Dr. Lance Ford is an educational technology advocate for Cisco. For the seven years prior, he served as a teacher and technology facilitator/coordinator for Howe Public Schools in Howe, Oklahoma. Howe is a rural district in southeast Oklahoma with a student population of 625 students. The district incorporates a wide variety of technological tools to reach its 21st century student population. Central to these tools is the infusion of video technologies at all levels. The elementary site is implementing a one-to-one laptop initiative that provides students with access to tools from personal video conferencing and collaboration to individual podcasting projects. Middle school science students have participated in collaborative projects with students across the country conducting research and comparing results. Students in the high school participate in video production classes responsible for shooting, editing and producing bi-weekly webcasts. Live and on-demand streaming of videoconferences has been an active part of the Howe integration over the past fifteen years. Currently, the school uses their equipment for everything from broadcasting basketball games live via the Internet to student created virtual field trips. Recently, they have expanded their technology into the bus fleet and provide a connected school transportation solution. Lance has been a speaker for both state and national conferences on technology integration. He has presented for the Oklahoma Technology Association Conference, Missouri Distance Learning Association, Arkansas Distance Learning Association, Texas Distance Learning Association, EduComm in conjunction with InfoComm, NECC/ISTE, and US Secretary of Education’s Virtual School House. Lance has been named Wal-Mart regional teacher of the year, Oklahoma Technology Administrator’s Technology Director of the Year, and the recipient of the Polaris Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2007 Lance was recognized as an Apple Distinguished Educator, was awarded the 2008 Long Term Service Award from the Oklahoma Distance Learning Association, and received the Technology Facilitator of the Year award from the National Association for Educational Communications and Technology. Additionally, Lance received the Gold Leadership Award from the United States Distance Learning Association in the spring of 2008. He completed his PhD in Educational Administration, Curriculum and Supervision in the summer of 2009 from the University of Oklahoma. As a technology trainer, Lance has had the opportunity to train over 3500 teachers from Australia to Maine and Canada to Brazil in the effective implementation of synchronous and asynchronous video technologies into the classroom. Lance was the past-president of the Oklahoma Distance Learning Association, and is a member of ASCD and ISTE. For two years, he served as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maine, Farmington where he taught a graduate course in technology integration for teachers. Currently he serves of the board of trustees for Oklahoma Baptist University. He enjoys having the opportunity to work with curriculum specialists, technology coordinators and faculty members around the world in the process of direct integration with content they are tasked to deliver. Lance’s focus is not the technology. Instead he is focused on impacting individual students and helping them attain their maximum potential through the personal interactions made possible with various technical tools. Students in an information age need to focus beyond the facts. They must be able to access, synthesize, and present materials to their colleagues in a meaningful engaging and interactive fashion.
