Ed Influencers

Sophia Mendoza, the director of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Instructional Technology Initiative, has led the implementation of digital learning tools in over 400 schools. In doing so, she has implemented several innovative professional development models for the district’s 25,000 teachers. In introducing technology, Mendoza says the district aims to meet teachers where they are, to ensure that they feel successful and supported as they learn to use edtech tools. The district’s PD programs, she said, “provide multiple entry points for learning opportunities so that there are these easy wins and that they feel successful, that they feel supported as they venture out and take those risks … ” Part of the district’s strategy is to create “change agents” at school sites, such as principals who embrace professional development as learners first and then model their learning in ways that are meaningful for their staff. The aim is to avoid a top-down approach and create grassroots learning led by people who are leaders in their school communities. The school district has also made the ISTE Standards a centerpiece of its implementation efforts. The district has developed curriculum that has the ISTE Standards woven into it. It has also created teams of teachers that develop lessons according to the ISTE Standards and then test them to find what works and what doesn’t. The district has also developed “practitioner schools,” where an ISTE Standard is instituted across all subjects and then can act as a model for other schools in the district. Mendoza has also worked with teacher preparation programs to ensure the ISTE Standards are part of their curriculum. That ensures new teachers coming in the district are familiar with the standards.

As head of Adobe’s global education programs, Tacy Trowbridge manages the company’s Education Exchange, an online community where more than 700,000 educators share ideas and resources and get training on digital media tools. But for all the cool tools, Trowbridge’s overarching mission is to promote the teaching of creative problem-solving, a process that shifts the focus from students being passive consumers of information to being active creators of ideas and solutions. With the pace of change quickening, the world needs to train students to be “creative problem solvers, folks who can help us invent the future,” Trowbridge said. So, what does teaching creative problem-solving look like? Trowbridge says educators need to give students voice, let them figure out a problem that they want to solve and give them an authentic audience. It’s not about all students working toward one correct answer, it’s about students wrestling with problems and coming up with solutions on their own. Research showed near unanimous agreement among educators that teaching creative problem-solving is essential. But it also showed that schools are only teaching 20 percent of the underlying skills. There are lots of barriers; in one study, 70 percent of teachers blamed policies that create learning environments that discourage creative problem-solving. Altering that environment will require big changes, both in how teachers engage students and in how the government measures educational outcomes. 

Cecilia Rodríguez Alcalá, an ISTE board member and founder of Paraguay Educa, faced many challenges in helping to bring technology to the students of Paraguay. The country’s public education system is short on resources and its list of challenges is long: Students go to school for only four hours a day, 50 percent of them drop out after the eighth grade, and many teachers aren’t qualified and gain their jobs through political patronage. To overcome those challenges, Alcalá helped launch a massive edtech initiative to bring modern digital tools to students and help the country “leap-frog” some of its challenges en route to 21st-century education. To launch the project in 2009, the city of Caacupe was designated a “digital city” and 20,000 students there were given laptops. Teachers underwent intensive training to learn to incorporate the laptops into lessons. There was robust ongoing support for teachers, including onsite mentors to guide them. The students took to the laptops immediately and sometimes instructed the teachers on how to use them. But the broader goal was to shift how learning took place. The project brought a more collaborative approach to learning with an emphasis on using technology to create, not just consume. The project is being used as a model as the country works on further education reforms.

This time on Ed Influencers, ISTE Chief Learning Officer Joseph South sits down with Mandy Manning, the 2018 National Teacher of the Year, to learn about her experiences teaching and supporting immigrant students. Along the way, she shares her definition of culturally responsive teaching, explains how technology is giving these students a voice and talks about the role of hope in student success. Manning also shares how working with immigrant students has changed her thinking about the purpose of school.  

This time on “Ed Influencers,” ISTE Chief Learning Officer Joseph South sits down with Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Pedro A. Rivera who shares how his early education experiences in Philadelphia influenced his career path, his return to the neighborhood where he grew up and how he leads the state’s education system. Rivera weighs in on the importance of equitable access and equitable distribution, the ways teachers are reaching students with tech and how Pennsylvania schools are incorporating workforce readiness skills starting in kindergarten. 

In this episode of “Ed Influencers,” ISTE Chief Learning Officer Joseph South sits down with media entrepreneur and author Manoush Zomorodi to discuss where technology is taking us and how we can make it a positive experience. She delves into the science behind default mode, how digital habits can serve or harm students and ourselves, and how to know when tech is taking over our human capacities. Listeners will also be introduced to Zomorodi’s book Bored and Brilliant, and her podcasts “Note to Self,” “Zig Zag” and “IRL.”

Detailed description: This time on “Ed Influencers,” ISTE Chief Learning Officer Joseph South sits down with ISTE CEO Richard Culatta to discuss some of the most critical topics in education today, including digital citizenship, media literacy, personalized learning, coding, computational thinking, computer science, digital equity and screen time. You’ll also hear about Culatta’s first foray into edtech, his experiences as a classroom teacher, what he thinks personalized learning should really look like and what makes him optimistic about education.  

This time on “Ed Influencers,” ISTE Chief Learning Officer Joseph South sits down with Elliott Masie, leader of The Masie Center, to discuss how learning happens in the workplace, what lifelong learning looks like and how technology plays into job-based learning. Along the way, you’ll hear how this Broadway producer and creator of the term e-learning has been able to unite his three passions: bringing people together, the possibilities of technology and pinpointing the moment of learning to create a diverse and inspirational career. You’ll also get his take on curiosity and failure, and how those experiences shape adult and young learners. 

In this episode of “Ed Influencers,” ISTE Chief Learning Officer Joseph South sits down with Frances Gipson, Ph.D., chief academic officer for the Los Angeles Unified School District, to discuss her career path in the nation’s second largest school district, student-centered learning, digital equity and technology as a learning accelerator. Along the way, she explains how LAUSD adopted and operationalized the ISTE Standards, and provided professional development to support their implementation. Gipson also shares how the district remains focused on leading with learning as it transforms its educational program with technology.  

In this episode of “Ed Influencers,” ISTE Chief Learning Officer Joseph South interviews Sandy Speicher, global managing director for IDEO, about her early work teaching graphic design to elementary students, the definition of human-centered design, how design thinking applies to learners and how we can all exist together in the digital world. Along the way, Speicher describes her role at IDEO, how she helped design an entire international school system and how she hopes to influence the future of teaching and learning. This episode that unpacks leading-edge thinking in education is not to be missed!