#BestEdTech Award Nominations

The Lancaster City School District is the Place to Be Innovative

I feel honored to have been nominated by several people in my district to receive #BestEdTech awards at the State of Ohio Educational Technology Conference in Columbus, Ohio Jan. 27-29, 2013.  I have been nominated as the Ed Leader Innovator and as the Technology Coordinator Innovator.  It means a lot to have the support of your organization especially in the field of educational technology.  As educational technologists we need to be supported as we embark upon change programs so we feel free to take calculated risks.  The Lancaster City School District has fostered a culture which enables risk taking and which seeks to constantly improve the education of each child through innovation and creativity.  This is why I enjoy working her so much.  The board of education, administrators, teachers, support staff, students, and parents support our efforts to provide a quality education to our students and values the impact technology makes upon student learning.  

We take technology innovation seriously here at Lancaster.  You can view more things we do to foster innovation at this link from our district website.

Some samples include:

Technology Innovation Grants

Innovative Technology Teacher of the Year

TechToberFest

Lancaster also received several other nominations for #BestEdTech awards.  Lancaster High School is a finalist for the best 1:1 program in the state of Ohio.  The staff at LHS has done a phenomenal job at incorporating iPads into student learning with several staff members engaging students through Project-Based Learning (PBL).  Matt Gillispie at LHS has been nominated as a Teacher Innovator.  He has been instrumental in leading the building toward the 1:1 program.  You can view a video of Matt in action at this link.  Tanya Clark-Cupp has been nominated as the Teacher Innovator as well.  This last year Tanya was named the Innovative Technology Teacher of the Year for the Lancaster City School District.  

Below is some information about the #BestEdTech Awards including the voting link.  Please consider voting for the Lancaster 1:1 program and staff for these awards.  

Voting Link

The nominations are in for the first-ever #BestEdTech Awards! All nominations were received from peers and now voting is open to help make these nominees the winner!

#OETC14 will recognize the work of schools, colleges, programs, teachers, administrators and tech coordinators from around the state through the #BestEdTech Awards. The winners will be recognized on our social media channels and the winners/representatives will receive a free day conference registration to be recognized at #OETC14 in January 2014. These awards are nominated by the Ohio education community for Ohio programs/people only, but voting will be available to anyone on our social media channels!

All nominations have been posted as they were written and submitted to us.

Voting Window: Dec. 16-Jan. 10
Winners Announced: Jan. 15

Spread the word on your social media channels and share the link! You can vote as many times as you wish!

#TechToberFest13 is Alive!

I have never planned a massive educational technology conference but decided this would be a good year to do it.  If you have not heard, October 10, 2013 is professional development day for all Lancaster City Schools teachers.  The teachers will be meeting at Lancaster for a day full of sessions focused on innovative uses of technology to improve teaching and learning.  Our students will be of school in observance of the Fairfield County Fair.

I have always wanted to bring a session-driven, #edtech topic day to all my teachers.  This will be our own mini-eTech (State of Ohio Educational Technology Conference) day.  I decided to take it a step further, however.  I thought to myself, why not invite other teachers and business people from around the state to the event to present or to attend?  After months of work, I have finally released the schedule of sessions and I have opened it up to anyone to attend, for FREE!.  

To view the TechToberFest registration website, visit http://lancaster-city-school-district.ennect.com/events/techtoberfest13.  You should review the Schedule Tab before you go through the registration process.  I will stop registrations when the sessions have maxed out.  

There are 70 sessions to choose from but sessions are filling up fast.  Please consider coming for a day full of the sharing of best practices in educational technology.  After all, the price is right.

Just a few more details.  Lunch is on your own.  I tried to get this provided by several vendors but could not swing it.  Also, beware of the Fairfield County Fairgrounds.  Traffic will be heavy in that area.

Use the Twitter #TechToberFest13.  You can follow me on Twitter @MrKevinSnyder.