The Georgia Society of Technology in Education (G-STE) is officially affiliated with ISTE. Jill Hobson, our President, held our annual meeting to share with members the status of our group. The mission of the society is to function as a "voice" in the state. The importance of technology in education is only as effective as the organization and support for it.
Already the ETC's reviewed the school keys for the Georgia GAPS review. Now coming in June, we should see technology integrated with the schools keys so the instructional technologist will be supported with this update. Jill emphasized our group functioning as a voice with the DOE and Ann Ware, the Instructional Technology Director at the DOE is a member.
The goal is to establish a common language with board members and principals so the formative assessment includes instructional technology. This will help all instructional technology specialist to have some advocacy as will move forward as a support group for the differentiation in teaching styles and formative assessment.
We went around the room to see how districts were impacted from the budget cuts. Many said their professional learning was being cut. It seems this is going to be costly cut for district who will have to meet those Georgia GAPS review.
Wendy from Douglas County told me about dimdim.com which is a free video conferencing software online. This will be great for professional learning problems as well.
G-STE needs volunteers. All members are encouraged to contribute with areas of interest. Another goal is to collaborate with each other and share information or knowledge.
