20 to Watch: Jessica Donaldson

Jessica Donaldson is an Instructional Technologist for Berkeley County School District in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. She identifies and develops technology resources that enhance standards-based instruction for the district, and provides professional development workshops and courses. In addition to her duties at the Central Office, Jessica works with about a third of the county's schools to support classroom technology needs for students and teachers. She actively uses Camtasia Studio, Windows Movie Maker, Prezi, Dropbox, Evernote, Flip cams, BeatPick, SMART resources, VoiceThread, and many other technologies.

An Interview with Jessica

Question: What does it mean to be a SMART Exemplary Educator (SEE)?

Answer: A SMART Exemplary Educator (SEE) is comfortable using various tools produced by SMART Technologies. My district has SMART Board interactive whiteboads in every school, and in almost every classroom. When I initially became a SEE, it was all about proficient use of SMART Notebook software, and how I made Notebook lessons interactive and engaging for learners. I used my knowledge of the software to facilitate trainings and support classroom teachers who were not as comfortable with the new tools.

The ease of use of the software eventually allowed for teacher leaders to emerge and excel, which afforded opportunities for teacher-facilitated trainings and workshops. This shift gave me the chance to adjust my focus. I now view my role as a SEE as more of a collaborative one, connecting me to experts across North America. We discuss integration of Notebook and other SMART Tech tools into specific content areas, as well as implications for learners with special needs. Being a SEE means being committed to sharing knowledge, but also providing feedback. SMART Tech has always been very receptive to user feedback, and it's been a lot of fun to witness changes and adjustments to products based on discussions we've had at SEE events.

Question: How have the Berkeley County Schools integrated iPads into their classrooms?

Answer: Berkeley County Schools piloted iPads in four elementary classrooms last year. We explored various apps to enhance teaching and learning across content areas, as well as classroom management solutions for teachers. Students were genuinely excited to have the iPads, and the teachers were not only enthusiastic, but put in a lot of their own time to research and test their ideas. In the hands of a strong teacher, any tool is effective—whether that tool is an iPad or a piece of chalk. Good teaching is good teaching, but these teachers were amazing at coming up with new and creative ideas for employing their iPads in the classroom. We have challenges to overcome, but one of the strengths of our district is that we strive for continuous improvement.

Question: Have you found that most of the educators in your district are willing to adopt these new technologies?

Answer: As with all school districts, change is not easy. When effective training is provided, the transition to new technologies is much smoother. The key is to collect feedback and provide follow-up support as needed. The educators that use similar technologies in their personal life are more receptive to adopt new technologies. I sincerely believe that teachers are the key to successful learning, and that technology enhances an already effective teacher.

Question: What technology are you not using yet that you hope to have the schools begin to use?

Answer: One technology tool I would like to see schools take advantage of are mobile phones. In my opinion, there are just as many pros to using cell phones as there are cons. These devices have become so ingrained in our culture that it would be to our advantage to explore them as learning devices. I've been following other districts who have been using mobile phones with students, and have had some great conversations with educators that I network with who have used these tools.

Whenever I can, I read articles and clip them into Evernote so I can share them with my own district in hopes that we can explore this tool. However, when I think of my own child, I understand the concerns that educators share. In order to integrate mobile phones in education, there are other crucial things to consider, such as classroom management. As with the introduction of any new technology, training and support are critical for successful implementation.

Question: Are there any examples of your projects that you'd like to share?

Answer: One project I've been working on is with my district's English Language Arts (ELA) coordinator. Our district is the largest district, geographically speaking, in the state of South Carolina. Changes were made to the district's elementary curriculum for ELA, but there were a lot of questions and concerns from both teachers and administrators. Digital content was created to support classroom instruction, but trying to provide training for such a large group was difficult. Key teachers throughout the district helped to create materials and facilitate workshops, but there was one question that kept coming back to us: What does this look like?

We realized that not all teachers were comfortable teaching ELA, and some were confused as to what materials should be used and when. After a lot of brainstorming, we decided to use video-modeling as a means for teachers to "peek" into classrooms that had solid ELA instruction happening at every grade level. I spent time video-taping some of the district's best teachers, looking for key elements that showed what different pieces of the curriculum might look like. And that was another key point for us, instruction looks different based on the teaching style of each individual educator. With that in mind, I visited multiple classrooms within each grade level. For example, I filmed four different classrooms for "Small Group Instruction" for grades third through fifth. The ELA coordinator provided me with a script to use for narrating the video, so I knew what elements to look for and could listen for specific examples.

In addition to video footage, we collected a lot of pictures—photos of classroom walls covered with words, bookshelves with themed titles, students working in small groups or buddy reading with a partner. Once I got back to my office, I would cut segments from each classroom, and record narration over the still images using the script. Using Camtasia Studio, I was able to fade the voices within the classroom and out as needed, and even found some great background music to play behind my narration. I'm actually still working on these videos and have already started planning with other content coordinators for similar projects.

When we showed the completed videos to small groups of teachers, the feedback was very positive. For some, the videos were affirmation that they were already meeting curriculum expectations. For others, they saw ideas on how to address issues they felt were problem areas.

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Ali White is the Social Media Intern for TechSmith. She studies Professional Writing at MSU and will be attending the final shuttle launch in Orlando. Follow her live tweets at @DesignLightning or follow her on Tumblr.