Blue Ridge PBS is pleased to announce the recent premiere of ACTIVATED LEARNING, a new podcast designed to elevate the teaching profession and help parents stay informed about how teaching and learning are evolving toward a student-centered approach to meet the needs of all learners. Developed in collaboration with the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) and the Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE), this 12-episode series features interviews with national experts, classroom teachers, and instructional technologists. New episodes will drop every two weeks after the premiere and will be available on all major streaming platforms including Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Spotify. All episodes will also be streamed and available on demand on the Blue Ridge PBS ECHO Channel at www.blueridgepbs.org/echo.  This resource provide an overview and promotional materials.

This is the first epiode from the ActiVAtED Learning Podcast series featuring renowned Blended Learning author and educator, Catlin Tucker.

This is the 2nd episode in the ActiVAtED Learning Podcast series. Host, Tom Landon interviews  Dr. Lisa Coons, Superintendent of Public Instruction about the principles of All in VA.

This is the 3rd episode from the ActiVAtED Learning Podcast series featuring Emily Burrell from South Lakes High School in Fairfax, VA and Wezi Thindwa of Adobe Systems,

Katie Fielding is a STEM Coach for Prince William County Schools, and Chris Bugaj is an author and Assistive Technologist in Loudon County, VA. ActiVAtED Learning host Tom Landon sat down with them at the 2023 VSTE conference, where Katie shared her experience as a child with Cystic Fibrosis and how that led her to become a leader in assistive technology and inclusion, and Chris shared his thoughts on how assistive technology can help ALL students, not just those with disabilities.

This is the 5th episode from the ActiVAtED Learning Podcast series featuring several teachers from Rocky Gap Elementary School in Stafford County, VA.

On this episode we travel to Henrico County to visit with Yvette Lee of J.R. Tucker High School. Mrs. Lee is a finalist for the 2023 Presidential Award for Math and Science Teaching sponsored by the White House and the National Science Foundation. She talked about the challenges of learning how to teach American students after leaving South Korea. We also caught up with Louisa County Technology Coach Nikki Wagoner at the 2023 VSTE Conference in Roanoke.

When two newly-minted instructional technology resource teachers went to the administration in Washington County, Virginia with an idea for a mobile technology lab, they were met with a resounding YES, after which they had to figure out how to make it happen. Andrew Smith and Thomas Larimer join Activated Learning podcast host Tom Landon to share how they created a trailer that contains drones as well as virtual reality and robotics equipment. Now that trailer travels the mountain roads of their rural county to bring state of the art learning opportunities to teachers and students while maximizing the investment in teaching tools for the county.

Logan Childress went from being a band teacher to setting up and running two Virtual Reality Labs for Bristol City Schools. He joined ActiVAtED Learning host Tom Landon in the lab at Virginia High School to talk about how he did it and what he's learned in the process.

This is the 9th episode of the ActiVAtED Learning Podcast series featuring Blacksburg Middle School librarian, Kelly Passek.

Caren Daniels of Hugo Wilson Middle School in Chesapeake, VA is the 2023 Middle School Computer Science Teacher of the year. But her dedication to students goes well beyond the classroom, and she feels strongly that the most important skills kids can take away from her class and robotics club is the ability to solve problems by adapting and improvising.

Suffolk Public Schools is the host of an annual robotics challenge sponsored by Penn State and the US Department of Defense. ActiVAtED Learning Host Tom Landon traveled to Suffolk to talk to Christine Lafferty and John Littlefield to learn more.

In this episode we chat with instructional technologists at the 2023 VSTE conference and visit Ware Elementary in Staunton City, Virginia to meet a prospective teacher who started his career as a school custodian before being encouraged to become a teacher by his principal.