest kind of fear -- fear of the unknown -- that stops them from trying something different. 

A method for growing innovative thinking in schools 

Acknowledging that true innovation takes risks and failure is an important part of the process. Another important step is acknowledging that state mandates, funding issues, and traditional thinking are obstacles to overcome and work around. Creating small opportunities for risk-taking and failure generates the atmosphere for innovative thinking. 

Here are just a few ways educators can do this without having to re-write curriculum or go against state mandates:

Ask questions instead of telling answers - My own kids come home from school and will look over their shoulder at me to ask if they are doing their homework the right way. This again goes back to the mindset that kids need to learn a “right way” to complete the task, lest they be seen as a non-conformist. 

Altering this belief in the classroom requires only a slight change in how educators address their students. Rather tell them how to do something step-by-step, ask them questions. When I introduce a new technology tool to students, I don’t tell them how to use it, I ask them. “How do we add text to this book?” or “How do I add a background to my recording?” are just some ways to model this. Even though I know the answer, having the students explore and guess the answer creates an environment in which they are comfortable to take small risks and ask questions. If I just tell them what to do and how to do it, I’ve stifled their creativity in some way.

Create shared risk-taking challenges - Big psychological differences exist between taking a risk in front of everyone versus everyone taking a risk together. One thing I do in all my talks is model this shared risk-taking through various brain break-type activities. We then reflect on the differences of what it feels like to be a room where everyone is encouraged to take risks versus a room that is more focused on an individual taking risks. Doing 5-minute risk-taking activities with students (and teachers) encourages an environment of innovation and creativity. 

For those looking to really push their students' thinking and encourage failure, activities such as BreakoutEDU provide a great mechanism for students to take shared risks and discuss failure.

Learning via the iterative cycle - Kindergarten students have no problem trying new things and messing up. Their willingness to iterate is why they often have some of the most creative responses to problems. One great example of this is the infamous “Marshmallow Challenge” in which they tend to perform better than most adults. Using the iterative cycle to learn in the classroom is the key to truly creating an innovative environment. 

The iterative cycle encourages students to design, build, and test prototypes of a solution many times over. This inherently also encourages risk-taking and failure as there is no negative perception of making mistakes. Failure becomes a necessary requirement in the design process. The iterative process is similar to the scientific method or the writing process in that trial and error help make the end product better. In many ways, the process is more important than the product. 

The answers to life aren’t in the back of a textbook - Futurist and entrepreneur Seth Godin once said, “We need to be asking our kids to solve interesting problems…and we need to be ok if they get it wrong.” 

If school leaders want to move from being innovative in name toward being innovative in practice, they must first realize the role risk-taking and failure play. Accepting failure and encouraging risk-taking is not something you can just teach, it takes the right environment to make it grow. It also means that everyone in the school community is willing to model this behavior in their daily lives. Asking questions, messing up, reflecting on failure, and creating shared risk-taking experiences will help our schools move from places of conformity toward places of true innovation.

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Innovation is getting a lot of buzz in education today. The Innovator’s Mindset launched an introspective movement on innovation in education, and the momentum continues. However, innovation isn’t innovative. 

The word comes from the Greek word innovationem, which was introduced in the 16th century as a noun of action, meaning “a new idea, device, or method.” The 17th century wasn’t kind to innovators, they often got their ears cut off, or worse, after presenting an idea that was out of the ordinary. 

Benoit Godin has extensively researched the history of innovation and notes that the 19th century associated innovation with science and industry. Economist Tyler Cowan, another enthusiast of innovation, suggests that our most innovative time in history spans from 1870 to 1940. Think about how unbelievably creative and powerful that period was for the U.S. economy. If we look at 1870 to 1940 in education, the innovation included: 

• Establishing the U.S. Department of Education. 
• Passing the 14th Amendment (which is significant in Brown v Board of Education). 
• Establishment of higher education institutions: Meharry, Tuskegee, Morris-Brown, and Stanford. 
• Establishment of the National Education Association. 
• Establishment of National PTA. 
• First Montessori School in the U.S. opened in New York state. 
• American Federation of Teachers is established. 
• American Education Research Association is established. 
• Passing the Smith-Hughes Act (funded agricultural programs and vocational education and was repealed in 1997). 
• Progressive Education Association was established and focused on reforming education. 
• Introduction of the fountain pen. 
• Classical Conditioning study by John Watson. 
• Gestalt Theory was introduced. 
• The longest educational study known to last (75 years) began at Stanford University.  Louis Terman studied the concept of "intellectually superior" children. Now known as gifted.  
• Reorganization of Secondary Education. 
• John Dewey published Democracy and Education. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. 
• Nursery schools are established in Maine and New York (today known as Bank Street College of Education). 
• Piaget published The Child’s Conception of the World. 
• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale was developed and introduced as the first intelligence test. 

It is important to note that much of this innovation continues to influence how we operate in the field of education today. We lean on these works to conduct schools, research, establish policy, and design learning. So it begs the question, what are we doing today that our future generations of educators will be able to lean on? We spend a lot of time talking about the mindset of innovation, but what has the outcome of that mindset been for our students? 

Our students deserve the very best we have to offer them, including imagining a school system or a learning environment that meets their needs while stimulating their abilities. Does their schooling experience look much different than it did in the late 18th century, other than changing out some of the technologies in use? Embracing a mindset that is forward-thinking, creative and open to testing new ideas, willing to make mistakes, and trying again, and being collaborative and future-focused, is certainly beneficial but how does it truly bring about innovation in a school? 

An innovative culture may bring new ideas to a school, but something has to enable or enact those ideas. School boards, governments and other political forces are pushing back on innovation under the guise of trying to improve outcomes. In fact, the Washington Post declares, “Political battles are now a central feature of education.”

As we start the school year in 2022, we need to orient our faculties to think differently and take unconventional approaches while considering the student’s perspectives. We must inform all of our stakeholders of the research that supports our decisions as well as outline how outcomes will be measured. 

This is the dawn of our innovative age in education. Groom the innovative mindset in your building or district and make that mindset actionable to show your community just how innovative you can be for 2023. Now is the time to offer future generations some wonderful work to lean on! 

• Crossing the Mastery Gap
• Updating Bloom’s Taxonomy for Digital Learning

Best Overall Implementation of Technology — Cristin Kennedy, Director, Instructional Technology, Cobb County Schools, Georgia

During the pandemic, Cristin Kennedy, Director of Instructional Technology at Cobb County Schools in Georgia, led her team in developing and implementing a personalized LMS for the district of more than 100,000 students that met the needs of students, parents, and teachers with comprehensive features to address instruction, planning, assessment, and communication. 

“It was a challenge, but very rewarding as well,” Kennedy says. “It took a lot of hours to manage the big overhaul. The pure scalability of it—making sure we had a system for teachers that teachers wanted to use was critical. Our system was developed by employees of Cobb who have been in the classroom and had experience with digital instruction. In addition to that, every three months or so the system is enhanced based on teacher and leader feedback.”

For this and other efforts, Kennedy was recognized as Best Overall Implementation of Technology during Tech & Learning’s Innovative Leader Awards in Atlanta. 

Nominate someone for the Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award here

Intentional Professional Learning 

The district went remote during the spring of 2020 and then kicked off the 2020-21 year 100 percent virtual.

“During the pre-planning of that school year we had the opportunity to do professional learning that was very specialized for primary and secondary teachers, and specialists,” she says. “We focused on the key elements of what they really needed to start the year. We then built on those skills and enhanced the system using their feedback.”

Breaking it down was the key to its success.

“We didn’t just say, ‘Here is everything that you ever needed to know,’” Kennedy says. “We would specify a period of time and then it was, ‘This is what you’ll need from here to there and let’s master that.’ So we were very intentional with the professional learning.”

Training was done live, face-to-face, as well as on demand because there are a lot of teachers who are early adopters and were willing to use their own time and their own energy to master skills. 

Kennedy hired 27 full-time coaches from her team. The key quality she looked for was someone who wanted to be in the classroom. 

“The number one way that teachers and students learn is by seeing and doing,” she says. “If they are face-to-face, we can go into a classroom and model it, maybe do learning walks, so other teachers can see and pick up tips. The asynchronous option they can access at any time. So they might be in a professional learning community period and the teachers are watching it together, then talking about it and planning something around what they learned. You have to be very intentional with professional learning, because everyone’s needs are very different.”

Exciting Things to Come 

The district had been a BYOD district, however, the pandemic accelerated the process of providing devices to students. In the past year, all middle and high school students were given access to a Dell Window device for learning, creating, and collaborating. Next year, every single classroom will have a 2-in-1 Dell laptop so students can Ink and they can create. 

“The need to share computers or the ‘I can’t do this, because I don’t have tech in my classroom’ just isn’t an excuse anymore,” Kennedy says. “It’s going to be a great opportunity for our students to be future-ready and start learning very basic skills that then can be built upon as they progress through their path at Cobb County schools.”

• Nominate someone for the Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award here

As a receiver with Tennessee Tech’s Division I football team, Sam Brooks blew past so many defenders that he remains the fourth all-time leading receiver in yards. 

Over the years, he’s brought a similar passion and excellence to the classroom. First as a biology teacher and, for the last decade, as Supervisor of Personalized Learning in the Putnam County School System in Tennessee. 

