National School Boards Association’s 2007 “20 to Watch”
Lead the Changes in Education Technology
Alexandria, VA – Oct. 9 – Want to find emerging education technology leaders? Look no further than the National School Boards Association’s 20 to Watch list. These 20 individuals reflect the spirit of innovation, creativity, and collaboration that place them among the nation’s top education technology leaders.
The 20 to Watch list, which started last year to coincide with the 20th anniversary of NSBA’s T+L Conference, is the result of a nationwide search to identify the top 20 classroom, building, and district leaders, as well as individuals making exceptional contributions in higher education and non-profit organizations, who are the emerging voices that will shape the future of education technology.
“These educators are the thought leaders of tomorrow. Their natural curiosity allows them to explore the potential of new tools and more importantly, excite and inspire others to follow their lead,” said Ann Flynn, director of education technology for NSBA. “We had many great nominees who are not afraid to question, redefine, and transform education.”
The 2007 20 to Watch are:
Christopher Brown, District Technology Coordinator, Avoca School District #37, Illinois
Chris Brown is the visionary, champion and implementer for the district's pioneering 1:1 student laptop initiative. He is also responsible for integrating new technologies into all classrooms/academic content areas; and developing necessary staff development/training opportunities to support and sustain those ground-breaking tech initiatives. Brown has been instrumental in bringing new, creative, and innovative technologies into the district--ones that have truly enhanced efficiency and communication.
Jon Carl, Social Studies Teacher, Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation, Indiana
Throughout Jon Carl’s teaching career, he has used the catch phrase, “Feel the History.” This year, he sought out a way to enable his students to embrace his love of history and feel the history through technology. Carl created an historical documentary class where students research, write, film, edit, and produce historical documentaries based on stories that appear on the local PBS station. Carl’s work in this class has been recognized by the Indiana Department of Education, Superintendent Sue Ellen Reed and the Indiana Historical Society. Carl's work has had an impact beyond the school doors. He is sought out by other teachers and educators for his historical knowledge and his innovative approaches to teaching.
Jana Craig Hare, Associate Director, ALTEC-Center for Research on Learning, University of Kansas, Kansas
Jana Craig Hare works with administrators, teachers, and students to make technology an integral part of the teaching and learning process. She is currently the project leader for the Technology Rich Classroom program, an $8 million initiative supporting the Title IID competitive awards in Kansas. Through this program, Hare is responsible for the management, design, and delivery of professional development, in addition to assisting schools with local- and program-evaluation efforts.
Heather Cruz, Assistant Superintendent for Educational Services, Litchfield Elementary School District #79, Arizona
Empowering students to become leaders and better citizens through the use of technology, Heather Cruz has formed a team of students to help teachers in learning and supporting technology in the classroom. These same students also update web pages, blogs, online calendars, and work with digital video production. Cruz has also been instrumental in getting parents and community members to foster the use of technology.
Travis East, Technology Education Teacher, Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson United School Corporation, Indiana
Travis East champions a content area that is not easily understood by many in the educational technology community. As an industrial and engineering technology education teacher, he works to provide his students with growth, experiences, applications, and exciting opportunities in technology that are unique. Examples of his work include setting up a 3D holography lab, learning 3D CAD to train his students for careers related to engineering, beginning to participate in the F1 in Schools program, beginning to incorporate rapid prototyping and machining technology using Pro/Engineer software, mold making to help students learn about injection molding/plastics technologies, and working with the Indiana chapter of the International Electrical and Electronics Engineers to advance his offerings for students.
Matt Federoff, Director of Technology, Vail School District, Arizona
Through Matt Federoff’s leadership, his district was one of the first to connect schools with wireless technology and then provide wireless access at the schools themselves. Federoff led the opening of Empire High School three years ago, a school that encourages students to become self-directed learners. Students at Empire receive a laptop computer in place of textbooks and teachers use technology as a tool in class and for homework. Federoff wanted to educate students for the work world that they will soon be entering, where technology is integrated into most jobs and careers.
