An array of inspirational talks, workshops and networking
opportunities provided local school district leaders and instructional
technology professionals who attended the LHRIC’s Tech Summit earlier this
month with much to discuss.
The annual event, which was held at the Edith Macy
Conference Center in Briarcliff Manor, is designed to highlight the outstanding
technology vendors who work with the RIC throughout the year as well
as focusing on the various products and services that are transforming
learning.
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| Dr. Maria Langworthy delivers the keynote presentation. |
Dr. Maria Langworthy, founder and principal of Langworthy
Research, kicked off the day with a keynote presentation on the emerging new
trends in education that are bringing teachers and students into a partnership
that fosters deep learning and leverages the digital technology tools that many
schools are currently using.
Dr. Langworthy, who has co-authored a new book with Dr.
Michael Fullan called, “A Rich Seam: How New Pedagogies Find Deep Learning,”
said young people are becoming increasingly disengaged as standardized testing
and other pressures take their toll.
“Outside of the classroom there are tremendous opportunities
and tools for students to use, which creates this kind of push and pull on
their minds,” said Dr. Langworthy.
But purchasing more tech gadgets is not the answer to this
challenge, she noted. “No device will fix the problem; something much deeper,
much broader needs to happen.”
Through their research in classrooms across the globe, Doctors
Langworthy and Fullan discovered that schools were lacking in certain areas,
including a shortfall in adequate professional development for teachers, an
insufficient teacher performance strategy and the outdated practice of layering
technology on top of traditional teaching practices.
In an effort to address such issues, Dr. Langworthy said the
research team decided to “go beyond the numbers and dig down to see what was
happening.” Their efforts were focused on what new pedagogies look like in
practice and how a system of deep learning could be implemented in a school
system-wide.
“We saw many examples all over the world of how this concept
was starting to explode,” Dr. Langworthy noted. One example was an entrepreneurial project
that involved a group of middle school students in Michigan. The initiative,
explained Dr. Langworthy, not only taught them about fundraising for a good
cause but how to develop a sustainable relationship with groups on the other
side of the world.
Dr. Langworthy suggested that to create that type of
learning in schools, students must have mastery in a topic as well as the
ability to handle projects on their own with little guidance from teachers.
“It really boils down to a somewhat different model of
leadership,” she added, with principals and others willing to learn alongside
students and teachers and to share a common vision with other members of the
school community.
“Our argument, and lots of research supports this, is that
technology won’t solve the problems we see in schools today,” stressed Dr.
Langworthy. “But what we have found is that when pedagogy shifts, there is a
transformation in student engagement.”
The day’s other keynote presentations included “Creating
Your Google Apps Classroom” and “Moving Forward in the Face of Change,” both
from Catlin Tucker, a Google certified teacher and English Language Arts
instructor based in California.
For over an hour, Ms. Tucker described the tools she uses in
her classroom, including Google Plus communities, Google Hangouts, Google’s
Blogger, Google Maps, Google Docs, Google Search, Google Drive and much more.
Paige Johnson, an education strategist at Intel, led the
day’s other spotlight presentation. In “Leading Edge: Key Traits of Ed-Tech
Visionaries,” she talked about the leadership qualities that are needed to
successfully provide students with a 21st century education.
A number of breakout sessions were also held throughout the
day on a variety of topics, including data analytics solutions for schools,
installing the proper surveillance systems, evaluating technology use and
success with the software program Clarity, as well as information on the Smart
Schools Bond Act and more.
Vendors who participated in the Tech Summit included A+ Technology & Security, Achieve3000, Aerohive Networks, Annese, Aruba Networks, Atlantic, Castle Learning Online, CDWG, Centris Group, Custom Computer Specialists, Inc., Day Automation, Dell, Edgenuity, Forecast5 Analytics, HP, K12alerts, Infinite Campus, Pearson Education, Renaissance Learning, Stratagem Security, Sungard, TTM (Think Through Math) and Vandis.