He leads Future Ready VITAL, the district’s virtual learning program, and has led the expansion of online and dual enrollment offerings, developing an online personal finance class in partnership with the Lampo Group and Florida Virtual School. He has also created more personalized learning opportunities and helped his fellow educators become more tech-savvy – his team hosts the largest Google conference in Tennessee each year, which is free to the nearly 800 educators who attend.

For these efforts, he recently was recognized for Best Implementation of Digital Curriculum at Tech & Learning’s Innovative Leader Awards in Atlanta.

Nominate someone for the Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award here

Personalized Learning and Personal Finance  

In the Putnam County School System, every student has to take a personal finance class to graduate, and it has to be taken online. A number of years ago, Brooks was tasked with improving the quality of this offering, and decided to work with the best collaborators he knew. 

Brooks was impressed with an online college course developed by personal finance expert Dave Ramsey, and also had worked closely with the Florida Virtual School, so he pursued a three-way partnership with both to pilot a new high school personal finance class. The combination of Ramsey’s financial advice videos, the Florida Virtual School’s online course management, and the individualized touches Putnam County School System educators provide, have made the course a winning one. 

“I feel like it is the best financial education online class in the world,” Brooks says. “That class has been sold to districts around the world to use.” 

However, Putnam County School System is not involved in the sale of the course, says Brooks. They just helped pilot it and are licensed to use it. 

Sustainable Online Learning 

Putnam County has long taken a holistic approach to online education. 

“In 2014 our district went forward with the requirement that our graduates would have to complete at least one online class,” Brooks says. “We felt like going into the college world, with as much as online class use had grown, that it was beneficial for our students to understand and be equipped with those skills before they left high school.” 

In addition to offering students online classes to supplement their in-person learning, the school system district has a fully virtual option for students grades 3-12 who find that option convenient for reasons as wide-ranging as health issues to acting opportunities that require frequent travel. Most online classes are synchronous for grades 3-8, but for high school students, many classes are asynchronous. However, even in the asynchronous classes, student and teacher interaction is built-in and personalized learning is prioritized. “The teachers get to know their students very well,” Brooks says. 

Putnam County’s approach has become a model for others. “We've had about 75 districts come here and visit over the last five years,” says Brooks. 

Advice for Educators 

When educators ask for advice on building their own online programs, Brooks tells them the most important thing is to scaffold gradually. “Start with a small group, learn how to do it, learn how to do it the right way, and then step back and let it grow,” he says. “You don't have to worry about it growing when you show that success and meet that student need.” 

Equally as important is to always keep focus on the students. “It's kind of our motto, and I'm not ashamed to say I stole it from Florida Virtual, is that the student is at the center of every decision we make,” he says. “We talk about that every meeting we have. And so that makes us become student-centric, in every decision and every thought process that we go through.” 

Having educators, such as Brooks, who are passionate about their jobs also helps. “I get out of bed and love to come to work every day,” he says. “How blessed am I to be able to do that?” 

• Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Awards

At the Tech & Learning Leadership Summit in California, school district leaders gathered at the UC Irvine Conference Center for a day of professional development that included a keynote from UCI’s Gillian Hayes on how to make edtech more accessible, a student panel discussion that explored how esports can open up a wide array of college and career opportunities, and a tour of the UCI Esports Arena, the first of its kind on a college campus. 

The Summit closed with an award ceremony that named the winners of the California Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Awards, which recognizes exceptional administrators in select regions around the country who are leading innovation in their school districts. 

Please help us congratulate the winners – and consider nominating yourself or a colleague for other upcoming Regional Summits here.  

Best Overall Implementation of Technology 

Sophia Mendoza, Director, Instructional Technology, Los Angeles Unified School District, California

“Sophia Mendoza continues to challenge the status quo by taking appropriate risks to improve how the Instructional Technology Initiative accomplishes its work,” writes a colleague at LAUSD. Mendoza leads the ITI’s three initiatives: instructional technology through ISTE Standards, expansion of computer science education, and digital citizenship. 

“She sets the example for creative and innovative behavior, and encourages her employees to try new innovative approaches,” her colleague reports. “She fosters innovation by creating conditions that enable the team to openly contribute to and achieve objectives. Employees feel empowered to bring forward their creative ideas for improving the way they do their jobs, to seek new work, and to improve the department’s operations.” 

In leading LAUSD ITI Mendoza also supports the six-week Future Ready Certification for 15,000 educators, encourages edtech coaches to collaborate to design strategies to support teachers through virtual office hours, develops computer science coding activities, creates tutorials, and designs lessons for both families and teachers. 

Robert Sidford, Director of Technology and Innovation, Mt. Diablo Unified School District, California

Sidford joined the team at Mt. Diablo Unified School District at an interesting time – July of 2020. Not one to be dissuaded by a challenge, he launched into action by chairing a representative task force to develop a long-range strategic technology plan at MDUSD. 

During the past 17 months, Sidford also oversaw a district-wide 1-to-1 program to serve 29,000 students. He led a team to prioritize equitable IT service management through a revamped work order system and the restructuring of technician assignments to more equitably serve schools. He initiated streamlined purchasing practices, established responsible partnerships and minimum standards, and drafted a security “risk register” to identify vulnerabilities to mitigate risks. 

Sidford also developed a team-focused “responsibility matrix,” outlining departmental responsibilities and improved student data privacy by collaborating with the instruction and legal teams to develop a clear approval process for digital tools. 

“He hit the ground running and never looked back,” writes Lisa Gonzalez, Chief Business Officer at Mt. Diablo USD.

Nominate yourself or a colleague for other upcoming Regional Summits here. 

Best Example of Student & Teacher Well-Being Programs 

Ling Lam, Director of Education Technology, Helios School, Sunnyvale, California

Lam has been instrumental in bridging the gap between tech and instruction by developing strong relationships with both teachers and administrators, as well as with students. She is a well-respected professional development expert who supports not only her district, but other districts as well. 

Lam demonstrates best practices in making the case for including more technology in teaching and learning, but also emphasizes the importance of blending technology with solid pedagogy and social-emotional learning needs. Lam’s dedication to continued professional learning and wellness are just two examples of her commitment to improve educational outcomes for students in California and beyond.

Best Implementation of Data Privacy 

Steve Harmon, Sergio Rizzi, and Bruce Neff, EdTech Specialists, Oak Grove Union School District, California

This edtech team has spent years building student data privacy safety protocols in not only their district, but they also helped lead and train other districts across the state of California (their webpage for student data privacy is here). 

Harmon, Rizzi, and Neff were early proponents of comprehensive California Student Data Privacy Agreements, which offer critical protection of student, staff, and administrator personally identifiable information. They embody best practices against cybersecurity attacks, and include the entire Oak Grove community in their efforts. 

In their work with LearnPlatform, they have been active partners in advocating for how to do things better and have brought their collective knowledge as thought partners to other California districts through their involvement with CITE and other California networks. 

Harmon, Rizzi, and Neff are exemplars of continuously developing best practices and working to ensure their adoption throughout their district. Plus, they are “always willing and ready to answer the call to share resources, support other districts, and present on a moment’s notice,” writes a colleague.

A Mexican man hires a coyote border guide to get him into the U.S. He’s taken to a safe house in the desert and left with minimal food and water for two months. When the coyote returns and leads him across the desert, the man is chased by border patrol agents and their dogs, but escapes. 

Ultimately, he travels to Alabama, where he works hard and makes enough money to support his elderly parents in Mexico. 

This vivid story was captured during an interview conducted by one of Dr. Claudia Martinez’s students at North Tattnall Middle School in Georgia. It was included in Untold Immigrant Stories: Multilingual Student Experience in the United States, created by Martinez’s sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade ESOL students. The class book, which was provided to the students' parents by the district, includes interviews, essays, and poems, and tells the stories of the students, their families, and their communities. 

For these and other efforts to support all students, Martinez was recognized as Best Example of Teacher & Student Well-Being during Tech & Learning’s Innovative Leader Awards in Atlanta.

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The Power of Storytelling  

Martinez immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico as a child. She struggled with learning English and adjusting to a new country at first. “I went through a silent stage,” she says. “Back then there wasn't a lot of help for English language learners.” 

These hardships motivated her to become a teacher. “I wanted to make the lives of those students that were coming into a new school system easier,” she says. “I know that there's a lot of inequality still, and I want to create better opportunities for students in the United States.” 

Martinez became the first member of her family to complete college when she graduated from Georgia Southern University with a degree in early childhood education. She later obtained her masters and doctorate degrees from the same institution. 

One of the findings of her dissertation was that storytelling could be a powerful tool for learning, which inspired the book project with her students.

“I want all of you to interview somebody in the community or family member that has a powerful story,” she told her students. “I feel that it's important for people to be educated on our struggle, and what we go through and the obstacles that we have to overcome.” 

After the book was self-published, Martinez and her students were asked to share it with the local board of education. “When we presented it, some of the board members were crying because they were like, ‘We didn't know that you went through this,’” Martinez says. “My goal was for it to educate and to help build empathy. And I think it did that.” 

Honoring Students and Their Stories 

In addition to helping her students publish this book, Martinez has gone above and beyond to honor their diverse heritage. She helped to launch a Hispanic Heritage Month celebration that involved the community as well as the students, and has developed community support for student experiences such as STEM lab visits at Georgia Southern University.

Storytelling can lead students to become proud of their heritage, Martinez says. “It helps them to come to grips with their identity and who they are, and their limitations, and also what they can do in the future,” she says. “I'm always telling them my struggle, my story, what I went through and what I'm still going through, and they're able to relate.” 

