Adam Seldow, our district’s technology director, has turned innovation on its head in a short period of time--which has directly impacted our students’ achievement and desire to learn. What’s amazing is the speed and scale at which this wave of innovation has swept through the district. We’re a huge district, 60,000 students and almost 5,000 teachers, and things do not typically change too rapidly. Adam came on board last year and our district has changed its entire strategic plan to embrace and implement Blended Learning for all students in one year. And it’s going amazingly well. What this means is that we’ve gone from a district where technology enhanced teaching was both a luxury and a rarity to a daily expectation and part of a teacher’s evaluation. This will culminate in a scenario where all students in grades 3-12 will get their own mobile computing device in 2014 with no new money required in our budget. But the “technology” is not what his contribution has been--the culture change is where he’s made the biggest impact. Through skillfully written blog posts, Tweets, and town meeting-like discussions with teachers, Adam has communicated his vision in clear, direct, and honest terms to which our teachers have instantly embraced. I think it’s his humor and mild sarcasm directed at his “central office” position mixed with his background as a teacher that makes teachers feel like they can try something new without the fear of failing. Adam has pushed the technology department into a rapid development and release cycle, integrating new systems that make it easier for students and teachers to use one username and password in almost all of our major systems and websites. Internet speeds went up by 1100% in one year, and wireless access in schools now accommodate every student with multiple devices. Even the county’s police can now use the schools’ network to access all of their computer resources for quicker and more efficient emergency response. He’s influenced the curriculum department to embrace Open Educational Resources (OER), and now students are supplementing their daily learning with Khan Academy activities, and other freely available resources because they want to--not because their teachers are assigning them. I believe that innovation requires courage. Adam displays this courage by completely ignoring any perceived barriers to placing students in charge of their learning, and moves reticent teachers along by giving them “permission” to try, fail, and try again in embracing new and engaging ways to teach. Our scores are going up, and students seem relieved that the district finally gets it. Finally, I think in the world of technology, people are labeled as innovative because they do one thing that gets them media attention, but rarely impacts student achievement at scale. Adam is responsible for innovation that directly improved scores and the educational experience of almost 60,000 students. This is what I consider true innovation.