MONTHLY MEGABITE April 2018
12th Annual SVRTC Banquet The Southside Virginia Regional Technology Consortium (SVRTC) celebrated the 12th annual SVRTC Technology awards banquet on Wednesday, March 14, 2018 at Longwood University. Twentythree SVRTC school divisions were represented with 144 registrations, including thirteen division superintendents. The program began with a welcome from Dr. Larissa Smith Fergeson, Interim Provost and VP of Academic Affairs.
Above: Co-chair of SVRTC, Dr. Elizabeth Jamerson, presents awards at the banquet. Below: SVRTC/ITTIP Senior Technology Engineer, Bill Wilson, addressed the consortium during closing remarks.
The mission of ITTIP is to transform teaching and learning in PK-12 classrooms through the use of technology by providing high-quality professional development for educators and engaging programs for students, in order to maximize their learning experiences and opportunities in a globally competitive workforce.
Upcoming events Apr 10 IMPRES, Webinar VI Apr 17 Mathematics PD, Longwood University Apr 18 SVRTC Meeting, Nottoway, Virginia
Stephanie Playton, STEM Learning Specialist of ITTIP, followed up
Apr 21 IMPRES Workshop, Sussex, Virginia
with a presentation “In Celebration Of SVRTC – 2017-2018” to bring attention to the technology
Apr 28 InTEL Summit, Longwood University
integrations that have been facilitated through partnership with
Leadership award was presented
SVRTC.
to Lunenburg County School Divi-
In This Issue
sion. Additional celebrations were presented through sixty awards to
A complete awards list of the 2018
SVRTC members and one school
recipients can be found the SVRTC
division. There were two com-
Annual Awards Banquet page as
petitive awards. The Technology
well as a slideshow presentation
Leadership award was presented
of awardees. Pictures from the
to Christopher Coleman, Bruns-
event can be found in the SVRTC
wick County School Division High
picture gallery.
School Principal, and the Division
Page 1 SVRTC Banquet Page 2 EdTechRVA 2018 Page 3 Virtual Reality Page 3 NSTA 2018
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April 2018 Megabite - Longwood University ITTIP
EdTechRVA 2018 Conference On Wednesday, March 7th, 350
45-minute sessions and 3 ignite
supporting the 2019 Conference.
educator’s gathered at VCU’s
sessions. There were approxi-
For more information, please visit
Academic Learning Commons to
mately 50 school divisions and
www.graetc.org .
passionately support connected
organizations represented at this
learning. The conference had
year’s conference.
another early sell out this year with registration filling up nearly
Conference attendees provided
six-weeks before the conference
feedback to both the conference
day. The conference began with
committee and presenters for
a keynote presentation from Dr.
next year’s considerations, as the
Gardner Campbell who reminded
GRAETC team is already planning
attendees that “learning cannot be
for EdTechRVA 2019. Longwood
managed…it can be fostered and
University’s ITTIP looks forward to
encouraged” and that we should shift educational technology away from just being a tool to an experience. The day included forty-four,
Above: ITTIP celebrates their partnership with GRAETC at the EdTechRVA 2018 Conference. Left: EdTechRVA 2018 participants listen to the keynote speaker, Dr. Gardner Campbell.
Vizia While many of us are in the stages of reviewing content from the school year, we wanted you to be aware of a free, online tool, that allows you to take YouTube videos and embed them into Vizia. Once the video is uploaded, you have the option to insert quizzes, polls, short text answers, or hyperlinks, into specific areas of the video. While students play back your video, it pauses at the certain points where you have embedded an interaction to make video watching less passive! All data then feeds to a Google Sheet or Excel file for the owner of the video. You also have the capability to enable viewers to provide their name and email at the beginning of the video to help track the data to your audience member. Check out a video with interactions made, here!
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April 2018 Megabite - Longwood University ITTIP
Google Expeditions Experiences: From Pre-K to College Google Expeditions has been
dents as teachers choose what
making it’s way through south-
VR to share and “points” users
side Virginia through a loaner
to certain areas where pop-up
program with ITTIP, since No-
images are shared. For instance,
vember 2017. In ITTIP’s March
during a VR lesson in a pre-
newsletter, we revealed that the
school, students visited a pond
virtual reality (VR) tool had been
where they were first able to
in the hands of over 2,000 stu-
look around and explore on their
dents. During a SVRTC banquet
own, then they were periodically
in mid-March, ITTIP shared new
directed with an arrow on their
data suggesting that approxi-
screen to pop-up images. This
mately 2,500 students had used
allowed the teacher to discuss
the VR. As of the publication of
and make observations about the
this newsletter, that number has
life cycle of a frog with the stu-
risen to nearly 4,000 students.
dents while virtually at a pond.
Learning experiences with
There are several more schools
Google Expeditions vary from
that have checked out the loaner
that of other VR headsets (e.g.
kits before the end of the school
Google Cardboard, Samsung
year, as well as scheduled les-
Gear, Vive). Google Expeditions
sons with pre-service teachers at
allows a guided activity for stu-
the university this month. ITTIP
Above: Students in a pre-school class enjoy visiting a pond, and learning about a frog’s life cycle, things they eat, and where you can find them, during a VR experience.
looks forward to supporting this initiative again for the 2018-19 school year.
ITTIP Celebrates Global Education at NSTA 2018 ITTIP STEM Specialist, Stephanie
Above: Stephanie Playton stands with her poster on “Facilitating Teachers in Implementation of Global Education”.
included highlights of the global
Playton, attended the National
experiences that InTEL partici-
Science Teachers Association
pants have been facilitating in
conference, on March 15-18, 2018,
their classrooms this school year.
in Atlanta, Georgia. During her
We look forward to InTEL par-
attendance, she was also accepted
ticipants celebrating other global
to present a poster session on part
learning experiences on Saturday,
of the work that has been done
April 28th at Longwood Univer-
with the InTEL grant. The poster
sity.