By sharing her own story, Martinez is able to build trust with students, which is key to the type of teaching she does. She advises other teachers trying to incorporate storytelling into their classes to focus on that trust, and to also make sure to protect those behind the stories. “We changed the names of the people that were interviewed to protect their identities,” Martinez says. “And we talked about the importance of that in the class.” 

Discussing the project with students also helped them to take ownership of it and contribute in various other ways. “Our cover was designed by one of our students,” Martinez says. “It turned out amazing. He was really proud that he was the illustrator of the book.”

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• How A Director of Technology Keeps Students Connected

At the Tech & Learning Leadership Summit in Georgia, our editorial team named the winners of the new Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Awards. This honor recognizes exceptional administrators in select regions around the country who are leading innovation in their school districts. We’re seeking district leaders who not only drove innovation during the pandemic, but plan to take these lessons learned to reimagine and reinvent education moving forward. 

Please help us congratulate the winners – and consider nominating yourself or a colleague for other upcoming Regional Summits here. Tech & Learning will cover travel for all awards finalists.  

Best Example of Teacher & Student Well-Being Programs 

Dr. Claudia Martinez, ESOL Teacher, North Tattnall Middle School, Reidsville, Georgia

Martinez, a multilingual teacher at North Tattnall Middle School, has been diligent and highly focused in fostering student voice, equity, and representation. For example, Martinez worked with her students to publish a class book, Untold Immigrant Stories: Multilingual Student Experience in the United States. She also helped to launch a Hispanic Heritage Month celebration that involved the community as well as the students, and has developed community support for student experiences such as STEM lab visits at Georgia Southern University.

Martinez is the recipient of the 2020 GATESOL Teacher of the Year. She believes in the importance of critical and culturally relevant and anti-oppressive practices, and has planned and led many district lessons, programs, and celebrations that teach and celebrate diversity.

Best Implementation of Digital Curriculum 

Sam Brooks, Supervisor of Personalized Learning, Putnam County School System, Cookeville, Tennessee 

As Supervisor of Personalized Learning in the Putnam County School System, Brooks leads VITAL, the district’s virtual learning program. During his decade-long tenure, he has overseen a tremendous expansion of both online and dual enrollment offerings. A significant part of the growth was the development of an online personal finance class in partnership with the Lampo Group and Florida Virtual School, which was piloted by VITAL.

Brooks also has been recognized for his efforts to create more personalized learning environments for students. In addition, his team hosts the largest Google conference in Tennessee each year, which is free to the nearly 800 educators who attend. 

Best Overall Implementation of Technology 

Cristin Kennedy, Director, Instructional Technology, Cobb County Schools, Georgia

During the pandemic, Kennedy led her team in developing and implementing a personalized LMS for a district of more than 100,000 students that met the needs of students, parents, and teachers with features to address instruction, planning, assessment, and communication. The team also supported the rapid transition to remote learning with extensive professional development and training for new technology tools 

This year, Kennedy has cultivated a culture of IT service, continuing to bring new technology into classrooms across the district and offering training for teachers and students, including after traditional school hours. 

Most Innovative Learning Spaces 

Kristy L Beam, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning, City Schools of Decatur, Georgia

As Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, Beam led City Schools of Decatur to rethink “learning spaces” with the adoption of a virtual learning program for the 6,000-student district in the 2020-21 academic year. To make certain this virtual learning environment had the same rigor as in-person classes, she ensured all staff received high-quality training, created effective policies to govern operations in the new virtual learning program, and embedded a social-emotional learning regimen into the program to make sure all students in the virtual learning program received the holistic support they required.

During her 24 years in education, Beam has taught grades 3-12, been an administrator in public and private schools, and prepared teachers in the university setting. She also helps educators examine data to create and implement strategic plans to achieve their goals.

Summer Carlton and Gina Looney, Franklin Special School District, Tennessee

In a time when districts across the nation experienced devastating student achievement losses due to the impact of a global pandemic, Franklin Special School District remained in the top ten performing Tennessee districts for literacy and math, exceeding typical student achievement results.

“Although we did have an initial dip when we returned to school in the fall of 2020, our teachers and students worked very hard to close that gap over the past year and a half,” says Summer Carlton, Curriculum and Professional Learning Supervisor. “We already had strong digital curricular resources in place, so when virtual school began, we were not scrambling. Our teachers and students were already using digital resources for all core subjects. In our most recent data from iReady math (K-8), most grade levels are back to performing where they were before the pandemic hit.”

Mind the Gap

Carlton and Gina Looney, Reading and RTI Coordinator, ensure that all teachers and students have access to high-quality digital curriculum. When gaps are found, the dynamic duo vet new resources to provide supplemental digital resources for core and intervention. The key to buy-in is often a matter of clear communication and inclusive representation.

“When we are vetting resources, we often invite representatives from the vendor to share product information with our district Teaching and Learning team,” says Looney. “This team is composed of leaders in various departments—special ed, ELL, literacy, math, and technology. Before introducing a new program, we consider its impact on both teachers and students. We also hear the voices of teachers and administrators through quarterly meetings, conducted by Summer. When we believe a tool might be a good fit, we still typically pilot the implementation on a smaller scale before going broad scale with it.” 

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Different Keystrokes for Different Folks 

Often, finding the right solution means being open to flexible and personalized learning tailored to student needs. 

“Time is a precious resource for students and for teachers,” says Looney. “No student has time to wait for needs to be addressed. Planning differentiated support for students can be very overwhelming for teachers - What resources? When will someone deliver the instruction? What are the student's needs? Differentiated digital support helps us meet all students where they are in K-8 literacy and math.” 

For K-2 literacy, the district uses Imagine Learning. For 3-4 literacy, it iReady Reading, while for 5-8 literacy, it’s Achieve 3000. In math, iReady Math K-8 is used for differentiated pieces. 

“We are always looking at whether usage of our digital programs can be noted in student performance on other measures,” says Looney. “Most recently, we met with iReady reps to hear about our fall to winter progress. We were so excited that our results were much better than the state and nation!“

PD for the Win

Carlton and Looney provide professional learning and continual support to ensure the digital resources are being used skillfully. A major priority is ensuring teacher growth to impact student achievement in a positive way. Their layers of support include:

• Regular data conversations with providers as well as district and campus leadership 
• Invitations to program providers to share progress and share information to campus leadership 
• Preparation of district instructional coaches to support teachers in their schools 

Share the Wealth of Knowledge 

Much as they do in their own district, the team generously shares their recipe for success with the greater education community, recently presenting at the Tech & Learning conference about supporting digital resource use through professional learning. 

Here are a few highlights from their talk:

Create a High-Quality Instructional Resource (HQIR) Culture

• Institute a multiyear initiative to make the use of high-quality district resources a priority. 
• Include several professional learning sessions to a leadership team, detailing research regarding the impact of HQIR on student achievement, teacher collaboration, and equity. 
• District expectation that teachers use district-provided HQIR in the classroom. 

Supporting Digital Curriculum includes: 

• Implementing professional learning is a priority before any new digital curriculum is used. 
• Providing continual support to ensure digital resources are being used skillfully. 
• Providing additional professional learning opportunities each year for all district digital curriculum during summer and district professional learning dates. 
• Offering virtual  professional learning support with providers during PLCs to provide targeted, grade-level and content-specific support when needed. 
• Ongoing site-based support provided by district instructional technologists and instructional coaches. 
• Highlighting district digital curricular resources during leadership meetings throughout the year. 

Any success we have is a team effort from the top down, says Carlton. “Our Teaching and Learning team, led by Dr. Decker, works very hard to support our campuses and provide needed professional learning and resources,” she says. “We have strong partnerships with our campus administrators, so that we can work together for teacher and student growth.”

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Christopher J. Lockhart, Director of Technology, Princeton City School District, Cincinnati, Ohio

Christopher Lockhart’s efforts regarding digital equity at Princeton City School District earned him the nod for Best Overall Implementation of Technology. Though hardly a simple challenge, Lockhart is dedicated to ensuring students have equal access to technology such as devices, software, and the internet, along with proper training to navigate these tools.

“Our campus is our community and our community is our campus,” says Lockhart, the district’s director of technology. “We try to look beyond the walls of the building and are reaching out to the community.”

The biggest obstacle was in making sure all students had equal access to learning tools and tech.

“Early on in the pandemic, we were able to get a limited number of hotspots,” he says. “We then bought 600 additional devices, which covers about 10% of our student population. We made a simple Google form with easy questions to ensure they headed to families who needed them. It was a way we were trying to find equity, out of our own budget.“ 

Once pandemic funds started to become available, Lockhart and his district started to find more ways to expand connectivity, including equipping 62 school buses with mobile wifi. “Our students who have a longer ride to and from school now have that connectivity while they are on the bus to get their homework taken care of or download what they need before reaching home,” he says.

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Going beyond 1-to-1 across the district, PCSD has partnered with local apartment complexes and mobile home parks to provide more than 180 WiFi hotspots that can be borrowed from the office, rental centers, or community rooms. The district also expanded the bandwidth of the schools' networks to extend to outdoor parking lots.

“Each of our buildings have multiple access points outside,” says Lockhart. “We wanted to offer parents or students somewhere safe to work, where in the confines of their car they could upload and download assignments and things they needed.”

The outreach isn’t solely focused on hotspots. Lockhart and the Princeton district have been devising  creative solutions to connect with the greater community for years.

