“You have to be prepared to rock the boat. If you aren’t, you aren’t innovating enough.” This was the message from keynote speaker Holly Clark (@HollyEdTechDiva) to more than 100 participants at the Central Coast Teacher Technology Challenge Day held at the School of Education in February.
The event was part of a CSU-wide Digital Ambassadors Program that promotes the infusion of new technologies into teacher preparation programs and K-12 classrooms across the state. The San Luis Obispo chapter of Computer Using Educators (SLOCUE) co-hosted the event, which was funded by a grant from Google and the School of Education's Teacher Quality Programs grant.
The workshops focused on using technology to integrate both the new Common Core State Standards across content areas and the Next Generation Science Standards into their curriculum. Presentations from eight classroom teachers addressed a wide-variety of topics including blogging for language arts in the elementary classroom, creating digital music playlists to enhance social studies lessons, using iMovie to demonstrate physics concepts, and accessing the suite of Google apps to create a student-centered classroom. Beginners’ workshops helped teachers develop basic skills with widely-used tools such as iPads, Google apps and social media such as Twitter, Delicious and Facebook.
The day concluded with a presentation by CSU Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Beverly Young on the new Smarter Balanced Assessments being piloted across California this year in grades 3 - 8 and 11. Young explained how these computer-based assessments will be implemented in the coming years.
For more information about the Digital Ambassador program and related activities at Cal Poly, visit the School of Education website. (https://soe.calpoly.edu/content/pewter)
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