Instructional Technology Support Services
The IU13 Educational Technology team provides a range of professional learning, coaching, and resources to support educators and administrators throughout the region in using instructional technology effectively to expand learning while leveraging teaching, time, talent, resources, collaboration, and knowledge.
For additional information about any of these services, please contact the Educational Technology Team.
This professional learning series prioritizes student-centered learning, starting with a focus on the station rotation framework. Participants will gain hands-on experience and strategies for implementing personalized and individualized learning approaches through the three learning modalities: direct, small group instruction; focused independent work; and effective collaborative learning. Attendees will engage in a variety of instructional activities and strategies with direct applications in classrooms including active learning strategies and learner-centered techniques. Instructional coaching and follow-up professional learning workshops are provided.
Our Instructional Technology Specialists and Coaches provide non-evaluative, job-embedded coaching for teachers to support instructional planning, delivery, and/or assessment related to many content areas or processes. Instructional coaching builds knowledge and capacity of teachers by differentiating professional learning and follow-up support based upon teacher needs in the following areas:
- Technology Integration
- Station Rotation Implementations
- Blended & Personalized Learning Implementations
- ISTE standards for Teaching & Coaching
- AI
- …and more!
Does your district have a new Instructional Technology Specialist (ITS) and/or Technology Integration Coach who could benefit from connecting with an Instructional Technology Specialist Mentor? Or perhaps, your seasoned ITS and/or Technology Integration Coach is looking for some fresh ideas, resources, and support. Often times Instructional Technology Specialists and/or Technology Integration Coaches are isolated in their roles due to being the only person in this K-12 position or in a small group of integrators split between elementary and secondary buildings. Our IU13 Educational Technology team offers an ITS Mentor Support year-long program that is customizable to meet your district needs.
The Instructional Alignment services supports districts in creating and/or revising their Instructional Technology Plan, Digital Scope & Sequence, and Professional Learning Framework. Districts can select:
- The Digital Scope and Sequence Alignment – Review digital resources, ascertain usage, make recommendations to avoid content-provider fatigue, examine usage reports and recommend adjustments, determine if current resources align with vision, and customize to fit district needs.
- The Professional Learning Framework Alignment – Review ISTE standards, identify indicators and create considerations specific to district, provide a crosswalk with Learning Forward’s Standards for Professional Learning and the Danielson Framework, and identify flexible professional development opportunities.
- The Instructional Technology 3-Year Alignment – Outline how the current CoSN Hurdles are/will be addressed in the district, identify accelerators, identify tech enablers, and utilize the Digital Tool Kit as a guide to inform instructional technology planning and development.
Through the IMS Lending Library, districts can borrow esports-related equipment to get an esports club/team started. Districts have access to borrow gaming PCs and Nintendo Switches. Devices are loaded with games and include all accessories needed to successfully get an esports club/team started. Esports managers, coaches, and staff can attended monthly Epsorts Collaborative networking meetings at no charge. These services are continuing to grow and change as esports rapidly grows across the IU13 counties and the state of PA.
Our Ed Tech team instructional specialists provide a variety of professional learning opportunities including:
- Collaborative Tools (Microsoft, Google, and Apple)
- Utilization and creation of Open Educational Resources (OER) using our PA OER Hub
- Utilization of CK12 resources
- IMS workshops supporting all the IMS resources/tools
- Instruction to Student-Centered Learning Models
- Leveraging technology in creating Personalized Learning environments
- Understanding and examining using AI in education
- Schoology from beginner to advanced
- Schoology for administrators
- Apple Training
Our team serves as Apple Teachers, Apple Trainers, and Apple Coaches.
IU13 Instructional Media Services (IMS) and Pennsylvania Instructional Media Services (PAIMS) together bring consortia opportunities for IU13 public and nonpublic districts/schools striving to offer the best possible prices for quality instructional media resources for teaching and learning.
The Interlibrary Delivery Service (IDS) of Pennsylvania’s purpose is to provide a cost-effective efficient delivery service linking all types of libraries to support timely resource sharing throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As an incorporated not-for-profit membership organization, IDS is supported by a state/local partnership which includes a state subsidy and local membership dues. Through IDS, member libraries share print and non-print library resources to meet the information needs of end users. Currently, IDS membership includes 409 libraries which comprise the service area of the Interlibrary Delivery Service of Pennsylvania. This total includes 181 Full Member libraries and 228 sites which are Affiliates of Full Member (“Parent”) libraries.
Open Education Resources (OER) are “teaching and learning materials licensed in such a way that they are free and may be used, reused, remixed, and otherwise customized to meet specific needs.” (oercommons.org)
During this first session, participants will learn what Open Education Resources (OER) are and the importance of including them as part of their learning and teaching.
Districts can attend or request on-site workshops related to any of the IMS resources which include the following: Discovery Education, BrainPOP, Gale Resources Databases, CultureGrams, and Sora/OverDrive. Workshops can be tailored to meet the needs of the participants or school district. The IMS also provides regular Certification Workshops for Lending Materials. One half-day workshop can provide certification on the Mobile Device AR/VR Kit, the StarLab, TransfrVR headsets, and the Telepresence Robots. Another half-day workshop can provide certification of one or all of the STEM Lending Library Resources that include: Makey Makey, Botley 2.0 the Coding Robot, Cubelets, Edison V2.0 Robot, Hummingbird, Turing Tumble, Raspberry Pi4 w/ Tinker Kit, Finch Robot 2.0, Phidgets, Sphero Indi Robot, and LittleBits STEAM Student Set.
Our teams offers the following sessions for training and support to districts implementing Schoology: Schoology 101, Schoology Level UP, and Schoology for Administrators. In addition, we offer consultation services for utilizing Schoology Best Practices K-12.
CK-12 has a mission of providing free access to high-quality, customizable educational content in multiple modalities suited to multiple student learning styles, levels, and resources. Participants in this professional learning workshop will learn how to leverage the power and flexibility of CK-12’s digital and interactive content, simulations, and practice from their FlexBooks® 2.0 series. CK-12 content and student response to assessments and practice can be utilized to personalize instruction while being easily embedded and synced with teacher’s own LMS courses.