“About four years ago, we created a green, solar-powered mobile book center to send to targeted district areas,” he says. “We could park the bus in these neighborhoods, fire up the solar panels on the roof and provide open internet access while there, Chromebooks to ensure each student had laptop access, and 20 VR viewers through Google Expedition that allowed people in the communities to go on virtual field trips. When the pandemic hit, we still had that asset available.”

The district is ramping up the program again now, and is weighing options to replace the former Google Expedition program, but remain dedicated to providing continued access to the Princeton Mobile Book Center experience. Lockhart’s team has also instituted monthly online events geared directly toward parents. 

“In our monthly parent community series, we talk about social-emotional wellness, financing, a lot of topics focused on parents rather than students,” he says. “As part of this, we invited parents to a ‘Keeping Students Safe Online’ event discussing the need for using tech in public space in the home, and explaining social media platforms their kids might be using.”

Tech Tips 

The very first thing is to recognize the complexity of technology in a school district, says Lockhart. “Some think schools are simpler than businesses when it comes to technology, but the opposite is true,” he says. “Because of the nature of what we do, we have a network of 6,000 students and 800 employees in 12 locations. For most businesses you aren’t dealing with that level of complexity and moving parts.”

Lockhart suggests working with partners to leverage their access in order to support your network and let the experts manage and maintain aspects of the program. Many districts are working with a small tech department, so delegating is crucial to achieving those goals.

“We are tech directors not tech doers, but we are so used to doing it all that we get stuck in the ‘if something is broken I need to build a system so if it gets broken again there is a plan in place to fix it’ mentality,” he says. “There just isn’t the time.”

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Paul Sanfrancesco, Director of Technology, Owen J. Roberts SD, Pottstown, Pennsylvania

Paul Sanfrancesco’s theme has always been, “How does this help students?” Add in a pandemic, school shutdowns, COVID chaos, and ineffective connectivity throughout the district and you might think that theme would shift to something more akin to, “How do we stay sane through this?” But Sanfrancesco’s unflappable tackling of issues as each arose kept his district on course, while his forethought and careful planning helped teachers and students not only muddle through, but thrive.

“Fortunately, we had set up programs to address implementing a new learning management system and creating a one-to-one device district before the pandemic started,” says Sanfrancesco. “We recognized the future benefit, so it was nonnegotiable that every teacher had to have a page, learn Zoom and Google Meet. When the pandemic hit, we already had staff well-versed in how to run an online classroom.”

Putting their energy into professional development and training paid off when the unthinkable took place.

“These programs already having been rolled out gave our tech department the luxury of pivoting to focus on access at home,” he says. “In our elementary level, we had one-to-one via in-school carts, so we had to get those devices out to everyone who needed one. (The middle and high already brought theirs home.) So it wasn’t as chaotic for us. Once the students had internet, we were good to go.”

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Going the Distance and Beyond 

Implementing remote learning during the pandemic often meant Sanfrancesco driving through the district to get the tech into little hands, personally visiting 200 homes to deliver devices. Then a new challenge arose.

“Getting the internet in homes got tricky,” he says. “We had to get different brands of hot spots because some just didn’t work. Kids were using unreliable cell phones to run their internet at times. When it came to running Zoom and playing videos, they simply didn’t have the bandwidth capability. So we worked with Verizon and Comcast to get their paid hotspots open with free access.” 

Some parents couldn’t get to school, so Sanfresco and everyone available – including the district superintendent – went to them, even if it meant meeting on front porches. “We also kept our campus wifi open so parents could just pull in the parking lot,” he says. “Even if buildings were closed, kids could go on the playground and fields and access what they needed. We even had outside school sessions— sometimes you just jump in and do it and make it happen.”

Build the Team, Build the Magic 

 That kind of magic isn’t a solo effort, a fact Sanfrancesco is the first to point out.

“My team was amazing,” he says. “I would say we need to meet at 4 am, 5 am to set this up, they were there, no problem. We offered 24/7 support, where each person in the tech department took a night to be on duty. Sometimes parents are trying to open an app at 10 pm and only then realize they couldn’t figure it out. Some kids left the country, some got stuck in other places in different time zones, some chose to temporarily relocate— we had to keep everyone connected and able to access the learning materials. We wore masks, we wore gloves, we were outside in the heat sweating in PPE—early in the pandemic we just didn’t know. And not one person complained.”

The community and school board were also supportive. “If we hadn’t had the leadership and vision to have all those programs set up before the pandemic, I don’t know what would have happened,” Sanfrancesco says. “It would have been chaos. That tech plan allowed us to us focus on the students and teachers.”  

Sustainable Classrooms 

Sustainable to Sanfrancesco means smart planning to create a future-proof system poised to support itself. It doesn’t hurt that his program also qualified for the eco-sense of the word, by repairing broken tech.

“We knew we needed dedicated people for Chromebook repair even before the pandemic,” says Francesco. “Suddenly, students were using those Chromebooks for everything at home. We decommissioned a few laptops, took off the software, and then gave it to the kids to break and repair and rebuild. You talk about STEM and STEAM, but then when you see it in play, happening outside the curriculum, it’s a pretty cool event. We trained students to go into the community so they could help their neighbors and siblings. Today we have a team of students handling Canvas and Google and device repair—and they are self-sustaining. The kids have really helped us maintain what we had.”

Sustainable also means making tough calls to ensure a bright future in tech purchasing, especially when receiving extra COVID funding.

“We purchased things that were already in our budget and just sped up the timelines, so we knew we could sustain them in the future,” he says. “A lot of teachers wanted all these free apps and the software companies were throwing at the schools during the pandemic. We made sure they understood ‘you need to use the resources we already have because after the pandemic we can’t fund the free stuff once they go paid’. It was hard when they came to us from home desperately trying anything and everything to keep their students engaged. We would mine things already in our system that could do the same function to keep our plan intact. I needed to know we would be able to support them when we all came back.”

Consequently, the district is experiencing much less learning loss than expected. After feedback from teachers, Sanfrancesco is putting in a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS)  to ensure they are doing everything they can to keep students where they need to be. 

Big Plans for the Future 

“What am I excited about for the future? Esports,” says Sanfrancesco. “We wanted to start right before the pandemic. With the kids online and doing a lot of gaming when they were all home, we started the program. We had over 140 high school students come out to join the club— an overwhelming turnout. We are going to start with Rocket League and aim for major competitions. The kids can’t wait. We have esports studios within our district and it’s pretty cool that we are now entering that arena in a competitive way. It’s a neat thing to see, we’re talking education again, we’re getting excited about learning. The students are excited. That’s pretty awesome.”

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There is nothing “typical” about the classrooms at AmTech Career Academy in Amarillo, Texas. 

The 235,000-square-foot facility features flight simulators, a robot/drone coliseum, an esports arena, VR simulators for medicine and law, and many more cutting-edge learning environments. 

“It’s really providing what students are after and that is that hands-on, real-world experience,” says Jay Barrett, principal of AmTech Career Academy. “Here’s the industry I think I want to go into, so tell me what it’s really like. Give me something to do with my hands and let me experience that and I’ll see if I like that or not.’” 

AmTech Career Academy won Most Innovative Learning Spaces at Tech & Learning’s Innovative Leader Awards in Orlando in January. The high-tech academy opened in August of 2021. 

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The Students  

AmTech Career Academy currently serves 1,900 students, however, nearly 3,200 are scheduled to attend next school year. Students are drawn from five different high schools within Amarillo ISD.

Students choose a major from more than 35 career pathways and generally minor in a second pathway. They take all their standard education classes, such as science or social studies, at their “home” high school, while everything they learn at AmTech is career-oriented. For example, instead of algebra, students at Amtech take math geared toward medical or technical fields. “If you are in medical arts, you would really benefit by taking Math for Medical Professionals,” says Barrett. This class teaches students practical applications such as calculating and converting medication dosages. 

Similarly, the academy only offers one English class, which is focused on business writing. “It teaches them professional communication,” Barrett says. “How to write a resume, how to set up a meeting, how to conduct a meeting, how to create technically professional emails, text messages, etc. So it's the kind of class that creates transferable skills, whether you're going to be in HVAC and plumbing, or whether you're going to be in a corporate office.” 

The Facilities  

Medical arts is one of the most popular career pathways at the academy and students concentrating on that get the opportunity to work within a medical simulation lab. “We've got mannequins that actually can breathe, that can blink, that can speak,” Barrett says. “Then you can put them into cardiac arrest, and students have to go into action.” 

The facility also has a cadaver lab with virtual human and animal cadavers that students get to learn from. 

The law and public service classrooms include a courtroom and 911 simulation center as well as an immersive police trainer. “You put on the headset and you are literally dropped into the middle of a scene where you've got to disperse a crowd on Miami Beach or maybe you're making a traffic stop,” Barrett says. 

The school’s robot/drone coliseum hosts robotics competitions and lessons, and features a drop-down net above which drones can be flown safely indoors. This allows students to train to become licensed drone pilots. 

AmTech Career Academy is also home to a complete audio and visual production studio, and a “Smart Factory” that mimics the use of robotics in factories.

“Every single space that we have, we have some hands-on aspect,” Barrett says. “We have spared no expense in creating the spaces that our students need to really be on the cutting edge of their chosen field of study. Our only concern is that when students actually leave our campus and go into industry, they're going to have to learn how to use older equipment.” 

