Office of Digital Teaching & Learning March Newsletter
- Thu, Mar 3 2022
-
You told us, we listened! Feedback from the Opportunity Assessment (full results coming soon) and Digital Office Hours has been clear: more quality training and learning opportunities supporting digital teaching and learning are desired by Arizona educators. Please join us in these upcoming learning opportunities:
- 10 & 10 Digital Citizenship Series: 10 minutes of applicable content, 10 minutes of Q&A
- Digital Office Hours: Drop in anytime from 10am-12pm on Fridays to meet the staff and get quick tech tools.
- Shared practices: This month’s LEA Spotlight has a shared-practice treat in store! Scroll down for more.
- Community Working Groups: Consider working with and learning from other AZ educators in digital teaching and learning. Sign up to learn more about our working groups:
- Technology educators/practitioners
- Academic educators/practitioners
Opportunity Assessment
We are getting closer to releasing the results from the 2021 Opportunity Assessment. Expect to learn more from the results about where Arizona schools stand in digital teaching and learning. With the results we’ll have a strategy and action plan outlining our next steps. As always, your involvement is needed for us to be a success! Reach out to [email protected] to learn more!
Join ODTL and Common Sense Education for our 10 & 10 webinar series every Wednesday at 1 PM! In this five-session series you’ll be introduced to digital citizenship topics that highlight practical ways educators can incorporate effective technology. Each free session is intended for K–12 educators and includes 10 minutes of quick, applicable content followed by 10 minutes of Q&A.
All sessions recorded for later viewing with access to supporting resources.
Upcoming 10&10 Sessions:
March 9: Social Media Basics for Educators
March 16: Engaging with Your Families on Digital Citizenship
March 23: Assessing & Celebrating Your Students' Positive Online Contributions
Free Services & Tools to Reduce Your Cybersecurity Risk
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced this week it has compiled and published a list of free cybersecurity services and tools to help organizations reduce cybersecurity risk and strengthen resiliency. This non-exhaustive living repository includes services provided by CISA, widely used open source tools, and free tools and services offered by private and public sector organizations across the cybersecurity community.
CISA also strongly recommends organizations take the following foundational measures:
- Fix known security flaws in software.
- Implement multifactor authentication.
- Take steps to halt bad practices, including the use of end-of-life software products and systems that rely on known/default/unchangeable passwords.
- Sign up for CISA’s Cyber Hygiene Vulnerability Scanning service.
- Get your Stuff Off Search (S.O.S.).
CISA encourages network defenders to take the steps above and consult the list of free cybersecurity services and tools to reduce the likelihood of a damaging cyber incident, detect malicious activity, respond to confirmed incidents, and strengthen resilience.
As a reminder, CISA encourages all organizations to review our new Shields Up webpage to find recommended actions on protecting their most critical assets.
Nogales Unified School District
We’d like to recognize Nogales Unified School District for their continuous efforts and progress in digital teaching and learning, and their willingness to share their practices with other LEAs. NUSD is sharing their governing board-approved IT Policy and Procedure manual as an example for Arizona LEAs who may benefit from it. The manual can be found on our website. Thank you to Nogales USD for being the first to share a template that will benefit the K12 digital teaching and learning community in AZ!
Does your LEA have a digital learning template or program that has worked well for your school community? Please tell us about it! Email us at [email protected]
Emergency Connectivity Funds Status
Great job Arizona! After two rounds of ECF (Emergency Connectivity Funds) filing this past year, Arizona schools will receive more than $13M in ECF funds. Arizona is 8th nationally in receiving ECF funds! The Emergency Connectivity Fund Program (ECF) reimburses schools and libraries for the reasonable costs of laptop and tablet computers, Wi-Fi hotspots, routers, modems, and broadband internet connections to help students, staff, and library patrons engage in remote learning.
Funding information like the screenshot below is available through the Universal Service Administrative Co. website in aggregate form, with filtering and pivot table options.
Digital Office Hours
Each week the Office of Digital Teaching and Learning (ODTL) will host Digital Office Hours. This is a great way to share ideas and needs about digital practices and space, and meet the ODTL team. Meet, mingle and learn on your schedule!
March Digital Office Hours Topics:
March 4: Addressing Digital Dilemmas
March 11: Social Media Basics for Educators
March 18: Engaging with Your Families on Digital Citizenship
March 25: Assessing & Celebrating Your Students' Positive Online Contributions
Pop in anytime from 10:00am - 12:00pm MST Fridays (excluding holidays). Use this link: https://azed-gov.zoom.us/j/84204061406
Meet the Team
We are proud to connect you with the ODTL team. This small but mighty group is building this program to serve Arizona schools with the resources they need for digital teaching and learning.
Free CS Training
SciTech Institute is teaming with the Infosys Foundation to offer Arizona teachers a FREE CS training by Firia Labs on Monday, March 14. What is unique about Firia’s approach is their style to ensure learning is hands on by utilizing a physical CodeBot robot to learn code. Better yet, teachers get to take home their own CodeBot as an added bonus for attending! Educators can register here. The PD has 60 spots available for middle and high school educators and want to be sure Arizona teachers take full advantage of this.
The TEALS Program
The TEALS Program is looking to expand into high schools for the 2022-2023 School year. The no cost TEALS Program builds equitable, inclusive computer science programs in high schools. School Applications are now open. Learn about TEALS on the TEALS Program website. You can also register for a live virtual school information session, where you can see how TEALS increases teaching capacity by providing professional development, CS teaching resources, and a network of support.
Book a meeting with a TEALS Regional Manager to chat about your specific school needs. You can also e-mail the TEALS Program Arizona Regional Manager at [email protected]
Computer Science Professional Development Week
CSTA-AZ and ADE are hosting a week of CS Professional Development over the summer.
We'll have several track for elementary, middle, and high school teachers, including both introductory and advanced high school options.
Click Here for more information and to stay updated.
