Dr. Kristina V. Mattis advises statewide educational technology efforts as the Digital Equity Broadband Coordinator for the California Department of Education addressing Superintendent Thurmond’s Closing the Digital Divide Initiative. Kristina’s experience in education spans roles from classroom teaching to executive director to leading change and project management across public and private schools. She is an ESL multilingual speaker and published author. Kristina’s expansive expertise fosters her collaborative and holistic approach to propel instructional opportunities so that “we prepare students to live, work, and thrive in a multicultural, multilingual, and highly connected world” as per the CA DOE mission.
Trench story: needs change, we have to adapt. She started as a HS English teacher. Literacy spans curricular. need to collaborate across curriculum is necessary. How can we expand literacy across curriculum? Tech incorporation? She explored then other options within educational field. When she got into ed tech, it became apparent how necessary it is to have structures in place to set up ppl for success. What do they need for success? We can’t assume ppl don’t know something- leverage in-house experts. Her trench- moved from large district to an independent school. Took on a project for a yr. It finished, where to go from there? Had sleepless nights. Email came thru colleague was hiring in corporate world. Unpredicted layoff fall of ‘22 across many org’s in Bay Area. 11 months was unemployed. Did some freelancing. Was panicking, someone finally said “stop”. He said “take the opportunity to reflect on what you actually want to do”, CDE opportunity arose. Works a lot with broadband accessibility. Has now climbed out of the trench.
Areas lacking connectivity– rural, tribal reservations. Central Valley & San Benita, Northern Ca- Everything N of Sacramento. Many schools up there don’t have connectivity. Why? Because of geographic location-laying necessary cabling. CA State grant application process to have schools leverage w/ libraries. Chairperson of FCC said it was OK to put wifi on school busses. Bus don’t always have the wifi to connect either. What are we doing about the expectations of HW? How often are students getting “busy work”? What about students’ responsibilities outside school?
Upcoming book, published by Road to Awesome: Guiding Transformational Change in education. Her pitch is we’re experts, but when it comes to be being part of project/change management, we don’t have the training as educators. IT wants to often put in a new system. Took the 2 fields together, merged them into a guidebook. It’s how to lead change, w/ tips/tricks, examples. Has been writing along the way, started roughly 5 yrs ago. In early ‘22 started seeking out publishers. For change management, it’s the reinforcement that’s often an afterthought. It’s becoming part of the culture/climate of school/district/environment. What do educators have in terms of Tier 1,2,3 support? Schools don’t always gather the feedback after change took place. Sending an email isn’t always enough to communicate.
Speaking engagements: doesn’t know if she’ll have time to speak to it with her new book. Will present on behalf of the State. Late Nov. presented @ state conference on broadband. Will be @ Spring Q in Palm Springs, CNIC conf. in Monterey, both in March. She draws upon her professional experience from writing book in her presentations.
Blog: Life Lessons Learned (she takes the blogs & posts on her LinkedIn profile) does weekly blogs. Many of those are incorporated throughout the book. Write a reflection of a life experience, takeaways, food for thought, whether it’s positive or negative. ConsultED Development (google.com). Hasn’t kept up on a ton lately, due to editing the book.
Out of everything: don’t jump to conclusions, take a moment to breathe, be inclusive Click To Tweet
Where can ppl find you? ConsultED Development (google.com) LinkedIn @KristinaMattis
View this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/miMGuZkSsXw
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