Tech Connections- Looking Back & to the Future

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By Kerri Lambert, Teacher Specialist, Office of Instructional Technology

When: Spring of 2003

Where: The Jones Elementary computer lab

Who: Me, a new teacher with only a couple of months under my belt, my then 4th grade teammate Mary, and Debbie Ray, our Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist

ELA Tech Connections circa 2006
The rumors were flying; next year, Open Court was in, and computer labs were out. (For those of you not as old as me, Open Court was a reading program that was implemented in AACPS for many years). Worried, Mary contacted OIT for help. What could we do? Time in the lab was valuable and the students loved it. Both of us used that hour every week for extending our reading lessons with story writing, character mapping, and more.


Armed with a single copy of the first unit manual for 4th grade (Risks and Consequences), and Debbie’s extensive knowledge of AACPS software, the three of us created what became the very first elementary Tech Connections activity- a short research activity using a mapping application called Kidspiration and a website about firefighters. 

Fourth Grade Tech Connections 2022
Little did we know then, that almost 20 years later that single activity would have blossomed into the Elementary Tech Connections of today; an extensive and comprehensive website filled with hundreds of digital activities aligned to AACPS curriculum and state and local standards in the four major content areas: English language arts, math, science and social studies plus additional activities for art, music and physical education.


Thinking Maps 2013
Every summer, OIT reaches out to AACPS elementary teachers effectively integrating technology into their instruction to invite them to work on Tech Connections. Many hours are spent link checking, updating existing resources, and creating new activities so that grades Prek through five and cultural arts have an array of high quality, digital lesson materials to use with their students whole group, small group, or independently. These activities integrate the best pedagogy with the right tool for the job; you’ll find Lumio by SMART, Wixie, Discovery Education, and of course Google Workspace for Education all represented in the lessons. Best of all? They are set up so that teachers can easily grab their own copy and use them with their classes in a matter of moments. Did I mention they were aligned to our specific AACPS curriculum and are FREE?

Thinking Maps 2022
Over the years, the success of Elementary Tech Connections has led to the creation of other popular OIT resource sites such as Digital Take-Out, Paper to Digital, and Creative Coding with Robots. (It also had the added side-effect of sparking my interest in instructional technology, which has obviously influenced my career path.) It’s undergone several overhauls as curriculum has changed, new standards have been written, applications have moved to the cloud, and AACPS has become a 1 to 1 district. But at its heart, the purpose is still the same: to provide engaging, interactive lessons to our students that promote the combination of learning and technology.

The Elementary Tech Connections can be found on Classlink in the orange instructional technology folder.

Want to learn more? Join us on September 20th from 3 to 4pm as we explore Tech Connections, Digital Take-Out, and other free resources for digital activities. Details can be found here. 



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