The Teaching & Learning Department’s EdTech Team is devoted to providing technology-specific training to teachers and administrators. Many of our ESU 10 schools have a 1:1 initiative, which means each student has a device to use 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In order to support these initiatives, ESU 10 offers many types of technology workshops throughout the year. Our team believes that technology integration is important to develop skills such as creativity, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking -- The 4 C’s. But we also believe that the training we provide should never be only about the “tool.” We work hard to demonstrate how the tech tools can be used by students to not only learn the content, but show mastery of the content while incorporating the 4 C’s.
The EdTech Team continues to offer workshops at ESU 10 such as “Google Docs and Drive,” but in the last couple of years we have also added a Digital EDge component. Digital EDge Breakouts is a full day mini conference in July. We bring in talented teachers in our ESU 10 area to help lead sessions on technology, Blended Learning, and the 4 C’s. We also offer Digital EDge Customized For You workshops each semester. These personalized trainings are built around the participants’ needs.
New this year is EdTech@YourDoorstep. Because we offer many types of workshops in our department, we have found that we are often pulling teachers in multiple directions. It is also very difficult for districts to find enough substitutes to send teachers to ESU 10. With that in mind, the T&L EdTech Team decided to offer onsite trainings focusing on technology. If a school district has a technology need that the entire staff would benefit from, we are willing and able to go to their building to provide that training. We have already been busy with trainings to start the school year and have been to SEM, Riverside, Shelton, Ord, St. Paul, Sargent, and Elm Creek.
The EdTech Team consists of Peg Coover, Jason Everett, Crystal Hurt, and Dianah Steinbrink.