VITA-LEARN ANNOUNCES NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR – JEFF MAO

Burlington, VT (July 23, 2020)  Vita-Learn is excited to welcome Jeff Mao as our new executive director. Jeff has deep roots in education technology in New England dating back to his first teaching position at Brewster Academy in NH where he was part of their launch of a 1:1 laptop program in 1993. Later, he served as the Education Technology Director for the State of Maine for ten years leading programs including the Maine Learning Technology Initiative and helping to establish NetworkMaine. He has collaborated with the Vermont Agency of Education to help establish a multi-state contract to facilitate purchasing 1:1 solutions. He was also a keynote speaker at VITA-Learn’s 2016 Dynamic Landscapes conference in Burlington. He has extensive experience with non-profits and for-profit ed-tech partnerships and can expand the digital consortium work that Vita-Learn has started with technology solution partners. 

He has served as a member of the Board for the State Educational Technology Directors Association for six years including two years as Board Chair, and he has an exciting vision for the role of educational technology in today’s educational landscape. 

“Jeff feels like the perfect match for our organization and its current goals.  We are excited to have Vermont educators to meet him as he begins this leadership role in our organization,” said Jessica Wilson, President of the Board of Directors, VITA-Learn.

Vita-Learn is excited to announce that we have negotiated a bulk purchase pricing agreement for SeeSaw for Schools Licenses  

If your school  is interested in discounts on  Seesaw licenses or renewals (now or in the future) please see this page for more pricing and ordering details!

Vita-Learn believes that every child deserves equitable access to the right tools for learning from school supplies to digital tools to educators who understand how to use learning tools to  create transformative learning opportunities. 

Vita-Learn recently surveyed schools to learn which tech tools provided solutions during our recent emergency remote learning.  

Several digital tools came to the top of the list.  We asked…

“How might we support schools who are working towards equitable access to the right tools for engaging our students both in person and remotely.”

Negotiating discounts for Vermont schools with solution partners willing to work with us as a consortium is one way we can help support this equity  goal. Seesaw is the latest in the list of agreements we have been able to negotiate for Vermont schools.

Click here to learn more about  discount pricing agreements we already have in place with with the following solution partners

• WeVideo – video creation for every child anytime anywhere on any device
• Book Creator –  create ebooks on a Chromebook
• VoiceThread –  asynchronous conversation using audio, video, text around learning artifacts
• Newsela  – 

“It is not beyond our power to create a world in which ALL children have access to a good education.”   ~ Nelson Mandela

During the past few months, our members have demonstrated amazing ability to respond to a Governor Scott’s March 15 directive for the closure of K12 schools in Vermont as part of our Vermont’s response to a public health emergency.

Adrenalin and commitment fueled school leaders, educators, librarians, ed tech teams, school staff, and communities to design and implement a plan. Challenges were met head on and plans were adjusted to meet those challenges. Three months later, as we come up for air, and start to think about ‘what next’, we find ourselves reflecting.

Inspired by @Devin Vodika’s blog post referencing the After Action Review Protocol, Vita-Learn as created and tested a reflection template that we hope might help others as they enter the last few days of of the school year. Feel free to download and make a copy of the reflection template to use as you consider the successes and challenges of your school’s emergency school closing plan.

Special thanks to board member, Tim O’Leary, and the team from Greater Rutland County Supervisory Union for testing the protocol with us and sharing feedback on the template.

We hope you’ll also let us know how if you find the reflection template useful.

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