Pilot - Digital Learning Competencies for Teachers Resource Backpack

The DTL Division is excited to work with seven districts from across the state to pilot the Resource Backpack on the Digital Learning Competencies for Teachers.  The pilot is housed in the NCDPI instance of Canvas. Participants will gain access to resources for implementing the DLC for Teachers in their own district following the pilot.  We look forward to continually improving the resources we provide to districts.   The pilot began at the end of October and will run until the middle of December.  We will take the feedback from participants to enhance professional learning.

The competencies, as well as information about upcoming professional development are available on our wiki page.  If you have specific questions about these competencies, please reach out to your area consultant for guidance and support.    

The North Carolina Digital Learning Progress Rubric for Schools, prepared by the Friday Institute of Educational Innovation in collaboration with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, is a strategic planning tool, or “roadmap,” intended to support North Carolina’s educators, schools, districts, and communities in the transition to digital-age teaching and learning. The rubric contains four main areas: Leadership; Professional Learning; Content and Instruction; and Data and Assessment, and describes a vision for a high quality, digital-age school. It is designed especially to help school teams reflect on the current stage of their transition, create sustainable plans, experiment with innovations, determine next steps, and track their progress.

Digital Learning Competencies

The NC Department of Public Instruction, in partnership with the Friday Institute at NC State University and area RESAs, are pleased to offer educators in North Carolina a comprehensive and layered professional learning approach to support digital teaching and learning in NC classrooms. This past summer, we launched the Digital Learning Competencies for Teachers through our professional learning events across the state. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s Digital Teaching and Learning Division is collaborating with area RESAs to provide additional professional learning opportunities. These sessions will support school districts with the planning and implementation of the Digital Learning Competencies for teachers as well as administrators.   For this school year, sessions will be held in November, January, and April/May.  Team Leaders from the summer sessions will be notified with specific dates and locations.

Digital Learning and Media Inventory

Thanks to everyone for your hard work in filling out the Digital Learning and Media Inventory survey this past year.  As many of you know, we launched the DLMI Reporting Tool this year at our Reconnect meetings (https://schools.nc.gov/ncdlmidata).  We appreciate the feedback from our digital learning leaders on the reporting tool.  This tool is intended to provide districts with the data necessary to advocate for their programs as they plan for future years.  Please check out the report builder feature to begin building the reports you need to help inform decision making in your district.

Request for Proposals Extended to November 11th

We are seeking experienced Home Base users to serve as session presenters for the 2017 Home Base Symposium on February 22 – 24, 2017 at the Sheraton Four Seasons, Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, NC. All session proposals must be related to sharing lessons learned and effective strategies used to implement various Home Base tools:

• Canvas
• Identity and Access Management
• Learning Object Repository
• PowerSchool
• Schoolnet
• Truenorthlogic: Analysis of Student Work
• Truenorthlogic: Educator Evaluation
• Truenorthlogic: PD System

Feel free to submit more than one proposal. One presenter for each session will have their conference registration fee waived. Proposals are due by November 11, 2016 and can be submitted here.

Home Base Meet-Ups

Please plan to join us in November for the Home Base Meet-Up in your region.  All meetings are from 10:00 - 4:00 and will meet as follows:

November 14, 2016  -  Northeast & North Central

Johnston County Schools  |  AG Glenn Building, 2nd floor  |  211 E. Rose St.  |  Smithfield NC

November 15, 2016  -  Southeast & Sandhills

Kiwanis Recreation Center   |  352 Devers St.  |  Fayetteville, NC

November 16, 2016  -  Piedmont/Triad & Northeast

Catawba County Schools  |  CCS Admin. Bldg. |  2285 North Anderson Ave  |  Newton, NC

November 17, 2016  -  Southwest & Western

Henderson County Schools  |  Mills River Academy  |  96 Schoolhouse Rd.  |  Mills River, NC

Digital Learning Initiative: Technology & Infrastructure

The Technology and Infrastructure Work Stream is developing a comprehensive evaluation plan to measure progress of digital learning for the State of NC. This plan will prioritize and align data sources to provide both formative and summative information about individual learning components and the overall NCDLI effort. Creating a digital learning data dashboard and modernizing the Digital Learning and Media Inventory will be integral components in this continuous improvement process. Work is also underway to discuss data automation efforts in collecting statewide data for reporting tools and future planning purposes. 

Digital Learning Initiative: Digital Content

The Digital Content Work Stream is strategically planning to improve access to high-quality digital learning resources for North Carolina educators and students. 

After reviewing an inventory of currently available digital resources, work has begun to determine needs and priorities for additional content. LEA representatives recently convened to discuss local digital content initiatives and needs, and state partners have also met to discuss processes for sharing digital resources with educators. 

SpeakUp 2016

Each year, the Speak Up Research Project on Digital Learning asks K-12 students, parents and educators about the role of technology for learning in and out of school. SpeakUp 2016 opened October 12. Please register your school or district now at http://www.speakup4schools.org/Speakup2016/.

Your 2015 SpeakUp data is in! If your school or district participated in Speak Up between October and December of 2015, it’s time to dig in and see what your students, teachers, parents and community members had to say.

Future Ready Schools

Have you raised your hand for students and joined more than 2,300 superintendents who have pledged to implement meaningful changes toward a digital learning transition that supports teachers and puts the district’s vision for student learning at the forefront of future ready planning?

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology and the Alliance for Excellent Education don’t want you to miss out on the opportunity to benefit from the free tools and resources offered through this network of like-minded colleagues who are making a real difference in students’ lives.

