Two Maryland educators received top honors this month at the State educational technology conference known as MICCA. Joshua Dorsey, a mathematics teacher at Southern High School in Anne Arundel County, was honored for his work in the classroom, and Thea Jones, supervisor of the Office of Instructional Technology for Baltimore County, was cited for her leadership in the field.
Dorsey received the MICCA 2008 Outstanding Educator Using Technology Award. A highly regarded mathematics teacher, Dorsey also is a leader in Anne Arundel County and across the State in the effective use of technology in instruction. At Southern High School, Dorsey teaches advanced mathematics to students across seven schools through distance-learning tools. Dorsey's students have consistently scored more than double the national average on their AP exams.
In addition to teaching mathematics for Anne Arundel County, Dorsey has also taught online AP Calculus for the Maryland Virtual School, a component of the Maryland State Department of Education's Maryland Virtual Learning Opportunities Program. In October 2007, he was featured in a Baltimore Sun article, "Technology Goes the Distance for Students."
Thea Jones, a longtime Baltimore County educator, received the MICCA 2008 Outstanding Technology Leader Award for her passion, leadership and vision in the integration of technology into all instruction. Ms. Jones established the multi-faceted Office of Instructional Technology for Baltimore County to provide leadership in technology integration to improve student achievement, teacher professional development and virtual learning. As its supervisor, she has spearheaded a variety of supports for teachers, including the Technology Liaison Program, Elementary Technology Integration Teachers, and Technology Integration Resource Teachers.
Ms. Jones has made numerous presentations at state and national conferences and has taught educational technology courses at the Johns Hopkins University's Center for Technology in Education, the College of Notre Dame, and Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College). She has been the Project Director for five statewide partnerships under the federal Ed Tech Program-addressing teacher and administrator technology literacy skills and eLearning-and has participated in many others. Currently she serves on two State-level committees, the Professional Development Advisory Council and the Maryland Instructional Technology Advisory Council. Ms. Jones has been actively involved in MICCA, having served as president, vice president, conference chair and chair of several other committees. She now serves as chair of the Grants, Advocacy, and Advisory committees for the organization.
As an affiliate of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), MICCA forwards the name of State awardees to the international organization as nominees for the ISTE awards of the same name. ISTE has announced that Thea Jones is its choice for the ISTE 2008 Outstanding Technology Leader Award. She will receive her award at the annual National Education Computing Conference, to be held in San Antonio, June 29 to July 2.
Also honored at this year's MICCA conference was Sarah Earwicker, a special educator at Chapel Forge Early Childhood Center in Prince George's County, for Best Research Paper. Her submission was entitled Using Picture Communication Symbols (PCS) Visual Communication to Increase the Occurrence of Task Completion for Children with Language Delays. The study was designed to determine whether students with language delays would increase their ability to complete tasks by list-following with the use of Picture Communication Symbol (PCS) Directions sheets.
Jayne Moore, Director of Instructional Technology and School Library Media, with the Maryland State Department of Education, received the coveted "Making It Happen" jacket for her contributions to the successful integration of technology in education in K-12 schools. Ms. Moore was described as an early adopter of technology in instruction who continues to advocate for improving student learning through the use of technology. The Making it Happen program was created in 1995 and is an internationally recognized awards program for educators in the field of educational technology integration in K-12 schools. The program identifies and rewards educational technology leaders around the world for their commitment and innovation.