Derek Schwartz, Phd Email & Phone Number

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

Helping K-12 districts transition to Infinite Campus SIS and other solutions

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

As a faculty member of an accredited education program, I designed, improved, and taught multiple courses to diverse student populations ages 18-73. Some core courses include Educational Technology, Critical Philosophies of Education, and Learning and Development/Educational Psychology. As part of a Technology Integration Certificate program I spearheaded, I also designed and taught two additional fully customized Graduate courses. I’ve used a Design Thinking framework to adapt every single one of these courses to best meet the needs of diverse learners entering a challenging field, all while aligning each course to specific Minnesota Standards of Effective Practice required for teacher licensure. Each course changes a bit every time I teach it, and each design is custom tailored to the specific needs of the content to be conveyed and format of the course, coupled with effective teaching methods and appropriate technologies. Lastly, my technology-oriented courses help to mitigate two documented barriers to classroom technology integration by helping learners examine their own beliefs systems and to encourage long-term Design Thinking methods for themselves.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

Working with a highly diverse range of in-service and pre-service K12 teachers to improve their use of technology in their teaching. Focusing on design thinking, technology literacy, project-based experiential learning. Driven by data, research and theory, my courses feature innovative ways to use and experience technology for educators.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

As a graduate instructor, I taught a range of online-specific courses in the LT program covering a breadth of liberal arts topics that examined how technology is used in our society. These courses always had diverse students from multiple majors, and many were often travelling or located internationally. To be effective for my learners, these courses necessitated using responsive instructional practices to connect theory into practice while also leveraging cutting edge technologies. While I had the freedom to meet the needs of my students through various technology solutions, such as being an early adopter of the Canvas LMS, it was also critical to establish rapport and maintain a “high touch” human connection with students to support them doing their best in an online environment.

Hudson, Wisconsin, United States

ChangeTech offered consulting services to K-12 school districts in response to increasing need for high quality, pedagogically sound, technologically innovative materials, processes, and professional development. I put together 26ers.com, a website designed to enable young learners ages 5-9 to connect their lived experiences with self-generated content and practice literacy skills via a mobile device. Pedagogically, 26ers was responsive to learners’ needs by offering them a range of media they could use while situating the learning experience within authentic real world contexts.

Minnesota, United States

JDL Technologies is a K-12 focused IT services company. My role supported profitability and business growth through a combination of the following:• Development of a national K-12 teacher Professional Development business unit to nearly $2M annual revenue.• Develop strategic possibilities in Minnesota and Florida, including RFP responses, partnership opportunities, and value-add sales. • Build relationships with K-12 school districts nationally, focused on developing technology-based solutions to business, service and instructional problems.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

At Alternatives, a 501C3 non-profit based in North Minneapolis, I designed and implemented programs to keep majority African American youth ages 9-19 away from adjudication. Doing this work effectively meant developing multiple ways to engage and retain kids. This work included the following:• Creating technology-based, hands-on educational programs centered on relevance in the eyes of participants. Two such programs included setting up a digital music studio to enable creative expression, and fielding FIRST robotics teams to illustrate possible STEM careers. • Developing and implementing data gathering and analysis tools for reporting requirements and to guide programming decisions.• Networking with partner agencies and organizations to develop funding opportunities.• Authoring Request For Proposal (RFP) and grant opportunity responses. • Delegate tasks as needed to other staff, such as data collection.

Provide technological and operational guidance on all high-level policy decisions within Alternatives

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

As a Kindergarten teacher in a diverse multicultural urban school setting, all of my students were from BIPOC communities, 75% of my students were recent immigrants and over 50% were FRP lunch eligible. I tremendously enjoyed my time working with these young students and their families. This experience early in my teaching career informed my teaching practice and pedagogy, enabling me to adopt responsive strategies to meet the needs of my learners. One innovation I am proud of during this experience was to set up a computer dissection area where students dismantled old computers with simple hand tools, and then helped learners see how those related to human equivalents.

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Learning Technologies

My qualitative research examined factors influencing technology integration efforts by teachers in grades 1-3.

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Educational/Instructional Technology

Activities and Societies: AACE, ASCD, ISTEMy dissertation examined how teachers' beliefs about technology manifested in their teaching.

Ma-Ed. Psy, Educational Psychology

Focused on how technology affects motivation in urban K-12 populations

Education record

B.A. K, 6 Education