Community Engagement in the Era of Virtual Academic Setting

Alicia Gallegos Butters, Director, Educational Technology Innovation Division, San Diego County Office of Education

Alicia Gallegos Butters, Director, Educational Technology Innovation Division, San Diego County Office of Education

I entered into the world of Ed Tech in the early 90s. I was a 25 year old, 3rd year teacher, looking at Master degrees when I stumbled on a flyer for a program called Educational Technology at San Diego State University. Immediately I was sold. I went on to get my M.A. in Ed Tech and then my doctorate in Educational Technology and have worked in the field for the past 25 years.

Over my career as an educational technologist, I constantly ask myself, what is next? How do we use our pedagogy knowledge to integrate technology into the classroom? Every few years we, as an educational technology community, come up with something different. Years back, it was Google Apps for education, and then it was all the multimedia technology available. But nothing prepared us for the COVID pandemic where, in San Diego County, 100 percent of teaching went online. Overnight, educational technology went from a supporting cast member to the lead in the play.

When the world first went virtual, our jobs were all about getting teachers online and make them familiar with the tools: Zoom, Google Classroom, and Google Meet. Then slowly, we integrated pedagogy into the mix, helping teachers teach effectively online. Now as we step out of the heart of the pandemic, educational technologists are once again asking themselves, “What is next?”

“As we step out of the heart of the pandemic, educational technologists are once again asking themselves, “What’s next?”

The pandemic left us in an interesting era. Teachers know technology, they taught online, and for the most part they applied skills that they learned. However, now they are burnt out. They do not want to sit and get technology lessons online, nor do many of them need it. So what do we do as providers of technology integration solutions?

At San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE), we are working on the “What’s Next?” in the form of eSports, AR/VR/XR, and NFTs and Blockchain.

Even before the pandemic, SDCOE started exploring eSports with a focus on academic eSports. We created an eSports ecosystem that focused on different aspects of eSports we thought were important to a student’s success. They included academic pathways, curriculum, coach clinics, school to college mentoring, after school programs and friendly tournaments. The ecosystem is used as our North Star. Each semester since the pandemic started, the team selected one area of the ecosystem to work on, the latest being the school to college mentoring program.

This program has been one of our biggest successes during the pandemic. Year One of the pandemic we piloted the program. The pilot was between Pepperdine University and a local San Diego County high school. Students met virtually twice a month with students from Pepperdine University eSports team. The focus of the meetings was to help students understand the benefits of college gaming, how to balance gaming and school and how to recognize and avoid toxic gaming situations. Meetings were held during the school day. The program was a success, but we learned that we needed to be more connected to the university. Many of the students did not know anything about Pepperdine University, we could not offer them a field trip to the university, and parents were also interested in what we were discussing at the mentor meetings.

Year two of the pandemic we continued the School to College Mentor program with the University California San Diego’s Triton Gaming. We had approximately 6 mentors from Triton Gaming who attended each session and 26 students from a local South County School.

At SDCOE, we ground all our work in the Equity Blueprint. So, we focused on recruiting Latinx high school students for the program. Learning from the pilot, we shifted the program to incorporate some of the lessons learned. The program still focused on the school to college pipeline, but expanded on the lessons and how the mentors and students interacted. UCSD Tritons were very open with students about the games they played. They did not shy away from giving tips to students regarding games. They spend a few sessions really building trust and gaming credibility.

We held these meetings weekly and asked students to invite their parents in on the meetings. We also had a meeting specifically for the parents as we felt this was important, since we learned parents did not have a lot of knowledge of college gaming. In addition, our Tritons spoke of school-gaming balance. Lastly, students were invited to attend and learned how to plan the Triton year end event called TGEX.

Overall this was a successful partnership and allowed the Ed Tech team at SDCOE to stay current and engaged with the community.