The past three months since the last A4L Quarterly Newsletter has been very busy and rewarding…
In August I had the honor of representing A4L/SDPC at the White House Back to School Safely: Cybersecurity for K-12 Schools event. The event took place in the East Room…
Last month we held our annual Privacy & Interoperability Symposium in Chicago. With nearly 100 attendees, and a very full agenda, it was a great conference. The excitement about both the current work of A4L and the future of the organization was evident throughout. It was great to spend quality time in person with everyone that could attend. Keep an eye out for an announcement about a fall event in the near future.
Since our last newsletter lots has been happening behind the scenes…
For some of us it is spring. For our AU & NZ members it is the end of another summer. For those of us in the US some have had a mild winter and others very stormy. One thing we all have in common is that as a member of the A4L Community we are all entering a period of rebirth, excitement and renewed energy. The future of A4L is very bright.
As we close out the 2022 calendar year we have much to celebrate as a Community…
I love taking inventory on how people view this yearly life benchmark. One of my sons in K12 was so ready to go back and stop his summer job while the other wanted his summer and work to go on forever. I don’t even need to tell you how my teaching wife was not ready to go back yet! Being virtual, it means more productive work for me.
It sounds logical and of course critical for successful data stewardship for all learners. However, you can probably count numerous times when a mantra is just lip service OR something you can relate to “vaporware” in software! The A4L Community leadership and staff have been working incredibly hard behind the scenes to make this tag real, tactical and supported by on the ground successful use cases. This Community is delivering big time on interoperability AND privacy!
While I do not EVER contend to be able to predict the future, I can confidently present some of the following “bets” for the Community in 2022. These are for entertainment purposes only – no betting is encouraged!
“Connecting and Securing Effective Learning Ecosystems®”. You will be seeing that mantra for the Community a LOT in the coming months. The SIF Specification Project began in 1997 and became the now official Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community non-profit in 2004…
We hope you can take a minute and take a breath – follow local guidance, if that’s through a mask or not!
“The ultimate measure of a [person] is not where [he/she] stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where [he/she] stands at times of challenge and controversy.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