Future Ready Schools (FRS) helps district leaders plan and implement personalized, research-based digital learning strategies so all students can achieve their full potential. FRS believes every student deserves a rigorous, personalized learning environment filled with caring adults and student agency. With power in numbers, the FRS network allows you and your colleagues to collectively impact students in your district and across the country. A wealth of FREE Future Ready resources are available to help you get started.

Take five minutes and sign the pledge – you won’t regret it. Then let your colleagues know you are raising your hand for students! Use the #FutureReady hashtag to share your great news!

COSN Infrastructure Survey Released

CoSN recently released the fourth annual Infrastructure Survey in partnership with AASA, The School Superintendents Association, and education researchers at MDR to assess the current state of broadband and technology infrastructure. The survey gathered insights from K-12 technology leaders nationwide, to assess key areas of concern for school districts including -  affordability, network speed and capacity, reliability and competition, digital equity, security and cloud-based services. The survey highlights the progress and the remaining challenges schools face in an effort to increase broadband connectivity and Wi-Fi in classrooms.  Key Findings include:

• Today 68 percent of the school districts fully meet the minimum Internet bandwidth recommendations set by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in all of their schools.
• The survey also shows increased reliability in Wi-Fi, which is now largely ubiquitous in high schools – only 6 percent lack Wi-Fi.
• 81 percent of respondents indicated that they were very confident or somewhat confident in their Wi-Fi, a significant improvement over previous years.
• Despite this progress, school leaders also reported that affordability remains the biggest barrier to establishing strong connectivity in schools and that digital equity is a major priority.

ESSA Update, Guidance Just Released

Non-Regulatory Title IIA

The Title II, Part A program is designed, among other things, to provide students from low-income families and minority students with greater access to effective educators. It is critical that State educational agencies (SEAs) and local educational agencies (LEAs) consider how to best use Title II, Part A funds, among other funding sources, to ensure equity of educational opportunity. New provisions in Title II, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), offer new opportunities SEAs and LEAs to more effectively attract, select, place, support, and retain excellent educators; re-visit traditional uses of these funds; and consider new and additional uses of Title II, Part A funds that are innovative and evidence-based. Additional information is available here.

Early Learning

The Department of Education issued non-regulatory guidance for early learning in the Every Student Succeeds Act. The guidance clarifies that federal Title II dollars for professional development can be used to support early childhood teachers.

Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants

The Department of Education also issued non-regulatory guidance for the Every Student Succeeds Act's Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants (SSAEG) program (Title IV). The guidance provides key information regarding the new SSAEG program, including the allowable uses of funds, role of the SEA and the local application requirements. The guidance also provides examples of several innovative activities that fall within the program’s allowable use of funds.

SETDA Releases The Broadband Imperative II: Equitable Access for Learning

On September 8th, the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), the principal membership association representing the U.S. state and territorial educational technology leaders announced the release of The Broadband Imperative II: Equitable Access for Learning. This report advocates for robust broadband access both in and out of school to best prepare all students for college and careers, provides new targets for infrastructure and capacity, and shares state and district exemplars where increased bandwidth availability has positively impacted teaching and learning. This current report builds upon SETDA’s earlier work, including its groundbreaking report, The Broadband Imperative: Recommendations to Address K-12 Education Infrastructure Needs and the April 2016, State K-12 Broadband Leadership: Driving Connectivity and Access.  The full report is available here.  The Press Release is available here.

Students Urged to Stand Up for Digital Equity

CoSN has issued a homework assignment for students this school year: shine a spotlight on digital equity. CoSN’s new Digital Equity Video Challenge urges students in grades 6-12 to submit a short video that raises awareness around digital equity. The challenge will run until January 19, 2017.

Students can create a public service-type announcement, up to one minute in length, or a mini-documentary that is up to four minutes in length. Additional guidelines include:

• Videos must be created and posted on YouTube by students enrolled in grades 6-12 for the 2016-2017 school year;
• Videos may be submitted by individual students or groups of students;
• All video content must be original, copyright free, or used with permission for YouTube viewing; and
• Competition is open to students in the United States and Canada.
• The winning students will be honored at the CoSN 2017 Annual Conference in Chicago, IL, as well as at the ASCD 2017 Conference in Anaheim, CA. Visit the digital equity website for more details.

In addition to recognizing the student winners at its 2017 Annual Conference, CoSN will present its first-ever Community Leadership Award for Digital Equity. The annual award will recognize districts that are addressing digital equity both at school and outside of school, as well as highlight the district’s innovative partnerships with elected local officials, the business and the philanthropic communities, and other local groups (e.g., libraries, housing authorities, nonprofits, etc.). These efforts expand CoSN’s commitment to improving digital equity nationwide. Earlier this year, CoSN launched the Digital Equity Action Agenda, which provides school systems with the resources to tackle this 21st century societal and educational challenge.

Learn more about CoSN’s digital equity commitment at: cosn.org/digital-equity.

Working in collaboration with the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), the Center for Digital Education produced this Guide to Choosing Digital Content and Curriculum to help districts address some of the challenges of moving from a print-based to a digital-based curriculum. It provides context, effective practices and resources for districts, and presents case studies of districts already implementing digital content or setting up the infrastructure to do so. http://www.centerdigitaled.com/paper/Guide-to-Choosing-Digital-Content-and-Curriculum-41458.html

Digital Teaching and Learning Division Directory