Ed.—This post is the third in a series looking at back-to-school topics. For others in this series, follow the Back to School 2013 tag.
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.
My job was created as part of the consolidation of statewide education and technology initiatives under the banner of the Ohio Technology Consortium, or OH-TECH. That consolidation helped to remove redundant services, as well as to reduce costs. My primary role is to oversee technological services that are offered through the eStudent Services division, services such as the ilearnOhio learning management system (LMS). I work directly, as well as indirectly, with districts, service centers, the Ohio Resource Center, the Board of Regents, the Ohio Department of Education, vendors and publishers.
My primary personal goal as the director of technology is customer satisfaction. This goal stems from over 20 years of experience in IT, management, teaching and sales. I understand the value of what it means to provide stellar service, providing your customer or student a voice and meeting, or exceeding, their needs. A satisfied customer is a happy customer. As a former teacher, I understand the complexities and demands that are faced by teachers today. My goal is to bring technology solutions that are best-in-class, easy to use, engage students and improve performance.
IlearnOhio is one such instance. ilearnOhio is free LMS that is available to any Ohio K-12 learning institution – private, charter, public or home schooled. ilearnOhio offers schools the ability to reduce the cost of implementing an LMS by providing free access and negotiating reduced prices on digital content from publishers available through the ilearnOhio clearinghouse. The digital content is reviewed for quality and aligned to state standards by the Ohio Resource Center. The exciting news is the state will soon be offering $6 million in funds through a simplified grant application process for schools to acquire digital content through ilearnOhio.
Additional highlights to ilearnOhio include integration with other systems, such as DAZYL, and IIS are currently in the works. We are exploring integrating the best-in-class federally funded research tools from around the nation. This will be the first time anywhere in the nation empirically tested tools become available through a single source. I will be writing more as this project emerges. Most importantly, we are working with service centers to become support experts that can assist districts in the training, support and implementation of ilearnOhio.
In conclusion, there are many pieces moving simultaneously to make ilearnOhio happen. It is my objective to seek feedback from our customers, the teachers and districts, about what we can do to make ilearnOhio the tool that best supports you in your role as a teacher and to make student learning with digital content a reality with positive results.