Karl Fisch, Director of Technology, Arapahoe High School, Centennial, Colorado
A king of the technology grants process, Karl Fisch has received many grants over the last couple of years allowing him to pioneer educational technology and theory at Arapahoe High School. The largest of these grant awards funded a 1:1 laptop initiative that has students actively engaged with technology while creating blogs about Macbeth, producing podcasts on personal values, and writing interactive, web-based “textbooks” for their sciences courses. His professional development for his staff makes him stand out. He has taken a leadership role in guiding teachers to reflect on and improve their instructional practices, and continually introduces new instructional and technological tools.
Janene K. Gorham, Instructional Technology Coordinator, Virginia Beach City Public Schools, Virginia
Janene Gorham, in her first year serving as a central office administrator, had the foresight to look for a better way to provide training to the district’s school-based technology integration teachers. By staying current with instructional technology trends and, more importantly, student learners, Gorham saw the need to provide training in 21st century technology skills. She built enthusiasm for the upcoming school and showed educators how to foster communication with parents and the school community.
Laurie King, Technology Coordinator, Dysart Unified School District, Arizona
Laurie King’s area of expertise is in forming cadres of teachers to work together to develop their instructional practices, using technology as a tool for teaching and learning. This year, King worked with the staff development and instructional technology departments to build a cohesive professional development plan focused on the instructional strategies identified in Classroom Instruction That Works. King has also provided leadership in the area of podcasting and blogging as tools for teaching and learning, and as professional development models.
Debby Martin, Business Teacher, Hampton City Schools, Virginia
Debby Martin "Builds Bridges to the Community" through her student program by the same name. Her Advanced Web Page Design students enter into projects with community organizations, non-profits or small businesses and either create or enhance a web presence for them. Through her class, students gain a sense of empowerment that they possess skills that are valuable to the community. Martin has also been instrumental in working with her local community college to increase the number of technology courses for which dual enrollment is available. She is currently working on developing a technology curriculum to offer to parents within the community.
Scott McLeod, Director, CASTLE, Iowa State University, Iowa
Scott McLeod has been called the leader in learning at the intersection of school leadership and educational technology. He co-developed an extensive curriculum designed around the National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators (NETS-A) that he and his partners at the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE) (http://www.schooltechleadership.org/) have disseminated and shared with partner universities engaged in the preparation of school leaders. McLeod has been tireless in his efforts to assist the faculties of educational leadership programs around the country as they work with sitting administrators and prepare future administrators for schooling in the 21st century.
Terry Pilitzer, Supervisor of Technology, Keyport Public Schools, New Jersey
Terry Pilitzer wrote and received funding for the Students Using Technology to Achieve Reading and Writing; Math Achievement to Realize Individual Excellence (MATRIX) grants and then conducted workshops for teachers on how to effectively implement these grants. She also co-authored a district curriculum for integrating technology to improve reading/writing in grades 3 and 4, developed partnerships with Rutgers University and Brookdale Community College to provide workshops that encourage creative and independent use of instructional technology in the K-12 classroom , initiated the first partnership with Verizon to fund the installation of ISDN lines to the economically disadvantaged school districts in Monmouth County, NJ, and initiated a distance learning partnership with Keyport Public Schools and four other Monmouth County School Districts for the purpose of promoting cross-curricular use of technology and distance learning.
Erin E. Reilly, Co-founder, Platform Shoes Forum, Maine
Platform Shoes Forum (PSF), co-founded by Erin Reilly, designs web-based, interactive educational programs in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM subjects) for preteens. Zoey's Room (ZR), PSF's model program, stimulates girls' interest in the sciences by providing a web portal where they can learn more about the sciences through learning modules called Tec-Treks™, PSF’s trademarked curriculum modules that present an on-line educational problem that is resolved through off-line application. Zoey, an avatar created to stimulate interest in these challenges, meets with the girls in an after-school chat room where they discuss issues that interest them and are introduced to Fab Femmes, career women scientists. Evaluations in 2006 show that ZR participation increases girls’ self confidence, interest, and proficiency in STEM subjects.
Derek S. Roh, Director of IT Services, Baldwin County Board of Education, Alabama
When Roh arrived, few Baldwin County schools had web sites, and the ones that did had no consistency among them. Roh created a new district web site (www.bcbe.org) housing valuable information and helped design and implement a web site template provided for all 46 schools, thus greatly improving communication to parents and the public. Roh also used EETT grant funds to initiate a pilot program, now in year two and at two schools, to provide a full-time school technology coach.
