WHO: Tech Pizza is for school technology administrators and support specialists.
WHAT: We focus on technology management and implementation challenges—technical hands-on workshops, informational presentations, and policy discussions.
WHERE: This year, we will host Tech Pizza at the Albert D Lawson Intermediate School, 104 Maple St., Essex Junction. (Google Map | Apple Map)
Schedule - Please see the Pre-Conference Item below and Submit ideas before 9AM Tuesday!
Thank you Gold Sponsor!
During the breakout rounds, we will host both the sessions listed on the agenda as well as the most popular topics chosen by the group. What are those topics? We need you to supply those topics! Please complete this form as many times as you think necessary: https://forms.gle/TB6q2ks4YNxHevFJ9
VOTE FOR BREAKOUTS
Registration and Coffee
Click the times to the left for more details for that block!
Thank you to our Sponsors:
Impactful Learning With Nearpod & Flocabulary
It’s our job as educators to get knowledge into students’ brains. Why not go beyond content delivery? Make them grapple with knowledge by allowing students to actively engage with content! Join me as I demonstrate how Nearpod provides us with plenty of opportunities to move students from passive to IMPACTFUL learning through our Premade Library or “Nearpodizing” your own!
Presenter: Kara Baker
Whether using interactive lessons, interactive videos or gamification & activities, teachers get real-time insights into student learning with Nearpod. Teachers can upload their existing content and make it interactive using Nearpod’s more than 20 formative assessment and rich-media features so that all learning is active and collaborative. In addition, Nearpod’s libraries feature over 22,000 standards-aligned lessons, videos and activities created in partnership with leading publishers like Common Sense Education and Smithsonian. Nearpod’s companion platform Flocabulary engages students in K-12 standards-aligned hip-hop videos and instructional activities that increase reading comprehension through academic vocabulary exposures. Together, Nearpod and Flocabulary reach the 100 largest school districts in the US and are used by over 1.7 million educators worldwide. In March 2021, Nearpod was acquired by Renaissance, a global leader in assessment, reading and math solutions for pre-K-12 schools and districts. To learn more about Nearpod, visit www.
Breakout Sessions
Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1KQz98_Li75S3wevXOHpQLO-eKhisBHrts8vQSFXGsXA/edit#slide=id.p1
CoSN’s Digital Equity Dashboard: A Powerful Tool for Addressing the Homework Gap and More
In this presentation, CoSN’s Project Director for Digital Equity will provide background on CoSN’s Digital Equity initiative and introduce the newly launched and publicly available Digital Equity Dashboard, an innovative and practical tool designed to help school districts and communities leverage data to close digital equity gaps. The powerful instrument integrates various national data sets into one comprehensive dashboard. By anonymizing the data and breaking it down into county, school district, and zip code units, the Digital Equity Dashboard provides school and community leaders with valuable data to inform decision-makers and address equity concerns.
The Digital Equity Dashboard offers school districts limitless opportunities to utilize data in making informed decisions regarding digital equity. For example, school leaders can examine data to identify the number of households without internet access within their attendance area. Furthermore, they can compare internet upload and download statistics to ensure all families have equitable access to high-quality broadband. The Dashboard also includes data related to health, educational attainment, income, and other demographics, enabling school leaders to correlate outcomes to levels of internet access.
The Dashboard was developed in partnership with Innive and with support from Dell Technologies and Google.
Presenter: Lucy Gray
Sponsor Speed Meetings
Lightning round sessions with each of our sponsors! Learn about the products and services they offer, and how they can support you and your work!
Pizza!
Breakout Sessions
Chromebook Management:
- Moving Teachers to ChromeBooks
- Deployment
- Sustainability
Facilitator: Bjorn B
Big Room
- Interactive Whiteboards
- Facilitator: Cole P
- Music Room A52
Data Privacy
A43
Breakout Sessions
Asset Management/Help Desk Solutions Round Table
- • Incident IQ
- • What are you using?
- Big Room
Security Onion – intrusion detection, security monitoring, and log management. Installation dos and don’ts / lessons learned.
A43
- CETL Certification – what’s it all about? A Vita-Learn sponsored CETL Certification Cohort will begin in September.
