Articles
An Interview with Stephanie Moore
MINTs Project Alum Named National Ed Tech Leader of the Year
Stephanie Moore has been honored as 2003 Ed Tech Leader of the Year by Technology & Learning magazine. The Ed Tech Leader of the Year Program recognizes teachers, technology specialists and administrators who demonstrate leadership, vision and creativity in implementing technology in schools and districts.
Currently the Director of Instructional Technology at Villa Duchesne/Oak Hill School in St. Louis, Mo., Moore is an alum of MOREnet's award-winning MINTs Project, the pilot predecessor to the nationally-recognized eMINTS program.
Recently, MOREnet Communications staff caught up with Moore and asked about her life in educational technology and how she got where she is today.
Q: What is your current job? What do you do?
Moore: As Director of Instructional Technology at Villa Duchesne/Oak Hill School, my position allows me to develop and implement technology professional development focusing on the infusion of technologies in K-12 classrooms; enhance and actualize the school technology strategic plan; provide resources, mentoring, modeling to classroom teachers; develop projects, activities and lessons; and make recommendations for technology expansion. My greatest pleasures come from working in classrooms with students and teachers and working one-on-one with teachers in creating lessons which infuse various technologies. My greatest challenge is finishing paperwork in lieu of my desire to be engaged with people.
Q: How did you arrive at this place in your professional life?
Moore : I graduated magna cum laude from the University of Missouri-St. Louis in January 1993 with a B.S. in Elementary Education. I began my career with Jennings School District five days before school started in August 1993. I felt I was totally in my element – loved the students, their families and Jennings' mission. I became the MAP2000 Team 3 Coordinator, participated on the School's Action Plan and MSIP Committees, became a MINTs teacher and UMSL PT3 participant/facilitator, presented at various conferences (including MOREnet's conferences, Internet2 in Seattle and NSBA in Chicago), helped facilitate learning with eMINTS in various regions and became one of the District's Instructional Technology Facilitators.
I dabbled in graduate studies at UMSL until 1998, when I moved into high gear focusing on Instructional Technology. I guess I was waiting to specialize and until then nothing “lit my fire.” I graduated with my Masters in Educational Technology in 2003.
In the summer of 2003 I made the heart-wrenching decision to leave Jennings for Villa Duchesne/Oak Hill School, where I was hired to change the technology culture.
MOREnet note: Not only has Moore been recognized as National Ed Tech Leader of the Year, but Villa Duchesne/Oak Hill School also has been nominated for the 2004 Catholic Schools for Tomorrow Award in the area of innovation in technology integration from Today's Catholic Teacher. Results will be announced in the March 2004 issue.
Q: What's your history with MOREnet, MINTs and eMINTS?
Moore : In the spring of 1997, my students and I were in the computer lab working on a project. My superintendent at Jennings , Dr. Terry Stewart, walked in with a guest, Mr. Bill Giddings from MOREnet. While Dr. Stewart chatted with students about what they were doing, Mr. Giddings was busy asking me questions about what I might do with computers, Internet access and other tools that I had no idea of their impact. I was rather gushy about the point of Internet access and how it would affect the students and their project research as well as prepare them for what their future would hold. Later that summer I received a call asking me to attend a meeting at our school's central office. There I learned that I would become one of twelve teachers from six districts to pilot a technology program called MINTs ( Multimedia Interactive Networked Technologies). I have never looked back and wouldn't change a single thing that has happened. The experiences with my students and their families are chilling, transforming, emotional – and I wouldn't trade places with anyone in the world. Saying “thank you” to Dr. Stewart, MOREnet and DESE will never be enough to truly express my gratitude for the opportunities afforded me.
Q: What's changed since you started as an educator?
Moore : I see changes occurring in the role of the teacher and student as they become more partners in the classroom, building on each other's strengths, really focusing on true interdependence and trust. I also see the classroom expanding with the use of the Internet, videoconferencing and many other resources offered by good libraries.
Q: What do you think students and teachers will be doing in five years?
Moore : I think there will be more virtual learning, the use of distance learning and the learning of video components while maintaining the personal relationship that is required for human growth and development. I think (hope) there will be a determination to hold fast to the human element. I know that using technology has enhanced and strengthened the human element for my students and me.
Q: What do you expect to be doing in five years?
Moore : I am so moved by what the present has for me I rarely have time to think about five years from now. I believe I will be involved in much of the same guidance and facilitation of teachers, students and the school community while learning more of all that is developing in the area of pedagogy and andragogy as it applies to technology infusion in education.
Thanks, Stephanie, for sharing your experiences and letting MOREnet friends and staff catch up with you. Contact Stephanie Moore through the Villa Duchesne/Oak Hill School website.
More Information
2003 Ed Tech Leader of the Year story
http://techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=16700432&pgno=2
Villa Duchesne/Oak Hill School
http://www.vdoh.org
MINTs project honored with 1999 Computerworld award
http://www.cwheroes.org/his_4a_detail.asp?id=699
eMINTS
http://emints.more.net
MOREnet
http://www.more.net
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