Kristin Hokanson

Kristin Hokanson is compassionate about getting technology in use within classrooms.  She makes it her mission to seek out new uses of technology to help ensure student engagement.  She travels to multiple schools empowering teachers with excitement and confidence about new software and applications.  Kristin’s diverse background and experience make her an innovator in today’s schools.

Kristin Hokanson is a woman deeply involved in educational technology.  She spent more than 20 years in public education and now helps teachers and students with web based tools and new technologies.  Kristin is part of the Discovery Education Professional Development team.  She is also the Director of Professional Learning at Inquiry Schools.  She serves on the board of Pennsylvania Association for Educational Communication and Technology where she provides workshops and presentations on a variety of technology based topics. Kristin is a chapter coauthor in What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media.

The Inspirer

As part of the Discovery Education Professional Development Team, one of the things Kristin is most passionate about is helping teachers find ways to harness 21st Century tools to create more independent, thoughtful, and creative learners.  Kristin travels to several different states helping teachers with innovative ideas that include projects based learning.  When Kristin goes into a school it is to be a collaborator with teachers.  She wants to help them sift through the sometimes overwhelming array of technological advances in the form of new technologies and applications to use with students.  She is continually on the hunt for new things that can create student engagement with curriculum while helping teachers with always improving resources.  Teachers leave her feeling motivated and encouraged.   

Life Long Learner

Kristin strongly believes in lifelong learning and getting as involved as you can.  She holds a BS in Education from University of Delaware and M.Ed from Cabrini College, a certificate as an Instructional Technology Specialist through Penn State University's World Campus, and K-12 Principal certificate from Edinboro University.  She recommends you get as involved as possible with anything you can get your hands on.  She also recommends that you attend as many innovative seminars as you can to expose yourself to different mediums and perspectives.  One of these seminars she recommends is MACUL, Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning macul.org/.

Connections

In addition to lifelong learning she believes in making connections. Connections with people in technology keeps you up to date on the latest and greatest.  The more connections you have, the greater the chance at knowing about up and coming positions within educational technology.  Kristin believes in the power of Twitter.  This has become a huge part of her communication and keeping up with trends.  She recommends that everyone get connected with as many people as you can in education, and Twitter is a great way to do that.  She does admit that it takes some getting used to, but everyone should know how to navigate it.  Kristin encourages people to reach out to her and always tries to make time to help whenever she can.   

Google Trending

You don’t have to search very hard to find Kristin Hokanson.  Just type her name into Google and you can see how very involved she is.  Kristin has been invited to present at numerous state and national seminars including the Pennsylvania Educational Technology Conference and Expo (PETE&C),  PA Keystone Technology Integrator Summit, NJ Educational Computing Cooperative (NJECC), New York State Association for Computers and Technology in Education (NYSCATE), National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), and Consortium for School Networking (CoSN).  She is also excited to be a Google Certified Teacher,  Discovery Educator, and a PA State Keystone Technology Integrator.  With as well know as she is quickly becoming, Kristin remains a down to earth, very easy to talk to person.  She is fun, energetic, encouraging, and a great teacher.    

Written by: Charla Randall, April 2017