To see more, check out AmTech's Facebook page. 

• Tech & Learning Names the Winners of the Innovative Leader Awards in Dallas
• Tech & Learning Names the Winners of the Innovative Leader Awards in Orlando
• Tech & Learning's Innovative Leader Awards

To be effective in schools, innovation has to be ongoing. 

“You don't innovate on one thing, and then you're done. ‘I innovated today, I'm going to go on and do my next thing,’” says Bill Bass, past president of the board of directors at ISTE and Innovation Coordinator for the Parkway School District in Chesterfield, MO. 

Instead, school leaders need to be constantly evaluating their programs and practices, looking at what’s working and what’s not, and updating accordingly. They also should actively foster a school culture and climate that permits and encourages innovation. 

“In school districts, creating the conditions is the key,” he says. “If you create conditions in which people who are part of the system understand that they can take risks, and they're going to be supported in those risks, then they're more willing to do that in the future. Teachers do this every day, but systems don't.” 

Part of Bass’ goal in his district is to connect the innovative methods and approaches teachers are implementing in the classroom with their students to the larger system. Doing this effectively often means borrowing best practices from the business world. 

Apply Principles of Customer Service  

“We also have to make decisions based on our students,” Bass says. “Our students are our customers, our families are our customers, and we need to see them as such. The mantra that ‘the customer is always right’ – that's not exactly true. But at the same time, we should see ourselves in the service of educating our youth. And one of the things that comes with that is this idea of personalized learning.” 

Bass’ district has pushed for more personalized learning and educators have allowed students to lead them to teach in a way that is applicable to their lives. 

Educators naturally teach and assess things that they value. The disconnect comes from not valuing the same things that our students care about, Bass says. Which is why it’s important to assign material that is meaningful to students and their lives. “If kids don't care about [a lesson], they have a thousand other things that they can learn, and they don't need us to learn it,” he says. 

Bass isn’t advocating eliminating core topics because students can’t see how calculus applies to their day-to-day lives. However, he encourages working harder to connect the material to students and their experiences. 

“How do we get the more traditional topics that we want our students to understand, to be applicable in their actual lives? That's one of the things that when we look at our students as customers and our families as customers, that changes that a little bit, because we are looking for not only what we need, but what they need,” Bass says. 

Assess Your Innovative Practices  

Another aspect of the business world that Bass thinks educators can learn from is the practice of assessing new programs and initiatives. “One of the things that we do really well in education is we plan. We plan, and we plan, and we plan,” he says. “But what happens when that plan isn't going to work? We have to be able to pivot, we have to be able to change. And that's one of those things that in business that you see a lot. If you are analyzing data, or you're analyzing a system or evaluating a program that you're a part of, and it's not performing? Well, you have to pivot, or you have to abandon it.” 

Moving away from projects can be more complicated in education than in business but the principle still applies. “We're not going to abandon students, but we can abandon programs that are no longer working for us, and not just keep trying it because we spent so much time in the planning process,” Bass says. “We can spend less time planning upfront and more time in the ongoing evaluation of whatever that program is.” 

Some good ideas don’t work once implemented because every student is different and every school and district is different. Leaders need to understand and embrace that sometimes it just doesn’t work out for reasons beyond anyone’s control. 

Ultimately, establishing a culture that encourages students and educators to try and strive for improvement without fear of failure is the goal. “We have to be okay with making mistakes, and we have to help our teachers make mistakes, and we have to help our students make mistakes, and we can't assume that we're perfect,” Bass says. 

• Tech & Learning Names the Winners of the Innovative Leader Awards in Orlando
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Mark Naufel, executive director of Arizona State University’s (ASU) Luminosity Lab, started the lab in 2016 when he was 24 and fresh out of graduate school. Perhaps that’s why he takes an innovative approach to running the think tank.

“My dream was to start a new model of innovation and discovery at universities and colleges—driven by students,” Naufel says.

Naufel recruited 15 ASU students from different disciplines, secured funding from the university president’s office, and challenged his team to identify unmet needs in society. From there, the students designed, developed, and deployed solutions.

Luminosity Lab now features 50 students per year, with an all-time high of 100 in 2019. They identify challenges and help develop solutions for healthcare, education, and energy. 

Last spring, students launched the PPE Response Network in three weeks after hospitals and medical clinics throughout Arizona expressed their need for PPE. The Lab connected the facilities with people using 3D printers to produce PPE. “Our team created a 3D-printable mask that could be reused, and we worked with a corporate partner to get the filters for the masks,” says Naufel. “We delivered more than 16,000 PPE all over the state.”

After expanding Luminosity Lab at ASU, Naufel’s next step was taking it beyond campus. A 20-student Luminosity Lab in Ghana will launch in January and Naufel plans to have the Ghanaian students work with his students on projects.

Further expansion and collaboration

Another think tank recently launched at Lane College, an HBCU in Jackson, Tennessee, after Lane’s president visited ASU and learned about the Lab and its projects. “Our college doesn’t offer civil engineering, architecture, or design so we thought we could select a group of students to collaborate with Mark’s students and come up with some concepts,” says Greg Emery, instructor of business and scholar in residence for innovation at Lane.

To start, Emery created an internship program in the fall of 2019 and six Lane students worked remotely with ASU students. “We have no businesses or colleges surrounding us, and our students need internships and experiences off campus, so this was a great way to provide that,” says Emery. At the same time, Naufel wanted to extend his concept so projects could have multiple college teams working together. 

Emery plans to create his own innovation lab, possibly a think tank that tackles social issues. “We’ll create an interdisciplinary set of courses and have 10 to 20 students from different disciplines work in groups on various problems,” he says. The college, which has relationships with nearby FedEx and International Paper, will ask those and other companies to share problems; students can also tackle on-campus issues. “Our challenge will be taking it into social justice,” says Emery. “Rather than creating tangible objects, we might produce a paper to be presented at a conference or proposed legislation. We offer majors in religion and political science and want every student to have an opportunity to participate.”

Next year, the Lane Luminosity Lab hopes to increase to 20 students, expand the non-classroom components, and keep everyone engaged in projects. Emery is looking forward to collaborating with multiple institutions and including aspects of students’ lives that are most important to them. “The main thing I teach at Lane is that you always have to solve a problem,” he says. “An idea is just an idea if you can’t connect it to a problem and someone willing to pay to have that problem solved.” 

Naufel agrees. “A lot of internships have low-level, repetitive tasks,” he says. “When we engage students through the Lab they work on a complex project, which we need in this generation.”

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“My background has traversed from working with our earliest learners to heading innovative coaching teams performing impressive turnarounds at K-12 districts to my current position as Urban Leadership Director preparing the next generation of superintendents,” said Professor Frances Gipson of Claremont University in her presentation during Tech & Learning’s recent “Future-Proofing Your District” virtual conference. “But above all, I am Team Kid. If it helps kids learn, I am all about it. One of the things I have stayed keenly aware of throughout my different roles is that the school is really the heart of the community.” 

So what happens when that very heart of the community faces unprecedented challenges and suddenly skips a beat? Or when newly formed robust learning centers and support systems holding together precarious educator-learner relationships are broken and forced into a new remote reality? 

“This is where we can think beyond the brick and mortar,” said Gipson. “When you think of the concept of community, with the right technical supports, it can really morph into a wraparound offering connectivity, becoming a more dynamic system that can truly support our learners as they become the next group of leaders in our country.” 

Here are five steps for district leaders preparing for community schooling, and what that means moving forward:

1. Move from Existing State to Desired State

When forging a modern learning system, a futuristic leader is not afraid of breaking through the walls of the past. They need to become a change agent and create disruptive learning opportunities, and opt for a catalytic way of reflecting, resourcing, and developing the knowledge, skills, and dispositions for a learning system. Adaptivity and flexibility are at the core mindset for these leaders, and essential for their learners’ mindsets.

One way leaders create inclusive and collaborative spaces is by increasing voice and agency. Agency helps learners to meaningfully change conditions in their lives and community. It provides purposeful initiative. Schools can serve as models of equity to assure that every student will have a positive and empowering learning environment. Both capacity and conviction for “living in the system” and “disturbing the system” are critical to ensure that our communities are at the center of all decisions.

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2. Advocate and Propel Policies with Personalizing Features for the Learning Environment

Future ready education leaders will find ways to provide a personalized learning experience for students at every age. These leaders will do the same for all stakeholders in education, providing customized training and learning opportunities. They’ll also do the same thing for themselves. Using research and promising practices, they will invite curiosity and create rigorous learning environments suited to the authentic interests of students. 

These leaders need to become equity champions. They should take active steps to dismantle the deeply ingrained structure of inequitable schooling, keeping a mind to elements of access and opportunities for acceleration. We must attend to the nuances of learning and leading, and be prepared to be nimble in meeting the needs of today’s learners in a rapidly changing knowledge economy.

3. Connect, Design, and Lead

One can’t underestimate the importance of adaptivity and leading with love when it comes to creating the ideal modern learning system. Complex problems don’t offer simple solutions, so polarity management is key to meeting and adjusting. Connecting with the community in order to design a learning setting for success is crucial. 

With ever-evolving innovations in edtech, our system has become more data rich than ever—a natural edge in designing a personalized modern learning system. Precision and resourcing is more readily available than ever before so we can better differentiate to address the needs of the “whole.” Schools and communities can be informed by voice, as well as by accompanying “big data” systems that merge sources for data-influenced action. Breaking predictable patterns and relying on personalized innovation can keep a “Team Kid” approach with students firmly at the center of the design.

