Educational Technology

Overview | Local Support | K12HSN/Statewide Services | Outreach | Web Development

Overview

The Educational Technology department is dedicated to supporting instructional innovation and providing support and guidance to districts, schools, and teachers as they embrace effective technologies that engage students and help them develop the skills necessary to succeed in the 21^st century.

The Educational Technology department consists of teams focused on:

Local support for integration of technology in the classroom
K12HSN – connectivity and leveraging “the pipes” to deliver content and applications statewide, including videoconferencing services for the K-20 community
Outreach and awareness building
Web development on which the statewide services rely

Our teams are working together to ensure that technology is used effectively and creatively to deploy new opportunities for teaching and learning, both locally and on a statewide basis.

Local Support

The Educational Technology department strives to provide support, guidance and professional development opportunities to local teachers, schools and districts as they seek to better leverage and implement technology in the classroom for improved student engagement and achievement.

The Educational Technology department also provides various learning opportunities through a series of computer classes that are available not only to members of our organization, but to school districts, and our local community. Click here for more information about our Computer Training opportunities.

K12HSN and Statewide Services

As the facilitator for K-12 connectivity in California the California K-12 High Speed Network (K12HSN) has the opportunity to leverage the state’s investment to benefit instruction. A state program funded by the California Department of Education, the mission of the K12HSN is to provide educators, students and staff across California with access to a reliable high-speed broadband network that delivers high-quality online resources to support teaching and learning, and promote academic achievement.

Working with the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC), the K12HSN strives to ensure that the bandwidth needs of K-12 schools and districts are accommodated. ICOE’s partner in the K12HSN, Butte County Office of Education adds its’ expertise to the program in the areas of E-rate and California Teleconnect Fund efforts. Through an annual Letter of Agency campaign and E-rate/CTF training and support, staff works to maximize E-rate and California Teleconnect Fund (CTF) support for connectivity expenses.

To impact resources available to teachers, the K12HSN offers educators access to engaging, high-quality resources and tools that give students the skills they need to compete and succeed in the 21st century. These resources and tools include:

Brokers of Expertise, a statewide portal with free educational resources and a community of educators sharing best practices
Calaxy, a suite of web 2.0 tools developed for California teachers inside a trusted community
CaliQity, a learning management system and learning object repository
UC College Prep, established, high-quality courses that teachers can pull from for support, or rely on as an online course, depending on the district and students’ needs
K20Video, videoconferencing resources including a scheduling system for bridging multi-point conferences, and archiving and streaming capacity
MyTechDesk, a work order management system

Outreach

The Outreach unit helps build local and statewide awareness of projects, initiatives and partnerships such as the California's K-12 High Speed Network, Calaxy, Brokers of Expertise, and CaliQity. The Outreach unit also strives to promote the use of impactful, high-quality educational resources and tools, which involves both building awareness of available products and services, and disseminating information through “grab-and-go” professional development opportunities.

Web Development

The Web Development unit houses a team of talented web developers trained in the most advanced aspects of web design and development. The unit specializes in complex, database-driven web applications and is responsible for the development of several statewide projects. These projects notably include: DataLINK, a much-used system that reports connectivity status for schools and districts statewide; K20video, the videoconference scheduler and resource provision system; MyTechDesk, a web-based work order management system for California schools; and Calaxy, a suite of Web 2.0 tools for today’s classroom complete with media blogs, wikis and media hosting. Hundreds of schools across the state take advantage of these systems.