Actions for lawmakers and policymakers:
- State provides alternative certification routes, including online instruction and performance-based certification.
- State provides certification reciprocity for online instructors certified by another state.
- State creates the opportunity for multi-location instruction.
- State encourages post-secondary institutions with teacher preparation programs to offer targeted digital instruction training.
- State ensures that teachers have professional development or training to better utilize technology and before teaching an online or blended learning course.
Questions for Consideration:
1. How might the state encourage post-secondary institutions with teacher preparation programs to offer targeted digital instruction training?
2. How might the state ensure that teachers have professional development or training to better utilize technology, and do so before teaching an online or blended learning course?
3. How might digital learning benefit from performance-based certification? What incentives would allow for rapid access to these skills?
4. How might digital learning change the face of teacher evaluation systems?
Ohio's Digital Learning Task Force was created by created by H.B. 153 and is charged with evaluating the shape of technology and education in the years to come, and to provide insight and guidance into where the state's place should be in the national landscape of digital learning. It was established to develop a strategy for the expansion of digital learning that enables students to customize their education, produces cost savings, and meets the needs of Ohio's economy.
Task Force Members:
- Robert Sommers, Director, 21st Century Education
- Representative Matt Huffman, Fourth District
- Senator Peggy Lehner, Sixth District
- Gary Cates, Senior Vice Chancellor, Board of Regents
- Dan Badea, Technology Consultant, Department of Education
- Susan Stagner, VP State Relations, Connections Academy
- Scott Kern, Chief Financial Officer, ECOT
- John Marschhausen, Superintendent, Loveland School District
- David Axner , Superintendent, Dublin City Schools
- Eric Gordon, Superintendent, Cleveland City Schools
- Troy McIntosh, Principal, Worthington Christian Schools