John Rose, Instructor, Department Chair, Moreno Valley Unified School District, California
Rose was instrumental in establishing the rigorous Pathways to Learning in the areas of engineering, business, allied health and animation. He also implemented the first eighth grade career exploration day in which approximately 475 students came to his high school over a three-day period to participate in classes in each of the four pathways. Students helped a robot sort marbles using a computer program in the Engineering Pathway. Students viewed a dissected cat and used blood pressure cuffs in the Allied Health Pathway. They viewed and participated in drawing software in the Animation Pathway. Students also had the opportunity to work on their personal finances in Computerized Accounting in the Business Pathway.
David Sevier, Founder, The Open Source Teaching Project (OST), Tennessee
OST is founded on the belief that the knowledge of award-winning scholars, researchers, and others in the top of their field should be made available to inspire and inform students across the globe. At present, OST has secured interview commitments from nearly 200 Nobel Laureates, Guggenheim Fellows, Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellows, and MacArthur Fellows. Each will contribute to what is quickly becoming the world's largest repository of focused knowledge on discrete topics of high interest to learners at all ages and stages. Specifically, this knowledge relates to current research that is ongoing and groundbreaking. OST is not limited to areas of scholarly endeavor. OST conducts outreach to Academic All-Americans, Academy Award winners, Grammy winners and others who can donate time to share their experiences related to their careers and successes. This database of knowledge is interactive, keyword searchable, and has the potential to engage all learners at the highest levels of cognition.
Gary Stager, Executive Director, Constructivist Consortium, California
Gary Stager has been a pioneer in classroom robotics, online learning, at-risk education and has been a champion of laptops in education since 1990. He has brought the power of technology-rich project-based learning to public and private schools, plus home-schooling communities all over the world. Countless educators have been inspired to embrace computing and raise their game after attending one of Stager’s provocative conference sessions. His journalism speaks truth to power and holds the ed tech field accountable for its actions. He recently founded the Constructivist Consortium, a collaborative of six leading ed tech publishers, as a way of raising the visibility of companies committed to creativity, children, computing, and constructivism.
Ronald P. Walker, Superintendent, Geary County USD 475, Kansas
Ronald Walker implemented a comprehensive technology plan that included overall bandwidth for network connectivity, a program to train teachers based on a system of differentiated technology-related professional development, hardware and software and technology in classrooms, offices, and for parents. The district uses technology to bring clarity to ideas, efficiency to educators, learning tools that motivate children and adults, and parent access to grades, attendance, behavior records, and teacher comments.
Shawn Wheeler, Director of Technology Services and Training, Peoria Unified School District, Arizona Shawn Wheeler built a variety of outstanding technology professional development offerings, including the Blackboard e-learning environment; online Small Learning Objects, an impressive collection of single-topic training documentation supported by multi-media materials; and podcasting and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) technology. Wheeler also coordinated the design of the district portal used for instruction as well as district business operations.
Todd Whitlock, Technology Coordinator, North Daviess Community Schools, Indiana
Todd Whitlock is actively involved in educational technology advocacy at the local, state, and national levels. His 1:1 laptop initiative has brought more than 250 laptops computers to the homes of students. This saturation and use in the community has allowed the students to teach siblings, parents, neighbors, and businesses how technology can be used for presentations and personal productivity. Since 2000, Whitlock has written competitive grants that have earned North Daviess more than $1.3 million for educational technology.
About the National School Boards Association
Founded in 1940, the National School Boards Association is a not-for-profit federation of state associations of school boards representing 95,000 local school board members throughout the United States. Its mission is to foster excellence and equity in public elementary and secondary education through local school board leadership. NSBA represents the school board perspective in working with federal government agencies and national organizations that impact education, and provides vital information and services to state associations of school boards throughout the nation. The T+L Conference is NSBA’s annual event designed for K-12 leadership teams to explore the most effective use of technology to support teaching and learning, administrative applications, and community outreach.
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