The COVID-19 pandemic caused several shifts in education, and the Santa Cruz County Office of Education (Santa Cruz COE) and California Department of Education (CDE) are teaming up to help educators meet the moment with a new digital literacy partnership.

Called ShiftED, the initiative aims to set a rigorous baseline of tech proficiency in California’s schools by transforming teams of educators into digital literacy ambassadors. Its inaugural cohort of more than two dozen educators from the wider Bay Area region met for the first time at the Santa Cruz County Office of Education on Saturday, September 24.

Digital literacy is defined as the ability to harness technical and critical thinking skills to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information in a digital world, skills that are increasingly necessary for both the classroom and job market.

“The importance of digital literacy has never been more clear,” said Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Faris Sabbah. “We are thrilled to join the CDE and CDE Foundation in this innovative collaboration. ShiftED will provide educators with the tools, training, and support they’ll need to guide our classrooms into the future.”

ShiftED will support educators to creating and implementing strategic plans to integrate digital literacy skills into the core curricula through:

• Research-based approaches to professional learning

• Partnerships with existing networks of tech-savvy California educators

• An ongoing Community of Practice approach

The inaugural cohort includes teams from the Sacramento County Office of Education; San Benito County Office of Education; Santa Clara Unified School District; Bay View and Gault elementary schools, Santa Cruz City Schools; Scotts Valley Unified School District; and New Brighton Middle School, Soquel Union Elementary School District.

Professional learning will be provided in partnership with Computer-Using Educators (CUE) and Learner-Centered Collaborative, with financial support from PG&E and the California Department of Education Foundation. Learn more about the initiative at shifted.santacruzcoe.org.