L.A. Unified Efforts Highlighted Throughout the ISTE 2018 Conference

by Sophia Mendoza
Director, Instructional Technology Initiative

The Instructional Technology Initiative team alongside school leaders from San Pascual STEAM Magnet and Columbus Middle School delivered a variety of sessions at the 2018 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference held in Chicago, IL, which was attended by over 20,000 educators from around the globe. ISTE highlighted efforts on the horizon to focus on this upcoming school year, such as digital citizenship.

ISTE CEO, Richard Culatta, asked attendees to commit to digital citizenship as it is a critical practice that threads throughout the ISTE Standards framework. “Digital citizenship, it turns out, is not a list of ‘don’ts’ but a list of ‘dos’,” Culatta says. ITI staff were able to share the #DigCit work happening in L.A. Unified, such as celebrating the annual Digital Citizenship Week in October. In addition to digital citizenship efforts, the team was also able to highlight a great deal more throughout the conference.

For example, Dr. Frances Gipson served as keynote speaker during the Annual ISTE Leadership Session and an article featuring L.A. Unified's approach to leadership support was released conference-wide. ITI’s Instructional Leadership Support Team presented a session on how our models of professional learning support are designed to be learner-driven and learner-centered. Our partners at California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) and leadership from Columbus Middle School presented about district partnerships to support school to home access of devices as well as professional development. Another session was led by our Instructional Technology Facilitators (ITFs) focusing on their coaching practices at the school sites to cultivate innovative designers. Additionally, Dr. Vanessa Monterosa, ITI Program & Policy Specialist, was named incoming Co-Chair of the ISTE Digital Citizenship Network, and our ITFs were among the inaugural cohort of 30 members in becoming ISTE Certified Educators. Overall, L.A. Unified was well represented at this year’s ISTE conference.

As the new school year begins, we aim to transform our learnings into actionable practice by:

Continuing to design and deliver high-quality professional learning opportunities with the ISTE Standards.
Facilitating Digital Citizenship Week District-wide.
Creating greater access to and awareness of computer science education offerings.

We look forward to supporting you this school year!