4. Invite Innovation, Curiosity, and Creativity

Lead with instruction, lead with equity—it’s not just about leading with a tool. ISTE Standards, Linda Darling-Hammond’s Deeper Learning, and Quaglia’s Voice and Aspirations Framework offer resources and practices to include in a modern holistic learning system. 

Technology’s role in this change is to equalize the playing field in the classroom, giving every learner the opportunity to access individualized learning. Technology is an accelerator, therefore we must first lead with the best instruction. 

ISTE offers a roadmap for education with standards that are organized to rethink teaching and learning with a strong sense of agency for the learner.

5. Schools as the Heart of the Community

We must be beacons of academic optimism, integrating community-aimed systems of support that include wellness and are trauma-informed. These systems should also offer multitiered accelerations and mastery-learning options, include social-emotional learning for everyone in the nested learning community, and have a goal of economic connectivity for families, caretakers, and community partners. 

The forward-thinking community school serves academic needs, with hubs for both learning and wellness—a model of schooling that address the whole child.  

Frances Marie Gipson is a clinical associate professor of education in the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University, and also serves as director of the Urban Leadership program. Most recently, Gipson served as the Chief Academic Officer (CAO) for the second-largest school district in the nation, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). As a leader of leaders, she oversaw the instructional plan and capacity building for more than 600,000 students in preschool through adult school programs – across over 20 departments.

 Vernier Software & Technology and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) announce the seven winners of the 2020 Vernier/NSTA Technology Awards. This year’s winning educators—one elementary teacher, two middle school teachers, three high school teachers, and one college-level educator—were selected by a panel of NSTA-appointed experts for their innovative use of data-collection technology in the science classroom. 

Each winning educator received $1,000 in cash, $3,000 in Vernier products, and up to $1,500 toward expenses to attend an NSTA conference.  

The 2020 Vernier/NSTA Technology Award winners include: 

Elementary School

Aaron Burke, South Avenue Elementary, Beacon, NY

Media teacher Aaron Burke plans to create a comprehensive curriculum that will provide students in grades K–5 with the opportunity to explore the health of the nearby Hudson River. Students will use data-collection technology, such as dissolved oxygen and turbidity sensors, to monitor water samples from the river, as well as from tanks housing aquatic plants, oysters, and freshwater fish in the school’s library.

Middle School

Colin Pattison, Indian Creek Road Public School, Chatham, Ontario

Colin Pattison will use his new technology—Vernier interfaces and probeware— to teach students various scientific concepts including force production, heat retention, and motion detection through hands-on activities.

Annette Simpson, McCleskey Middle School, Marietta, GA

The use of Vernier technology will help science teacher Annette Simpson enhance the in-the-field investigations she conducts with students at a local creek, allowing more students to conduct chemical and biological assessments of the waterway—and analyze their findings. 

High School

Neil Ford, St. Helens High School, St. Helens, OR

This award will help STEM teacher Neil Ford incorporate the Vernier Mini GC™ into classroom labs, allowing students to perform quantitative analysis of an organic solvent mixture.

Kelley Parks, Forreston Jr./Sr. High School, Forreston, IL

Agriculture teacher and FFA advisor Kelley Parks plans to engage her students in various data-collection activities using Vernier technology as part of a project-based curriculum. For example, in a Curriculum for Agriculture Science Education (CASE) lab titled “Energy in Feed,” students will use probeware to determine the energy content of different feedstuffs.

Kristine Schertz, Saugus High School, Santa Clarita, CA

In the Chemistry in the Earth System course, science teacher Kristine Schertz will guide her students as they investigate the Earth’s heat balance, the greenhouse effect, and climate change. Students will use Vernier carbon dioxide sensors along with materials such as clay, charcoal, and cotton to measure the reduction in carbon dioxide produced from a chemical reaction during the course’s culminating engineering design challenge. 

To learn more about the winners of the 2020 Vernier/NSTA Technology Awards, visit https://www.vernier.com/2020/03/30/2020-vernier-nsta-technology-award-winners-announced/. To find details about the 2021 awards program, visit www.vernier.com/grants.  

One of the first things the Chief Opportunity Orchestrator (COO) needs to decide before integrating entrepreneurship into the classroom is the structure of their Education Corporation (EdCorp); the type of model the COO will use to run their business. The main variables to consider when picking a model is the number of students you see and the frequency with which you see them. For example, as a sophomore English teacher, I saw kids every other day for 90 minutes. Because I saw kids so frequently and for an extended period of time, I let them start and run their own businesses. When I started the Fair Haven Innovates program at Fair Haven, I saw every kid in the school – more than 600 students – once every six days. Because I saw kids so infrequently, it was best if we all ran an EdCorp together. Having taught with so many different schedules and class sizes, I’ve found that there are three structures that work best for integrating entrepreneurship into your classroom:

FH Gizmos: The Amazon-Style EdCorps

In FH Gizmos, students set out to find and solve problems and then sell the solutions. All students are part of a product team and when they have a product ready to sell, it goes up on our line store. When a customer visits the website, they see all of the solutions FH Gizmos product teams have created. Like Amazon, FH Gizmos is a marketplace.

I am in charge of FH Gizmos. Students create the products while I handle most of the day-to-day operations of the EdCorps such as marketing. When it is time to sell a product, it is marketed as part of the FH Gizmos family of products. The FH Gizmos model is focused primarily on the design of new products and the experience of collaborating in teams. 

If the entrepreneurial process is new to you as an educator, this EdCorp structure can be a great way to get started as it eases the class into a more student-driven environment while allowing the teacher to retain most of the control. 

FH Grows: The Whole-Grade EdCorps

In FH Grows, students sell herbs and produce to restaurants and community members in our town. Every student is responsible for maintaining our gardens. When we have downtime in the garden, my seventh graders are responsible for growing our business. Teams take on a “department” role in areas they are interested in. I choose to let students stay in these departments as long as they like because growing student passion and developing expertise is important for middle schoolers. You can, however, rotate students through departments if you want them to try out each department. 

The Design department is responsible for creating products for FH Grows to sell. The design department surveys the community to get a feel for what they might want to buy. Students have come up with products such as upcycled planters and garden ornaments, holiday flowers, spring vegetable starters, catnip bags, worm farms, and organic seed packets. The Design team is responsible for using our design process to create new and exciting products to sell alongside the produce we harvest from our garden. 

People can’t support your business if they don’t know it exists. Our Marketing department is responsible for developing creative, engaging ways to tell the community the FH Grows story which lets them know that we’re open for business. It is a two-step process. First, students find the customers that make up our target market using market research, customer segmentation, and community outreach. Once we know who and where our customers are, students advertise our story with a call to action to encourage customers to buy our products. 

Once people know our EdCorp exists, the Sales department is responsible for closing deals and generating revenue by helping customers see the value in our products. Whether potential customers visit our website, contact us via email or social media, or even send in a handwritten letter or note with their child: it is the job of the sales team to reach out and make contact with customers. They then move customers through our sales cycle. After a purchase, the sales team is responsible for gathering customer feedback, encouraging future purchases, and generating new leads to explore. 

The Design, Marketing, and Sales departments can’t be successful without the Finance department. The finance department is responsible for tracking sales and making sure our financials are in order. They manage our ledger, inventory, and work with stakeholders in our district to make sure we have the money we need when we need it. Often, the finance team is tasked with using their creativity to minimize expenses and maximize revenue in FH Grows, which takes critical thinking and creative problem-solving. For example, one of our best selling products in FH Grows is our worm farms. Students start the worm farm for customers and then give it to customers along with a guide on how to maintain the worm farm and harvest the worm castings for fertilizer. We sell the worm farm for $150. In the beginning, we were only making 33% profit off the worm farms. Not satisfied with the low margin, the finance team found a new worm supplier, explained to them that we are a student-run business, and were able to secure a discount, which brought our profit margin over 50%. 

An EdCorp that includes a large group of students or an entire grade and is structured like FH Grows sees the COO move to a support role. The level of control you want to have in this environment is totally up to you, but you can’t have total control (nor should you want it). In FH Grows, student teams work together to come up with ideas to grow our business. Then, they pitch them to me and the rest of the students. We hold all-hands meetings where we look at our Business Model Canvas, as a simplified, one-page version of our business plan and decide on next steps. My vote, so long as students aren’t proposing something completely egregious, counts just as much as their vote. While I give my thoughts about a proposal, I’m often outvoted. I’m ok with that since half of the time the ideas I’m outvoted on end up doing well – which is awesome. Students feel empowered and make sure to let me know that their idea worked despite my protests. The other half of the time, the idea fails miserably, and that’s fine, too. Failure is a fantastic teacher, and I try to capitalize on these teachable moments as we break down why an idea failed and if there is anything worth saving about the idea. 

FH Leads: The Incubator EdCorp

In FH Gizmos, my sixth-graders answer to me (and their customers, of course). They follow the vision I’ve laid out for FH Gizmos and focus on creating products rather than running the business. In FH Grows, my seventh graders take on more responsibility as they make grade-wide pitches they think will help our business grow. In this whole-class, whole-grade EdCorp, students take on more ownership of the business since we run it together. In FH Leads, our incubator-style EdCorp, students take full ownership of their learning because we do not run a business together; they start and run their own business. 

