Learning Unleashed: ISTE Podcast

After two and a half years of pandemic teaching, our guests explain why game-based learning is more helpful, beneficial, and needed now than ever before for both students and teachers.

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Lindsey Blass (@LindseyBlass1) is the personalized learning environments program manager for San Francisco Unified School District. As adjunct faculty for Krause Center for Innovation at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California, and a Google Certified Innovator, she’s a leader in the edtech field. Blass is a sought-after speaker on gamification and game-based learning, and is the cofounder of #PlayPD, an unconference movement that leverages the power of gameplay to engage educators in designing innovative learning experiences. She believes learning should be fun for teachers and students, and strives to create dynamic and engaging learning experiences that inspire lifelong learners.

Cate Tolnai (@CateTolnai) is the director of member engagement for CUE, the ISTE affiliate in California. She has spent 10 years in K-12 classrooms and five years coaching teachers and administrators at the district and county levels. As a Google Certified Innovator and Trainer, and adjunct faculty for Krause Center for Innovation at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California, she supports the integration of technology and teaching across grade levels and content areas. Tolnai is the co-founder of #Sketch50, a movement to incorporate visual creativity into learning, and #ConnectedTL, a network for teacher-leaders

In this episode, we spotlight the silver linings in our two-and-a-half-year experience with pandemic teaching with an eye toward making the most of the tools, strategies, and successful practices we used to teach in any learning environment.

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Nathan D. Lang-Raad, Ed.D., (@drlangraadis) is an international speaker, author and professional learning facilitator, and the vice president of strategy at Savvas Learning (formerly Pearson). Prior to joining Savvas, he was chief education officer at WeVideo. He has served as a teacher, principal, university adjunct professor, consultant and education strategist in the course of his career. He was the director of elementary curriculum and instruction for Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, and the education supervisor at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Lang-Raad is also the co-founder of Bammy Award-nominated #LeadUpChat, an educational leadership professional learning network (PLN) on Twitter. He has also served as the president-elect of the ISTE Education Leaders PLN. In addition to The Boundless Classroom, Lang-Raad is the author of several books, including The Teachers of Oz: Leading with Wisdom, Heart, Courage, and Spirit with Herbie Raad.

James V. Witty, Ed.D., Esq., currently serves as executive director of schools within the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools district, leading and supporting high schools. He holds a doctorate in education from the University of Tennessee and Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the Nashville School of Law. Witty is the author of Exemplary Practices in Alternative Education: Indicators of Quality Programming, published by the National Alternative Education Association. He has served students, teachers and families as a teacher, executive principal, adjunct professor, district leader and director for the Tennessee Department of Education. He’s also the founding executive principal of MNPS Virtual School, Tennessee’s first public virtual school. In 2019, Witty was recognized as Principal of the Year for his school district. In his current role, Witty is responsible for sustaining learning continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic by scaling remote, virtual and blended learning options for students.

Join us for a discussion about how artificial intelligence can help us identify learning gaps and provide the necessary support to meet every student where they are with more personalized learning.

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Michelle Zimmerman has taught students from ages 3-16. She received her Ph.D. in learning sciences and human development from the College of Education at the University of Washington in Seattle, and her research has been recognized with multiple awards. She currently leads the ongoing re-envisioning at Renton Prep Christian School in Renton, Washington. Microsoft selected Renton Prep as the first K-12 Microsoft Flagship School in the United States in September 2018. Since 2007, Zimmerman has presented around the world for groups including the American Education Research Association, UCLA CRESST, ISTE, NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering, New York Academy of Sciences and New York Academy of Medicine, as well as at multiple edtech conferences and universities.

The ideal role of an ed-tech coach is to provide instructional support and to help us to rethink how we deliver instruction. In this segment, we talk about how the role of the ed-tech coach is evolving and adapting during the pandemic.

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Dr. Ashley McBride has spent her career working with students and other educators as a secondary English teacher, instructional technology facilitator, and most recently as the director of technology for Dare County Schools. In her work she has designed and implemented professional learning that supports educators and their understanding of digital teaching and learning practices. Additionally, she has led district-wide initiatives that help promote effective integration of technology for students. McBride is a COSN Certified Educational Technology Leader and in 2020 earned her doctorate in educational technology from Central Michigan University. She also serves as a board member for the North Carolina Technology in Education Society (NCTIES) and is an adjunct professor in Central Michigan University’s Masters in Learning, Design, and Technology program. You can connect with her on Twitter through her handle @aplusedtech.