- Facilitator: Mark Kline
- A48
Breakout Sessions
- EduClimber: Making Data Meaningful
- Facilitator: Bjorn B
- A43
- Discussion on “Organizing” a Google Domain — We all struggle with this… and larger districts probably more so. How to maintain integrity on a Districtwide domain and set protocols — naming conventions, sharing conventions, offboarding rules when employees leave, developing comprehensive methods for use, etc.
- Big Room
- CyberSecurity Rubric Certification – Are you interested in an organized training cohort? How might we leverage certified Vermont IT pros to support other schools?
- A48
Thank you Silver Sponsors!
Attendee Registration
Please see Sponsorship Details and Registration below if your are a company representative.
Sponsorship Details
Presentations
- Workshop Sessions: The Gold sponsorship includes a 55 minute plenary session to the full attendee group on a topic of your choosing. Optional sponsored concurrent breakout sessions, first come, first serve (1:30-2:25PM)
- Speed Meetings: Quick meetings with a small group of attendees. The attendees will be assigned to a group. Every 10 minutes, groups will rotate so that in the course of a little over an hour, you will meet every attendee. All sponsors will meet simultaneously.
- Speed Meetings will take place in the same room(s), and generally be at separate conference tables. Assume no projection (you can use your laptop if you like), no audio (it’ll be loud since there are multiple presentations happening), etc.
- Each speed meeting will be approximately 10 minutes assuming a maximum of 1 gold and 5 silver sponsors.
Gold Benefits
- One (1) Plenary workshop session
- Speed Meetings
- Company Name and Logo on event website
- Company Profile on event website (150 words)
- Popup banner (~3′ wide) in main room
- Two registrations for sponsor attendees
- Cost $1500
Silver Benefits
- Speed Meetings
- Company Name, Logo, and tagline (25 words) on event website
- Popup banner (~3′ wide) in main room
- One registration for sponsor attendee
- Optional Sponsored Workshop ($400) – only 3 available, first come first serve
- Cost $650
Registration
- Sponsorship packages include 2 (gold) or 1 (silver) registration. Additional registrations are $50 per person.
Door Prizes
- Door prizes are optional. We know that many of the companies that may come to this event are also E-Rate spin providers, and giving away a prize is problematic!
Duty Of Care
COVID-19 Readiness: Keeping You Safe & Healthy at the Vita-Learn’s Tech Pizza Conference
The leadership at Vita-Learn has developed the following Duty of Care for the Tech Pizza conference which will help keep you safe when attending the event in person.
As of May 31, 2023
Vita-Learn is excited to continue to host in-person events this year. Our concern for your health and safety is our top priority, and we want to make your experience at the meeting positive, and as professionally successful as in pre-COVID days. To that end, we are implementing the following guidelines that we hope will make you and your colleagues comfortable and safe. These guidelines are subject to change if new guidance is issued on, before, or during the conference by the Champlain College, State of Vermont, or the CDC.
Guidelines:
- Vita-Learn is not planning to require proof of vaccination status or negative COVID test results in order to attend Tech Pizza 2023. Additionally, masks will be optional but encouraged at the event.
- Vita-Learn continues to encourage all participants to follow CDC and state of Vermont recommended precautions including completing a full course of vaccinations (when possible), and wearing masks indoors, especially in large gatherings.
- If you have symptoms of COVID-19 or have tested positive for COVID-19 within 10 days of the event, you may not attend the conference.
- If you may have been exposed to a confirmed coronavirus case 10 days or less prior to the Event, you may not attend the Event unless you provide a negative PCR test taken within 3 days of check-in or a series of 3 negative rapid antigen tests taken 48 hours apart of each other in advance of the event.
- Attendees should self-monitor their health. If you begin to feel unwell during the conference with symptoms consistent with COVID-19, out of an abundance of caution, we ask that you notify Jeff Mao and seek medical attention. If you test positive for COVID-19, please notify Jeff Mao so that the conference can follow up with all other attendees so that they may make their own informed decisions related to their own health and precautionary measures. Remember that our attendees come from all over Vermont and the nation, and they may be in regular close contact with individuals with higher risk factors.
- Hand sanitizer and masks will be available at at the registration desk.
- Vita-Learn will continue to monitor statewide and local COVID transmission rates and requirements and will modify this guidance if needed.
- Social distancing will be adhered to, when possible, in meeting spaces and in meal spaces.
Feedback Form
A brief survey will be available beginning July 25 to provide feedback about your Tech Pizza experiences. Submission of the form will generate your PD Certificate.