A business incubator is an organization designed to accelerate the growth of other businesses. In FH Leads, my goal as the COO is to help students start successful businesses that they can take with them when they graduate from middle school. 

Students start by picking their teammates or co-founders. Next, students find a problem and develop a product or service to solve that problem. When students have a prototype of their product, they do user testing. A user is someone who will benefit from a student’s solution. If you develop a better dog leash, you wouldn’t test it with someone who doesn’t own a dog. User testing consists of putting our prototypes in the hands of users to get feedback. They watch users with their prototype and take notes on how the user reacts to the prototype. They ask users what they like about their prototype, what they would change, and how their prototype compares to the product they are currently using. After a lot of user testing, it is time for students to bring their product or service to market. Student teams create a Business Model Canvas to outline the next steps for their business. When they have a sound business model, they can apply for a business grant to help get their business off the ground. If I approve the grant, I will give them between $50-100, real money, to get their startup going. Students are then responsible for the continued design, marketing, sales, and financing of their business. If I have total control in FH Gizmos, I give up total control in FH Leads. Students are solely responsible for their business and its success. 

To this end, as the COO of FH Leads, it is important that I provide advice and feedback, but also opportunities to hear from others’ advice and feedback as well. I open up FH Leads to business owners in my community and experts I find worldwide. I have a pool of talented business professionals locally and abroad that can mentor students. Between my support, these mentors, and the experience they’ve gained in FH Gizmos and FH Grows, most of my eighth-grade startups are able to turn a profit before they graduate. 

In my experience, starting a business isn’t in every student’s wheelhouse. Even though I make it well known that FH Innovates classes are about disrupting the status quo, I still have students who aren’t comfortable with being their own boss. Some kids are afraid of failure, others are afraid of success, and some can’t find the creative confidence to build a business around solving a problem they care about. That is why if some students in FH Leads don’t want to start their own business, they can help a local, small business owner grow their business. If students choose, they can team up with a small business owner – almost like an intern – and help solve the challenges their business owner faces. If students don’t want to work for themselves, they have the option to work for someone else. Either way, students are put in a leadership position as they finish out the FH Innovates program in the FH Leads EdCorp, where they are pushed to find the agency needed to be responsible for their own success. 

Picking the model that is right for you comes down to how comfortable you are giving up control, class size, how often you see your kids, and experience level of students. The Amazon style EdCorp sees a teacher remain in control of the EdCorp. The decentralized style EdCorp puts the teacher on equal footing with students as they make decisions together. Finally, the EdCorp as a business incubator sees the teacher give up control so students take complete ownership of their businesses and learning. Choose the one that is right for where you are in your EdCorps journey, even if it changes as you get more experience being the COO.

Until Next Time,

GLHF

Each year in late June, ISTE is held in a large US city, drawing educators and administrators from across the globe. Hailed as the premier gathering for all things “edtech,” the ISTE conference hosts some of the largest and most interactive displays of classroom technologies. Many of these tools claim to be capable of innovating teaching and learning. What sets these products—whether they be software or a new device—apart from the numerous edtech inventions flooding the growing K–12 edtech marketplace?

For me, this question was answered not at ISTE but at the annual pre-ISTE Tech & Learning Leadership Summit held this year in Philadelphia. As is typical at a Tech & Learning Summit, the weekend kicked off with site visits to two schools that are doing amazing things for kids in the classroom with the help of technology. At FirstHand Philly’s Science Learning Academy, a school that has embraced Project Inquiry learning, student-centered projects were on abundant display. These included a re-imagining of what a student desk should be, complete with snack boxes and a built-in privacy screen. These and other student-led inquiry projects demonstrated how empowering students and providing them with access to the tools they need to create can lead to end results every educator and administrator strives to see daily: demonstrated competencies.

At the second site, the Drexel ExCITe Center for Expressive and Creative Interaction Technologies, participants saw similar demonstrations of learning, with more emphasis on the advanced expression involving “technologies.” As students demonstrated the game they had coded, which is now for sale on Xbox One Marketplace (the game is called Sole), or showed how they learned to program an automated drum set to play the “Super Mario Brothers” theme song, or even as they wrote the necessary code to ensure a robot could “see” via an Xbox Kinect sensor, the transformative approach of allowing students to personalize their own learning, including their assessments, adorned the center.

Throughout the summit, other outstanding examples of schools that were bold enough to innovate the manner in which students’ learning was assessed were highlighted. The following morning, Building 21, which is located in urban Philadelphia, shared many of their bold initiatives. They’ve enabled high-school students entering the program at a fifth-grade reading level to make rigorous and relevant contributions to both the school and local businesses, including both professions and vocations—the 21st-century’s definition of career readiness. The extraordinary success of Building 21, which is part of Philadelphia Schools’ Innovation Network, is the result of combining personalized learning pathways with a strong culture focusing on staff-student relationships—all while being completely immersed in problem-based learning. The school’s laser-like focus on “improving skills, not percentages” seems to be paying off in preparing students for success outside the school walls.

Throughout the weekend of learning and networking in the City of Brotherly Love, many more examples of “best practices” regarding instruction with technology were shared. And while many new inventions were on display later in the week at ISTE, this practice of boldly using any available technology (devices, shop tools, software, musical instruments, etc.) to transform the teaching and learning experience into something more meaningful and personalized for students is the definition of true innovation.

Todd Dugan is the Superintendent of Bunker Hill CUSD #8 in Bunker Hill, Illinois.

A fabulous few days at the Building Learning Communities event (#BLC19) wrapped up with attending many sessions today. I was honored to be able to present two sessions at the event this year. Events are always a fantastic way to collaborate, learn, and push myself as a speaker. My two topics focused on active learning environments and innovative leadership.

Click here for slide deck for designing Ed Tech Lessons

Click here for  slide deck on innovative leadership

Click here for  slide deck and resources for active learning lessons.

I designed both sessions with the mindset

The “Future” isn’t something that happens to us; it is something we create!

It is never easy to shift cultures, but every innovative culture change started with an idea that seemed ridiculous…at first

Idea: How about we pay a stranger to sleep in his/her house?

Idea:  How about we contact a stranger have them pick us up and get into his/her car even thought we have ALWAYS been told not to get into strangers cars?

Idea: What if we didn’t have to buy the full cassette or CD?

Idea: What if we brought the mall to the customer?

There are many definitions of Innovation in Education. For me and from my experiences, I believe innovation is any idea that adds positive value to learners and the school and introducing new and future possibilities through ideas, creation, and prototyping.

Standing still in the world today is not an option, so we have to continue to move forward and innovate. However, Innovative leadership doesn’t mean USE MORE TECH. Innovation is a method, not a thing. I think today’s Innovative leaders need to act more like startup CEOs. What I mean by that is design an Innovative culture that promotes prototyping and effort and celebrates attempts. Students don’t know what they don’t know, so they must move forward and discover learning on their own. Not just be “told” and sit and consume information.  Uncertainty in learning brings creation and discovery and in turn learning. #FailForward Look back up at the innovative companies that have changes our would and way of life. Their ideas were uncertain but with a goal to learn, be efficient, and find “a better way”

Some areas I think we as educators need to move towards are below. This is a slide from my session Thursday and we had a rich discussion about the “shift”. Add your thoughts on twitter by tagging @MatthewXJoseph or comment below.

The big focus of both my sessions was around planning and thinking like a progressive teacher or leader or BOTH. To think like a leader is to design a blueprint for success (i.e district, school or lesson plan) that is ongoing, dynamic, and able to change in time with the reality of a changing school environment. A blueprint for success is not a strategic plan that sits in a binder on the shelf. Rather, it is a process whereby a leader thinks though all the steps and plans an effective implementation strategy.

Blueprint for success

I believe a blueprint for success consists of five stages: a vision, goal, action plan, action, and reflection. Reflection includes assessment and evaluation of the action. But notice after reflection is back to vision. This is NOT a straight line it is continuous work and refecting on your vision, goals, plan, and implementation (action).

Vision

Effective leaders vividly describe their vision for the future and paint a clear picture of that destination to others. A vision inspires people to work towards a common goal. They build teams and define the steps to get there. A clear vision helps get the team back on track if along the way you go astray with your action steps or attitude.

You hear a lot of people say: “I will believe it when I see it.” Think of vision as the reverse of that statement. If you believe in your vision and model it every day, others will see the vision and have clarity on your direction. True vision provides a roadmap for the school and its stakeholders by providing a picture of success. Effective leaders clearly communicate this vision to the school as a means of inspiring, motivating, and engaging people.

Goal(s)

By setting high, clearly defined goals, effective leaders can measure the process and take pride in the achievement of those goals. Seeing forward progress helps motivate you to keep at it, even when the going gets tough. Small victories will give you the self-confidence you need to recognize your own abilities in achieving the goals you’ve set.

Ensure goals are set high. I like to say if someone doesn’t laugh at your goal(s) because they think it is out of reach, then the goal is not set high enough. Les Brown wrote, “Shoot for the moon and if you miss you will still be among the stars.” I encourage you to set your goals sky high.

Action plan

An action plan is a roadmap for how you are going to achieve your goal(s). The goal(s) should be broken down into steps and an assigned priority. Identify a person or team responsible for the completion of the goal and a way to track progress; consider a method to make notes to document said progress. Additionally, a starting and ending date should be a part of each action plan. A leader can have an amazing vision and clear goals, but without the plan to get there, the blueprint is not solid and will lead to a lack of clarity and unorganized implementation.

