Tech Talk: Corey Howard from Greenbrier County School District

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Tech Talk with Corey Howard

0:00 (Amy Bennett with Lightspeed Systems)

Today I’m talking to Corey Howard. He is the Technology Systems Specialist at Greenbrier County School District in West Virginia. How are you Corey?

00:14 (Corey Howard)

I’m doing well, thank you.

0:16

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us today. I know you’re very busy as are all Technology teams across the country and the world.

0:20

That’s that’s right. We’re keeping things going during this time.

00:25

Yeah how has the shift to remote learning gone for you guys?

0:28

You know that that was something probably a lot of other schools had like us. We were not prepared for something like this, so we scrambled at the last minute to do what we could this year. Since we weren’t

fully prepared a lot of our students went home with paper packets, so we didn’t have time to prepare digital resources for all access. Eighth grade through twelfth grade, all taking home a Chromebook home with them.

01:10

So they were probably a little a little better equipped to ship to distance learning.

01:12

Yes, for those that were able to have continuous internet access depending on where they are that, type of situation the devices then the access, those are just a fundamental right. Those are things that a lot of

01:29

times we just don’t have control over in

01:30

certain circumstances so we do what we

01:33

can for those devices that are going

01:36

home with your older students how is

01:38

relay helping you out

01:40

so with relay one of the big reasons

01:43

that we purchased relay is how easy it

01:46

works with the Chromebooks and

01:47

Chromebooks already are easy to manage

01:50

in themselves

01:51

so having relay something that you can

01:53

count on to keep your students safe

01:56

while they’re working in the class or at

01:58

home it’s been a huge help for our IT

02:02

department and for our teachers as well

02:04

without any sort of crystal ball or

02:07

clear idea what the fall is going to

02:10

look like are you just preparing for

02:11

hybrid any situation

02:14

I think that they’re focusing on

02:17

multiple plans so if if they allow them

02:21

to return in the fall then we know what

02:23

we need to do to prepare if we get sent

02:25

home again in the spring or in the

02:27

winter if if for some reason we don’t

02:31

return in the fall then I’m sure that’s

02:33

something that they’re working on now

02:35

I’m not sure how that’ll look for us in

02:38

the IT field but we’re ready to go in

02:41

any aspect yep I think you know if

02:45

especially from a technology perspective

02:47

if you’re prepared for some sort of

02:49

blended hybrid approach you have systems

02:52

that work on campus off campus you’re

02:54

ready for anything you have any words of

02:57

wisdom or things that have worked for

02:59

you that you’d like to share with other

03:01

schools out there going through similar

03:03

things I would definitely have to say

03:06

that relay adding all of those nice

03:10

useful tools in the reporting section

03:12

has really given us an insight as to

03:15

which of our students are still out

03:20

there attempting school work which ones

03:22

get given up or haven’t been online

03:26

lately so it helps us to help teachers

03:28

know who is being engaged in the online

03:32

learning environment and who’s not who

03:35

do we need to reach out to and see what

03:38

they need to participate or things like

03:42

that that that’s been great for relay

03:44

our teachers really love the relay

03:47

classroom tool that’s been a huge thing

03:51

that I’ve pushed in the last year and

03:52

the teachers really jumped on board our

03:56

district we use the Google classroom

03:58

sync approach it’s seamless right yeah I

04:03

don’t have to touch anything it makes it

04:05

super nice for me so it’s great in that

04:09

aspect so our teachers can still

04:12

communicate with students in that regard

04:14

so great especially if they’re doing

04:18

some synchronous classes office hours

04:20

those sorts of things

04:22

yes I’m really glad that you saw that

04:25

online activity dashboard and that

04:27

that’s giving you

04:28

the data that you need I know it’s been

04:30

a real challenge for a lot of schools

04:32

just that really basic information about

04:35

who is engaged who is not and when yeah

04:39

yeah and just overall relay in general

04:42

I’m always giving mad props to everybody

04:47

I talked to because I can’t having

04:49

negative things to say it’s really made

04:51

my job easier and really keeps the

04:54

classrooms engaged and on task and

04:56

that’s what we need so great that’s why

05:00

we scheduled this interview I guess I

05:02

appreciate that yeah I know you’ve got

05:05

another call to run off to thank you for

05:07

taking the time to talk to me today and

05:10

let us know how we can continue to build

05:13

in features and do things to help you

05:15

yeah thank you thanks Cory

05:18

all right have a good one you too I’m

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