The role of the school librarian has been evolving for over a decade. Now that the pandemic has made school librarians an invaluable resource to teachers and school administrators. Join us for a discussion about how they can help.

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Shannon McClintock Miller is the District Teacher Librarian and Innovation Director at Van Meter Community School in Iowa and Future Ready Librarians Spokesperson working with students, librarians, educators, and others around the world every day. She is Buncee’s Librarian Advisor, Capstone’s Librarian on the Street, and a Skype Educator. Shannon is the author of the award-winning The Library Voice blog. She has published 4 children’s books about library skills and 8 graphic novels in the series Adventures in Makerspace with Capstone and Cantata Learning. Shannon and Bill Bass recently published a book with ISTE, Leading from the Library.

In 2011, Shannon was awarded the Connecting People Shorty Award and was chosen to be part of the SLJ New Leaders Program in 2012. In 2013, she was named one of the Faces of Innovation from Broadband for America; one of 50 featured in the 2013 Center for Digital Education Yearbook; and one of the featured Connected Educators with the Connected Educators projects partnered with the US Department of Education. In 2014, Shannon was named a Library Journal Mover and Shaker. In 2016, she was awarded the Making it Happen Award by ISTE. In 2018, she was named the AASL Social Media Superstar Leadership Luminary. In 2020, Shannon was an EdTech Awards Leadership Finalist.

xIn this episode, we explore ways to better support students and teachers by building on established skills, reducing unnecessary demands, and limiting “add ons.”

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Jacie Maslyk has served as a teacher, coach, principal, curriculum director and assistant superintendent. Maslyk has written on a number of relevant topics including STEM, instructional technology, leadership and effective digital literacy strategies and is the author of the book STEAM Makers: Fostering Creativity and Innovation in the Elementary Classroom. She has presented at the state, national and international levels, and is a consultant to school districts looking to implement innovative practices in their schools.

Join us for a discussion about designing powerful and effective learning experiences, using digital technologies while juggling the demands of pandemic teaching and learning.

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Angela Elkordy, Ph.D., is chair and assistant professor, learning sciences, and program director for learning technologies at National Louis University in the Chicago area. Her writing has appeared in numerous platforms and publications, including books such as Foundation of Digital Badges and Micro-Credentials and Gamify Literacy. Her research focuses on the learning sciences, design and technology, teacher learning and instructional design.

Ayn Keneman, Ed.D., is an associate professor in the National College of Education faculty, early childhood education, at National Louis University, Chicago, where she teaches courses in early childhood education, literacy instruction, human development and technology. She is president of a special interest group of the International Literacy Association, Organization of Teacher Educators of Literacy. Keneman’s research on struggling readers led to the publication of her book Literacy Leadership to Support Reading Improvement.

We know that reaching every student is challenging and the pandemic made it harder. But the last 20 months made it more necessary and more possible to use education technology more purposefully. In this episode, we take a quick look at two resources.

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Sarah Thomas, Ph.D. is a Regional Technology Coordinator in a large district in Maryland, and the founder of EduMatch, a project that empowers educators to make global connections across common areas of interest. She has spoken and presented internationally, participated in the Technical Working Group to refresh the 2017 ISTE Standards for Educators, and is a recipient of the 2017 ISTE Making IT Happen award. She is also an Affiliate Professor at Loyola University in Maryland. Sarah is a co-author of the ISTE Digital equity series, Closing the Gap.

James Fester (@saintfester) is a teacher, educational consultant and instructional coach who helps teachers harness the power of authentic, experiential, technology-infused approaches to classroom instruction. His writing has been featured on well-known educational sites such as Getting Smart, TEDex, and KQED. His recognition as a Google Certified Innovator and a National Geographic Certified Teacher led to the creation of Park Based Learning, a project that encourages teachers to connect learners to national parks and public lands. As a member of PBLWorks National Faculty, Fester has consulted internationally, helping schools and teachers shift to a more student-centered, inquiry-based form of teaching and learning based on the same approach to education he has used as a state and National Park volunteer.

Jorge Valenzuela (@JorgeDoesPBL) is an education coach, author and advocate. He has years of experience as a classroom and online teacher, a curriculum specialist and a consultant. His work focuses on improving teacher preparation in project-based learning, computational thinking and computer science integration, STEM education, and equity and SEL integration. Valenzuela is an adjunct professor at Old Dominion University and the lead coach at Lifelong Learning Defined. His book Rev Up Robotics and its companion jump start guide Ready, Set, Robotics! are available from ISTE, and his next book, which dives deeper into the Equity and SEL Integration Framework, is forthcoming from Solution Tree.