eStudent Services

Transition and change can be a good thing; this year I will call it evolution. The Ohio Educational Technology Conference (OETC 2014), formerly known as the e-TECH Conference, is emerging as the nation’s top conference for educational technology. Changes this year included the addition of higher ed, greater emphasis on emerging technology and gaming, sessions targeted to instruct rather than just be informative, and changing the design and flow to increase visibility of speakers, sessions and vendors. All these things led to the largest Ohio ed-tech gathering to date.

Recently I was invited to attend a working session with folks from the White House, Gates Foundation, National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, Battelle, American Council on Education and others from around the nation. The White House challenged the people involved to create actionable items that could be developed into workable solutions for education. As a participant, I wanted to share a few items of particular interest that were discussed at the conference.

My name is Brad Henry, I am the director of technology for eStudent Services.  You may be asking yourself, as others have, "What does that mean?" or "What do you do?"  As the director of technology, I do many things, which I will review.

On behalf of the Policy & Communications team of the Ohio Technology Consortium (OH-TECH) and the executive directors of its member organizations, I am pleased to welcome you to our new blog and daily news aggregation site. 

As the father of two boys and the spouse of a teacher, I always get a feeling of excitement and opportunity during the back-to-school season. It also brings nostalgia about my own school experience. It is something of a cliché, but it is often hard to resist comparing today’s educational opportunities to what it was like “when I was in school.”