Main | 2006 Twenty to Watch: An interview with Geoff Fletcher »

November 3, 2006

The face of things yet to come (2006)

Posted by Christina Gordon, NSBA Staff, at 12:00 PM | Twenty to Watch | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

As education technology has changed over the past 20 years, the vision, passion, and human spirit behind the tools have been the critical components in the transformation of teaching and learning. Many of the early pioneers were teachers, superintendents, school board members, librarians, principals, and technology directors who have become the often quoted and well respected voices of today's innovation. Technology continues to evolve and new leaders have emerged to further mine the power of technology to enhance education.

You nominated them and NSBA has identified 20 educators who are the "20 To Watch," a group who are becoming the new generation of technology leaders. Learn more about the 20 To Watch listed below.

Deborah Cline-Eck, Director of Technology, Upper Merion Area (PA) School District
Deborah has been instrumental in leading her school district in the use of technology to enhance teaching and learning, including leading a team that instituted 10 "Classrooms for the Future" which provide laptops for each student, smartboards, data projectors, and other technology to encourage full engagement of every member of the class.

Joseph Crawford, Technology Integration Specialist, Cobb County (GA) School District
Joseph has the personality to convince others of the importance of instuctional technology and maintains a high level of knowledge of emerging technologies through classes, conference attendance, and research. He has become an expert on wireless technologies by attending classes to prepare for wireless certification.

Dorothy Crenshaw, Chief Information Officer, Indianapolis (IN) Public Schools
Dorothy has been appointed by Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels to participate in the state's technology committee. She is committed to ensuring that urban students are able to compete in a global society, and demonstrates this through her efforts to get cable companies to install high speed cable modems in the homes of urban students.

Patti Dean, Instructional Technology Director, Cheney (WA) Public Schools
Patti has been instrumental in helping her school district to recieve several grants: one from Intel and Microsoft that lead to a professional development program for teachers; another from Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) which partners teachers-in-training with classroom teachers to integrate teaching and technology; and a Partners in Learning grant which enables teachers to use math and language arts technologies to aid struggling students.

Bruce Dixon, President and Founder, Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation
Bruce, a former school principal, is a tireless champion for school improvement through the use of one-to-one computing. He created the Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation in order to make one-to-one computing a reality for every American child.

Heidi Driscoll, School Principal, Taunton (MA) Public Schools
Heidi developed and facilitated an intensive one year course to develop district technology leaders who are trained to use web-based classrooms for professional development and classroom teaching. She is currently training elementary students to be the junior webmasters of their school Web site and training teachers to use data to drive instruction.

Derek Edens, Coordinator of Technology adn Assessment, David Douglas (OR) School District
Derek has designed, developed, and implemented a school district web portal for teachers to map curriculum to the state learning standards. He has ensured that web based mapping makes classroom curriculum a living, breathing document based on the changing realities of the classroom.

Bradley Gray, Chief Information Officer, Gallatin (KY) County Schools
Bradley has transitioned the district from failing to meet state standards and requirements in technology to an efficient system that provides students, teachers, administrators, and parents a full range of functioning technology. His positive attitude and view that his "ultimate customers" are the students of the district, has helped to raise test scores by drastically increasing the availability of technology.

Jeff Gregory, Science Teacher, Spring Valley High School, Richland (SC) School District
Jeff is the co-developer of ITEC, the district's demonstration project for one-to-one computing in high school. Volunteering to start a whole new program is evidence of his curiosity and dedication to improving learning through technology.

Janet Herdman, Director of IT Services, North Kansas City (MO) School District
Janet has been a pioneer in the infusion of computer technology, and was instrumental in the district being selected an NSBA Salute District in 1999. Because of her efforts, the district is expanding to the use of wireless networks in classrooms with wireless labs and other unique forms of instruction.

Jill Hobson, Director of Educational Technology, Forsyth (GA) County Schools
Jill is responsible for bringing high quality, relevant online instructional material that serves to raise the bar for student engagement to the district. Under her leadership, the district has created a blended appproach to online learning that reaches across all grade levels and has resulted in reducing (and in some cases eliminating) the need for textbooks.

Jennette M. Kane, Technology Integration Supervisor, Orange City (OH) Schools
Jennette designed a database and worked to make data available for adminstrators' handheld computers and provided training for use of this tool. She is currently working with a middle school class to help them create podcasts that will help blind students receive further benefit from their classroom experiences.

Quinn Kellis, Director of Accountability and Technology, Deer Valley (AZ) Unified School District
Quinn is bringing technology to the district in all forms, including online professional development opportunities for administrators and teachers, even as he continues to pursue his own education. He is not just providing the technology, he is teaching educators how to access it and use it succesfully.

Scott Kuffel, Superintendent, Geneseo (IL) Community Unit School District #228
Scott has strived to improve access to vital information in his district, specifically through the use of electronic board agenda preparation. His curiousity and understanding of this technology has led to his participation in feedback sessions with the product's creator that have improved the product for all of its users.

Eric Langhorst, Teacher, South Valley (MO) Junior High School/Park University
Eric uses audio podcast technology to host "studycasts" for his students to help them prepare for tests. Additionally, he uses blogging to engage and invigorate learning for students, teachers, and parents in his community. His commitment to technology is evident in the workshops he hosts for teachers in the district on podcasting, blogging, online assessment, e-mail and other applications they can use in their classrooms.

Chris Lehmann, Principal, The Science Leadership Academy (PA)
Chris, a long time leader in educational technology, was tapped to lead the new Science Leadership Academy, a high school in Philadelphia, due to his charisma and seemingly endless energy. His methods have led to student assignments being turned in digitally, including a science research journal and movie trailers for Shakespearean plays.

Marty Park, Director of Technology, Clark County (KY) Board of Education
Marty encouraged the school board in his district hire three technical resource teachers who are assigned to each of the schools in the district and educate both the teachers and students in technology. He consistently ensures that the technology is aligned with the curriculum.

Kari Stubbs, Senior Project Coordinator, ALTEC (KS)
Kari manages the more than $7,000,000 Technology Rich Classrooms project, which has impacted teaching and learning in 168 classrooms. While pursuing her doctorate, Kari evaluated new and emerging technologies and defined what she anticipates to be common educational technologies for K-12 in 2, 5, and 10 years.

Thomas Tan, Coordinator Information Technology & Research, Ontario-Montclair (CA) School District
Thomas is an inspirational leader who looks at the bigger picture, viewing technology from all facets of education -- administrators, teachers, students, and parents. He ensures that the school district invests in practical technology that will make the system more efficient and help school and district personnel work smarter.

Jennifer Ziolko, Assistive Technology Specialist, West Linn/Wilsonville (OR) School District
Jennifer has worked to implement and support the use of technology throughout the district's special education classrooms, and is on the forefront of bringing technology to students with disabilities. She is relentless in her quest to match educational needs with technological opportunities.

Hats off to all the 20 To Watch! We can't wait to see what you're up to next!

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