Developing an action plan cannot be done in isolation. Look at all aspects of your vision and be sure to enlist a cross section of voices and personalities. These voices will be the champions and cheerleaders of moving from action plan to action.

Action

What separates an effective leader from an unsuccessful one is the implementation of ideas into action. The time to act is when the vision is set, the goals are developed, and the action plan is strong. Effective leaders stay true to the vision and action plan because the time spent developing the plan will pay off and the results will be miraculous. Don’t overthink this step. When you’re ready, turn your action plan into action.

Reflection

Almost everything we do in education requires an evaluation and reflection. Reflection takes many forms and is an integral part of education and personal growth. Great leaders/teachers constantly reflect on their practice. They alter their plans, units, interactions, and attitudes. In a profession as challenging as teaching, self-reflection offers leaders and teachers an opportunity to think about what works and what doesn’t. Creating time for reflection gives leaders a chance to see their vision in action and determine next steps with actual data.

Effective leaders focus reflection on the impact of the actions on the school/district, the staff, and on him/herself. Reflection can take many forms. It can be a few minutes at the end of each day (who you talked to, what was said, what happened as a result of the vision and actions) or it can be an assessment of data collected over many days/weeks.

It may help to have a set of reflection questions to guide your thought process:

• How frequently am I communicating my vision and priorities?
• Can my staff articulate my vision and priorities?
• Am I supporting my staff on our path to achieving our goals?
• Am I leading or managing?
• How am I making a difference?

Regular check-ins on the action items help you see where you are in the cycle of progress. Are you on schedule? Did you budget correctly? Is the work aligned with the goals and intended objectives? If the actions are a little off course, you might need to make a simple change or do a deeper recalibration. Regardless, you won’t know until you’ve reflected on your progress.

A leader’s success is about helping others grow. It’s about making your staff smarter, bigger, and bolder. Nothing you do as an individual matters as much as how you nurture and support your team and help increase their self-confidence. Success starts with thinking like a leader and creating and sharing a blueprint for success.

Thank you to the November Learning organization and all the “Blue Shirts” that made this event smooth and an amazing learning event.  Happy 20th year and look forward to 20 more.

cross posted at techinnovation.live 

Dr. Matthew X. Joseph is currently the Director of Digital Learning and Innovation for the Milford Public School District in Milford, MA. Before coming to Milford, he was a building principal for 11 years in Natick, MA and Attleboro, MA. Other professional roles include: classroom teacher, district professional development specialist supporting leadership and technology instruction. Matt holds licenses in general education, school administration, and Massachusetts superintendent. His master’s degree is in special education and earned his Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Boston College.

Throughout his career, Matt focused on what is in the best interest of students and pushing the limits to achieve excellence in schools. He is an instructional leader constantly looking for student and school improvement while building community and continued teacher improvement. He is passionate about building a collaborative school culture, creating a school of learners utilizing 21st century instructional tools, and developing leaders’ communication techniques to enhance instruction and parent communication.

Follow Dr. Joseph on twitter at @MatthewXJoseph or read his blog techinnovation.live

On Tuesday I was honored to deliver the afternoon keynote for the #KYGoDigital Summer Tour Conference, The Keys to Fostering a Culture of Innovation! Students Who S.A.I.L. Thomas Edison designed the lightbulb 10,000 times, which meant he had this incredible drive to keep trying over 9,000 times after not getting it quite right. Innovation is a long, difficult journey with several failures before the right solution is designed. Some of our students shut down after failing once. Our hardest job is to help students believe in themselves time and time again so they outlast the journey and come up with the solutions to transform their communities and change the world! My keynote focused on the importance of teachers and schools offering curricula that motivates students to design, build, and create solutions to problems that impact them. Below find the recording to my keynote along with key tweets highlighting some of the important parts. Find the slides and resources here. Find the recordings to other incredible #KYGoDigital presentations here. 

My Keynote

Curated Slides and Quotes

cross posted at teacherrebootcamp.com

Shelly Terrell is a Technology and Computer teacher, education consultant, and author of books including Hacking Digital Learning Strategies: 10 Ways to Launch EdTech Missions in Your Classroom. Read more at teacherrebootcamp.com.

For whatever reason, I’ve gotten into a ton of conversations lately around the topic of compelling questions. Some of the conversations have focused on the creation of quality sample questions as part of the ongoing revision of our current state standards. There’s been discussions with schools and individual teachers as they continue to develop quality curriculum designs and instructional units.

And while there always will be – and should be – conversations about the differences between compelling, driving, essential, and supporting questions, the point remains the same. If we’re going to help our kids become knowledgable, engaged, and active citizens, they need to be solving problems and addressing questions. So quality questions of all kinds are something we need to be incorporating into our unit and lesson designs.

But what can they look like?

In the Education Journal article Questions that Compel and Support, S. G. Grant, Kathy Swan, and John Lee argue for their definition of a compelling question and provide some ideas of how to write one. The three are the creators of the Inquiry Design Model, a powerful tool for teachers looking for a structure to help them organize their instruction around the doing of social studies.

I especially love how the authors introduce the idea of a compelling question:

"Compelling questions function as the headline of a news story. They catch the reader’s attention and provide just enough content to preview the story to come. A good inquiry functions in much the same way: A compelling question frames an inquiry . . ."

Their most recent book, Inquiry Design Model: Building Inquiries in Social Studies, has a very sweet chapter on creating compelling questions.

Another great place to start is with the College, Career, and Civic Life document from the National Council for the Social Studies. The document does a great job of articulating the importance of a robust compelling question:

"Children and adolescents are naturally curious, and they are especially curious about the complex and multifaceted world they inhabit. Whether they articulate them to adults or not, they harbor an almost bottomless well of questions about how to understand that world. Sometimes children’s and adolescents’ silence around the questions in their heads leads adults to assume that they are empty vessels waiting passively for adults to fill them with their knowledge. This assumption could not be more mistaken."

And the NCSS’s handy Inquiry Arc embedded in their C3 document outlines a structure for embedding great questions into the instructional process.

During a recent teacher conversation, we brainstormed possible traits of a great compelling question:

• Matches and awakens student interests and concerns
• Explores a mystery
• Is age appropriate
• Is intriguing
• Requires more than a “yes” or “no” answer
• Is engaging
• Requires more than mere fact gathering
• Is baffling
• Has no “right answer”
• Provokes curiosity
• Requires synthesis
• Is conceptually rich
• Has “staying power”
• Explores controversial issues  

Bruce Lesh, of Why Won’t You Just Tell Us the Answers fame and one of my biggest social studies heroes, provides some additional help by outlining his criteria for a quality compelling question: 

• Does the question represent an important issue to historical and contemporary times?
• Is the question debatable?
• Does the question represent a reasonable amount of content?
• Will the question hold the sustained interest of students?
• Is the question suitable given the resources available?
• Is the question challenging for the grade level and developmentally appropriate?
• Does the question require discipline specific thinking skills?

But it’s not always easy developing a good question. We all eventually run out of good ideas. The good news is that lots of people have been thinking about this for while and don’t mind sharing. So if you’re looking for some questions, browse through these: 

•  Head over to the C3 Teachers list of inquiries, do a search that fits your content, and get not just questions but lessons as well.
• The Winston Salem school district has a similar list based on the Inquiry Design Model.
• The Connecticut Department of Education has a companion document that contains even more IDM lessons with great compelling questions.
• The Gilder Lehrman people have some good stuff. They’ve put together an older list of 163 questions here. 

We all know that best practice requires great questions to anchor learning. We just aren’t always great at coming up with them. So don’t be shy. It’s okay to borrow and adapt. Dig in and start adding some of these to what you already do. Your kids will walk away smarter because of it. 

cross posted at glennwiebe.org

Glenn Wiebe is an education and technology consultant with 15 years' experience teaching history and social studies. He is a curriculum consultant for ESSDACK, an educational service center in Hutchinson, Kansas, and he blogs frequently at History Tech and maintains Social Studies Central, a repository of resources targeted at K-12 educators. Visit glennwiebe.org to learn more about his speaking and presentation on education technology, innovative instruction and social studies.

In the latest addition to CoSN’s Driving K-12 Innovation series, the organization today published the second of three new reports, titled Driving K-12 Innovation: 2019 Accelerators. The report examines the top five most impactful technology megatrends driving the needs and skills that are expected of K-12 students and educators. 

Selected by an international advisory board of more than 100 distinguished edtech experts, the top accelerators are: Learners as Creators; Data-Driven Practices; Personalization; Design Thinking; and Building the Capacity of Human Leaders.

The new report takes a closer look at two of the top five accelerators and provides real-world examples of their impact on learning:

• Learners as Creators —By focusing on learning that utilizes doing and making, rather than simply understanding facts and concepts, educators can ensure that students acquire a skill set to solve real-world problems using invention and innovation moving forward.
• Personalization — This accelerator encompasses the societal shift toward tailor-made student-teacher interactions and away from one-size-fits-all education. Using technology in education can amplify personalized learning spaces and pinpoint students’ immediate needs on a more granular level.

Driving K-12 Innovation is the successor to the K-12 edition of the NMC Horizon Report series — a forward-looking edition co-founded and co-led by CoSN that ran from 2007–2017. CoSN released the first report Driving K-12 Innovation: 2019 Hurdles in January. The last report on “tech enablers” is expected this summer, along with a toolkit.

For more information on the series and to read the reports, visit: cosn.org/k12innovation.