The Virginia School Consortium for Learning values the professional learning network of Virginia’s associations that have a unified mission to provide high quality professional development and promote rich contemporary learning experiences of learners across the Commonwealth. Thank you to Karen Richardson, VSTE Executive Director, for writing this guest post about VSTE services for the VaSCL LiftUp Learning Blog. You can follow Karen on twitter @witchyrichy and VSTE @vste.

Digital technologies have taken their place in classrooms across the Commonwealth. From Chromebooks to robots to 3D printers, students and teachers are using technology to connect, create and communicate in often unimaginable ways. Fortunately for Virginia schools, the Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE) offers a professional learning community dedicated to innovative, effective integration of these technologies.

The Annual VSTE Conference We are best known for our conference, held annually in early December. We feature internationally known speakers and over 90 exhibitors showing the latest and greatest. But, we are particularly proud of our presenters. Most are educators from across Virginia who gather to share their expertise with their fellow attendees. There are over 320 sessions to choose from along with meet ups and tweetups and parties where you can network. The conference will be held December 8 – 10, 2019, at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center.

Check out our videos from past conferences at our YouTube site: https://www.youtube.com/user/vstevideo/videos And learn more about this year’s conference at http://www.vsteconference.org. We WILL sell out so you might want to register now.

Leading Ed Forum In addition to the annual gathering, VSTE offers other face to face learning events. In particular, several years ago, we saw a gap in opportunities for educational technology leaders.  We partnered with the Virginia Department of Education to create the Leading Ed Forum. This two-day event, held annually in mid-October, features programming for division level technology and instructional leaders with sessions related to digital equity, broadband, and student data privacy and opportunities to connect with leaders from the VDOE. The Forum will be held October 9 – 10, 2019, at Longwood University. Registration will open soon.

Makey Makey and More Other partnerships allow us to get digital technologies into the hands of Virginia’s teachers. Through JoyLabz, best known for their Makey Makey invention kits, we offer the five-hour Invention Literacy Workshop.  You can learn more here: https://vste.org/vste-partners-with-joylabz-to-provide-makey-makey-training/

Through our partnership with Teach Wonder, we are able to offer deep discounts on Wonder Workshop robots and online courses for teachers. You can learn more here: https://vste.org/robots/

Membership in VSTE is free. Visit our website ( http://www.vste.org) and click Join Now. You’ll get a weekly newsletter that will help keep you up to date on all our activities. While you are there, be sure to browse the home page: we’ve been collecting blog posts from Virginia educators with tips and techniques for integrating technology.

Find us online via Twitter (@vste) or Facebook (@vsteonline).