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How OCPS Brought Digital Reading to Their Large Urban District
Monday, May 13, 2024 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EDT
Presented by Margie Wells, Digital Learning and Library Media Program Specialist, Orange County Public Schools (FL); and Allison Kibbey, Director of Instructional Technology and Library Media, Orange County Public Schools (FL)
Sponsored by Sora
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If the eighth-largest school district in the U.S. can do it, so can you! Attend this edLeader Panel with educators from Orange County Public Schools (FL) to learn how their diverse district—which includes 200+ schools and 170+ languages spoken—rolled out ebooks and audiobooks to the entire school community. You’ll hear from Director of Instructional Technology and Library Media Allison Kibbey about how this 1:1 district, which supplies over 188,667 devices to students, got started with a digital reading platform in February 2021.
From there, Digital Learning and Library Media Program Specialist Margie Wells will take you through her keys to effective rollout and implementation of digital books, from using curation tools creatively to spark reading engagement, to cost-effectively managing your collection, to promoting your ebooks and audiobooks so that they’re always on your students’ minds. Plus, you’ll discover how digital books make reading more accessible to students, with unique features and formats to draw in even struggling and reluctant readers. The end result? Over 120% checkout growth over the last two years!
This edLeader Panel will be of interest to K-12 teachers, librarians, as well as school, district, and education technology leaders. There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation.
About the Presenters
Margie Wells, Digital Learning and Library Media Program Specialist for Orange County Public Schools, has been an educator for 30 years with 23 years of experience in elementary media centers. Currently, she is a proud member of a district team that supports 200+ schools with their instructional technology and media center needs. Outside of work, she has two dogs and has successfully raised two young adults. Her interests include reading, card making, baking cookies, the TV show Friends, and themed Christmas trees.
Allison Kibbey, Director of Instructional Technology and Library Media at Orange County Public Schools, is a former middle school English teacher and media specialist who has also dabbled in corporate instructional design. Currently, she leads a small but mighty team of people who support 200+ schools with all things related to the media center and instructional technology. Outside of work, she enjoys long walks through the neighborhood with her 15-month-old son, two (crazy) dogs, and husband, reading, and sewing, or more accurately, thinking about sewing while she is working on her dissertation.
Learn more about viewing the live presentation and the recording, earning your CE certificate, and using our new accessibility features.
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Named one of TIME’s Best Inventions, the Sora student reading platform provides every student with access to the right books. Sora is used by 62,000 K-12 schools and millions of students worldwide, supporting the need for required curriculum titles, class sets and pleasure reading with the largest catalog of ebooks, audiobooks, digital magazines and other content. TeachingBooks.net (acquired in 2021) complements Sora with one of the largest sets of book-specific supplemental resources that “bring books to life.” Parent company OverDrive – which also provides digital content to public, academic and corporate libraries through the Libby reading app – was founded in 1986 and is based in Cleveland, Ohio USA. discoversora.com
