Education department welcomes a new group of digital ambassadors

The Nevada Department of Education (NDE) welcomed a new group of Digital Ambassadors in August. These ambassadors are the educator experts behind the Nevada Digital Learning Collaborative (NvDLC).

The Digital Ambassadors, formerly known as Digital Engineers, is a group of 42 educators that offer expertise in various teaching approaches, grade levels and subject areas. Of the 42 ambassadors from this year’s group, 16 of them are returners from the 2020-21 group.

“Our Digital Ambassadors are the rocket fuel behind the Nevada Digital Learning Collaborative and I want to thank these 42 educators who have stepped up to support this effort that is positioning Nevada as a national leader,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jhone Ebert.

The ambassadors who were selected will be supporting two areas: curriculum and content specialist or professional learning specialist. Each ambassador will be compensated for their time by receiving a stipend and they will have opportunities for professional development and leadership.

This is the second annual group of Digital Ambassadors. In the first year of the program, over 200 artifacts, including podcasts, video chats, how-to guides, webinars and live panel discussions were published on the NvDLC website. The first group of ambassadors also hosted two digital learning summits and held several panel discussions throughout the 2020-21 school year.

This fall, the NvDLC will be hosting its third Digital Summit on Oct. 2, 2021, which will be open to all Nevada educators and is free to attend. The NDE will be releasing a Statewide Digital Learning Guide to continue supporting educators, students and families in digital learning.

The NvDLC website was launched on July 14, 2020 and offers a robust library of more than 200 free resources in a number of formats including books, webinars and videos. Educators, students and families can subscribe to receive updates when new resources become available. For students and families, it provides support for digital learning, including a translation option to support students and families whose native language is not English.

“The Nevada Digital Learning Collaborative was a meaningful support system for me throughout the early pandemic, and I am excited to provide similar support to other Nevada educators,” said Silvina Jover, a high school teacher at Desert Pines High School in the Clark County School District and 2021-22 Digital Ambassador.

Since its launch, the NvDLC website content has been viewed over 53,000 times and has had more than 15,000 visitors.

Contact Sports Editor Danny Smyth at dsmyth@pvtimes.com