Ed Tech Blog

To our attendees: Thank you for helping to make our first Higher Education Technology Summit a success. We realize this time of year is exceptionally busy and appreciate your taking the time to attend! We hope that you were able to take away some valuable information from the sponsor sessions and the technology manager panel discussion.
We’d like to offer our sincere appreciation to the panelists, Elaine Mello, Tim O’Neil and Mike Lucas, and the moderator, Margot Douaihy, for the excellent information during the technology manager panel discussion.
To future attendees: We are in the process of planning additional HETS in different regions throughout the US. If you are interested in hosting or attending a HETS event, please let me know!
If you want to know more, here’s some great coverage of our event from our friends at HigherEd Tech Decisions. If you’d like to request a copy of the program of events, please contact me in the comments below!

We’ve heard it before- and it won’t be going away any time soon- one of the biggest challenges in AV right now is finding enough trained help to fill the need. One of the reasons for this is that most high school or college age students don’t think about AV when they consider continuing their education and/ or training in the technology industry. AV has expanded beyond push carts and overhead projectors- to the point where most of today’s student won’t even know what that means. Modern classroom AV is installed technology. It is seamless in the room and is becoming an integral part of daily learning and lessons. So students don’t even have to think about it.
Has AV become invisible?
If it works properly, AV can amaze. But the reason it amazes is not because of the “audiovisual technology.” It’s because it simplifies, stuns, complicates, clarifies, assists, coordinates….it just does. AV has become an integral ingredient in a recipe for learning, experiences, and communication. If left out (like yeast) one will have a “flat” or unremarkable experience. Often, if asked to pick out what made an experience amazing or flat (or anywhere in between), the respondent will answer...

The first Tuesday of every month, the Huntington Chamber Of Commerce Education Committee meets to discuss relevant topics and challenges faced by today’s modern workforce. Then we decide which topics are most important to our local professionals and create hour long seminars. It is a great resource for the business community because these seminars are free, we provide breakfast, and the content is presented by experts in their particular field. The committee is made up professionals from a number of industries including financial planning/ wealth management, graphic design, business consulting, insurance, higher education administrators, architects, you get the picture. We are a diverse group.
Today’s meeting was interesting because we had a guest speaker who happened to be the Assistant Superintendent of Instruction and Curriculum for my school district, a K-12 public system with about 6,000 students. He was talking about the nearly $2.9 million in technology grants the school district has received in the past four years. This has allowed them to continue to expand their wireless bandwidth and initiate and grow their STE(A)M programs. Kindergartners are learning drag and drop code, 3rd graders are using a 3D printer and 3D immersion for their robotics and other classes, 4th...
Four well known audiovisual and classroom technologies manufacturers, FSR, Inc, Biamp Systems, Utelogy Corp., and SpinetiX, have partnered to create the first Higher Education Technology Summit (HETS). Created specifically for college and university managers of educational technology, HETS is designed to combine a day of product training, networking and peer-to-peer discussions in a fast moving format. The first HETS of 2016 will take place in Burlington, MA; a location conveniently situated (located off I-95 and 93) for many schools throughout New England.
Gina Sansivero, Director of Business Development, Education at FSR, Inc tells why an event like HETS was created. “As industry leading manufacturers, we understand that educational technology managers are technically educated and experienced and are increasingly taking on more design and installation responsibilities in house. They are also developing technology standards and specifying products for the AV systems campus-wide. Technology managers typically have limited budgets for training and travel. A regional, cost- free, single day event provides the training they are asking for as well as time for time to network with their colleagues in schools throughout the region.”
Biamp, SpinetiX, Utelogy and FSR strategically aligned for the April event to help technology managers expand their knowledge...
Originally Published in the Winter Issue of SEEN (South East Education Network):
In part one of this two part series, we looked at steps to transform a traditional classroom into an engaging learning environment. There were some key takeaways from that first article which will be the backbone of this section’s focus: While it’s clear that some things/people may never change, there are those who have the ability to influence many of the barriers to the effective use of classrooms and technology as learning tools. First is including those who have passion for modern learning to have a voice in the learning space design. Part two focuses on classroom, technology and how it influences learning and behavior. Read more here: http://seenmagazine.us/articles/article-detail/articleid/5372/designing-modern-classrooms-1.aspx