GISD Technology Facilitator Among Nation’s Top-20 Emerging Educators
Article Date: November 4, 2009
The National School Boards Association’s (NSBA) Technology Leadership Network has named its annual list of “20 to Watch” emerging leaders in education technology and Garland ISD’s Jaime Arizaleta was among them.
Arizaleta, an online education facilitator for the district, was recognized by the organization for championing technology initiatives that make a difference for students, teachers, school districts and the greater education technology community.
Among his accomplishments is an educational video game-based learning initiative that has helped students become more engaged and learn more.
“Jaime is an educational innovator,” said Jim Hysaw, GISD’s executive of administrator of technology. “Not only does he understand technology, he also understands the newest technology and is able to incorporate it into instruction. Jaime was one of the first to understand that gaming could be used as an effective instructional tool for mathematics and was key in implementing it into our middle schools. His foresight helped ensure that these gaming programs would be successful.”
This ultra-successful gaming campaign – which resulted in a “national mathematics title” –brought individuals together from the curriculum, operations and technology departments to collaborate on ways to use technology to educate hard-to-reach students. To capture the interest of GISD’s growing population of struggling, yet digitally adept students, Arizaleta knew he had to make their studies relevant to what they were doing outside the classroom.
A national search conducted by the NSBA identified individuals like Arizaleta who show the creativity and collaboration that embraces technology to enhance learning for students, inspire colleagues, transform operations and engage communities.
“This year’s ‘20 to Watch’ represents educators who see the potential that technology brings to thelearning environment, and they know how to translate that knowledge in a way that excites and inspires their students and colleagues,” said Ann Flynn, director of education technology for NSBA. “We hope their stories and experiences will influence policy-makers and encourage district leaders to develop and support programs that allow their successes to be replicated across the country.”
The group was honored at NSBA’s annual Technology and Learning Conference last week in Denver. Their stories will also be showcased in future NSBA education technology publications.
Since 1987, NSBA's Technology Leadership Network (TLN) has served local district leadership teams that establish policy and implement technology decisions to enhance teaching and learning, administrative operations, and community outreach.
Founded in 1940, the National School Boards Association (www.nsba.org) is a not-for-profit federation of state associations of school boards representing 95,000 local school board members throughout the United States. Its mission is to foster excellence and equity in public elementary and secondary education through local school board leadership.