{"id":48561,"date":"2017-10-17T09:46:13","date_gmt":"2017-10-17T13:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=48561"},"modified":"2022-09-27T11:29:44","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T15:29:44","slug":"tech-terrific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2017\/10\/17\/tech-terrific\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech terrific"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_48566\" style=\"width: 470px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2017\/10\/17\/tech-terrific\/19479-jim-hannah-emily-stamas-jules-beckham-for-thnk-tv-9-19-17\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-48566\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-48566\" class=\"size-large wp-image-48566\" src=\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/files\/2017\/10\/ohio-ed-techs-19479_002-1-508x301.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"273\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-48566\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">As part of their Master of Public Administration program, Julius Beckham, assistant director of special services for Huber Heights City Schools, and Emily Stamas, director of marketing and communications for the Wright State Boonshoft School of Medicine, provided strategic advice to educational technology agencies and public television stations. (Photo by Erin Pence)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Ohio agencies that work with public television stations to bring new technology to the classroom had help shaping their strategy to increase support and visibility from a group of Wright State University graduate students.<\/p>\n<p>It was part of a semester-long project in associate professor Marjorie McLellan\u2019s Strategic Planning and Evaluation course in the <a href=\"https:\/\/liberal-arts.wright.edu\/school-of-public-and-international-affairs\/master-of-public-administration\">Master of Public Administration Program<\/a>. The course connects students with community organizations that want help with program evaluation and strategic planning.<\/p>\n<p>The students were recruited by Ohio Ed Techs, an organization comprised of eight educational technology agencies funded in part by the Ohio Department of Education.<\/p>\n<p>Ohio Ed Techs offers professional development on teaching and learning with technology to Ohio teachers, administrators and school district staff to address the training issue. These services, all at subsidized rates and some free of charge, include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Single day and multiday workshops for school staff members<\/li>\n<li>Hardware and software operation and application in the classroom<\/li>\n<li>Continuing education and university credit<\/li>\n<li>Regional conferences, including the Ohio Educational Technology Conference<\/li>\n<li>Consulting services regarding instruction, curriculum, hardware and software<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Their request in the fall of 2015 came in the wake of funding cuts and concerns about possible future cuts. They wanted the students to help them plan strategy and develop a report that would serve as a two-year roadmap for new initiatives, organizational development and to enhance capacity and internal collaboration.<\/p>\n<p>The students were Julius Beckham, assistant director of special services for Huber Heights City Schools; Larry Cartwright; Christie Guzman; and Emily Stamas, director of marketing and communications in the Office of Advancement in the Wright State Boonshoft School of Medicine.<\/p>\n<p>Following the work of the students, there were two mergers \u2014 one between Southwestern Ohio Instructional Technology Association (SOITA) and Think<sup>TV<\/sup><sub>, <\/sub>Dayton&#8217;s public television station, and the other with their counterparts in the Columbus area. In addition, some of the state funding to the agencies cut two years ago was restored.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a real-world project in which we hit the ground running, working with this client one-on-one while we were learning,\u201d said Stamas.<\/p>\n<p>The students first did their homework, collecting background information on all of the agencies. They then surveyed key stakeholders, including Ohio schools, the Ohio Department of Education and general managers and staff of the public television stations. Then they twice met with Ohio Ed Tech CEOs and managers from around the state in focus groups at The Ohio State University in Columbus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was like a blind date,\u201d said Beckham.<\/p>\n<p>He said the agency executives walked into the sessions from their separate silos and were at first very guarded, reluctant to open up. However, they were all concerned about their futures and future funding.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey all had their own issues and frustrations, but they still all had the same bottom line,\u201d said Stamas. \u201cIt was very obvious that they had the same goals, and we had to figure out what plan to accomplish those goals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beckham said the agencies\u2019 vision statements hadn\u2019t changed in 20 years despite dramatic changes in technology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo keep up with the times, they had to make some changes,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd change is hard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ohio Ed Techs is comprised of CET, the public television station in Cincinnati; the Public Broadcasting Foundation of Northwest Ohio (WGTE), Toledo; Western Reserve Public Media (WRPM), Kent; WVIZ\/PBS Ideastream, Cleveland; Instructional Technology Services of Central Ohio (ITSCO), Westerville, with WOSU; SOITA, Dayton, with Think<sup>TV<\/sup>; Educational Technology for Southeast Ohio (ETSEO), Athens, with WOUB; and Northwest Ohio Educational Technology (NWOET), Bowling Green, with WBGU.<\/p>\n<p>The students had taken classes on strategic planning, budgeting, program evaluation and strategic development. That helped them with their feedback to Ohio Ed Techs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was really good for them to find commonalities \u2014 that they all had the same fears, the same opportunities,\u201d said Stamas. \u201cI really feel that was the start of breaking some walls down and realizing that we are in this boat together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beckham said the students had to have strong interpersonal and communication skills and be able to take good notes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cListening is probably number one because you have to hear what people say and you have to be genuine in knowing what they said,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Integrating technology into the curriculum is designed to improve student and teacher performance. Many teachers didn\u2019t realize that Ohio Ed Techs\u2019 services were there for them, that the agencies had the tools to help them in the classrooms and for professional development. Webinars, on-site training and making services more visible on the Ohio Ed Techs website were among suggestions that came out of the project.<\/p>\n<p>The students suggested that the agencies increase marketing, upgrade their websites, diversify funding sources, strengthen collaborations amongst each other and better advocate for themselves to state leaders and lawmakers.<\/p>\n<p>On Sept. 18, it was announced that SOITA was merging its teaching staff and resources with Think<sup>TV<\/sup>. Gary Greenberg, director of educational technology for Think<sup>TV <\/sup>in Dayton and CET in Cincinnati, was named SOITA\u2019s executive director.<\/p>\n<p>Think<sup>TV<\/sup> (Think<sup>TV<\/sup>16\/WPTD in Dayton and Think<sup>TV<\/sup>14\/WPTO in Oxford) serves more than 750,000 viewers as well as more than 100 school districts, 20,000 teachers and 400,000 students.<\/p>\n<p>SOITA\u2019s members include public and private schools seeking expertise in educational technology. All classes are taught by former teachers who understand the intricacies of using technology in the classroom environment. With nearly 1,000 members, SOITA serves 21 counties and reaches more than 30,000 educators in Ohio.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow that I see the fruits of our labor, I\u2019m pleased,\u201d said Beckham. \u201cI actually was able to see something grow, like I was a seed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beckham said the experience improved his skills in working with people and in developing long-term goals. He also discovered that he enjoys strategic planning.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2017\/01\/09\/wright-state-university-to-celebrate-50th-anniversary-throughout-2017\/wright-state-50th-600x400\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-43671\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-43671\" src=\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/files\/2017\/01\/Wright-State-50th-600x400-260x173.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"260\" height=\"173\" \/><\/a>\u201cI\u2019m just excited that we had a really good team that worked well together,\u201d said Stamas. \u201cWe produced a product for this organization. I\u2019m really excited that they\u2019re using it and it\u2019s helping them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Originally founded as a branch campus of The Ohio State University and Miami University, Wright State became an independent institution in 1967. It celebrates its <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wright.edu\/50th\">50th anniversary<\/a> in 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wright State Master of Public Administration students provide strategic advice to educational technology agencies and public television stations. <a href=\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2017\/10\/17\/tech-terrific\/\" class=\"morelink\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":48567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,2060,725,747,715,4855],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-graduate","category-home-news-sidebar","category-liberal-arts","category-news","category-social-sciences-and-international-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48561"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48578,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48561\/revisions\/48578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}