In partnership with CoSN, eSchool News highlights the innovative and dedicated work of IT leaders in school districts across the country.
The spotlight is on Kley ToddDeputy Director of technology Integration in Virginia Albemarle County Public Schools.
1. What is your biggest IT challenge today?
Our biggest challenge currently is ensuring that our educational technology resources and curricular outcomes are delivered equitably to all students, in ways that work to close, not expand, achievement gaps.
2. What project, initiative or achievement are you most proud of?
I am very proud of how our learning technology team has worked collaboratively to develop an internal technology survey that is used to generate specific data on the needs of our students and teachers in terms of which technologies best support their learning. This survey was designed to be filterable across multiple academic and student demographic lines so that we can determine which technologies have the greatest impact on student engagement and closing achievement gaps.
I'm also very proud of our digital equity report, which uses data to make technology recommendations to the various departments in our division.
3. What are your top 3 priorities for the next few years?
Instructionally: Close achievement gaps by effectively integrating technology and leveraging ai in the classroom while teaching how to overcome its potential obstacles.
IT: increasing preparedness for cybersecurity threats.
4. technology is evolving at such a high rate: what are some of the school IT innovations you see coming and which ones are you most excited about?
artificial intelligence applied to change the landscape of learning while preparing students to use it ethically.
5. What advice would you give to other school IT leaders and IT teams?
Collaborate with educational leaders! As technology leaders, it can be easy to get bogged down in the “IT” aspects of our role and lose sight of the broader mission of education. Sometimes the unique nature of working for schools requires us to think differently and in more diverse ways to meet the diverse needs of students. Always create pathways to keep instruction and students in the conversation.
For more IT leadership and innovation news, visit eSN's IT Leadership page.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘6079750752134785’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
