USDOE's Richard Culatta Discusses Latest Education Technology Developments on RANDA's Core of Education Podcast

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In a time when there are so many naysayers, it's great to talk to people who are climbing in to improve education through technology.

Nashville, TN (PRWEB) June 07, 2012

Virtual schooling, technology integration, new grants, and what foreign countries are accomplishing are themes discussed in the The Core of Education podcast released today. Dr. Rod Berger's guest, Richard Culatta, is a leader in the field of education innovation and Deputy Director of the Office of Educational Technology for the U.S. Department of Education.

Berger was excited to interview Culatta, saying, "In a time when there are so many naysayers, it's great to talk to people who are climbing in to improve education through technology. This episode with Richard provides a mix of conceptual and practical issues."

Topics included in their discussion include:

• Discussion of the rigor of virtual schooling and the advanced state of implementation, positively impacting credit recovery programs
• The unique role special educators play in technology integration via “universal design for learning” and its applicability to standard classroom settings
• How other countries are modeling their technology plans after the USDOE’s plan from the USDOE's Office of Technology

Additionally in this podcast, Culatta highlights the new Race to the Top Personalized Learning Grant Program and encourages districts to submit applications.

Richard Culatta's perspective is informed by his work in K-12, higher education, corporate, and government training environments. His current focus as Deputy Director of the Office of Educational Technology for the US Department of Education is on using data and learning analytics to create customized learning experiences for all students.

Culatta also focuses on leveraging social media to create effective large-scale distributed learning environments. As Chief Technology Officer at CIA University, he developed a collaborative online learning platform to extend training opportunities to CIA officers worldwide. Prior to his work with the federal government, Culatta was the learning technologies adviser for the David O. McKay School of Education at Brigham Young University and the Director of Operations for the Rose Education Foundation. He began working with instructional technology at the University of Rhode Island where he co-taught the university’s first technology integration workshops for faculty. Since then, he has coached instructors and administrators in leveraging social media and data for learning, provided strategic consulting for organizations, and served on a variety of advisory boards across the US and Latin America.

RANDA Solutions is an INC. 500 software firm based in Nashville, TN serving the education sector. RANDA acquires, manages and utilizes data providing administrators and teachers a variety of education intelligence: Student Data (student identification, student demographics, summative and formative assessments, student growth, course completion, and college readiness), Educator Data (educator identification, educator demographics, professional development/continuing education, teacher student data link, value added assessment alignment, and teacher effectiveness), and Third-party Data (community demographics, school climate, early warning data, etc.). Historical and live data reporting, along with additional customized content, is delivered via RANDA's secure web portals and integrates seamlessly with RANDA's cross-platform mobile applications for iPads and Android devices.

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