In honor of Media Literacy Week, November 6-10, each day we will recognize a key figure in the field of media literacy here in Washington state.
Dennis Small is the Educational Technology Director at the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, where he has worked since 1989. Among his roles and responsibilities at OSPI are promoting the state educational technology standards, assistance for district E-rate applications, assisting schools in the move to online assessment, advocating for high-speed bandwidth for schools, improving technology infrastructure equitably through the Computers 4 Kids Program, and supporting the K-12 educational use of the K-20 Network. He has also been actively involved in implementing SSB 6273 (2016) and SSB 5449 (2017) (Digital Citizenship and Media Literacy resources here), promoting Digital Citizenship, Media Literacy, and Internet Safety in Washington schools.
Dennis received a B.A. in Music and a B.S. in Mathematical Sciences from Stanford University (1973-1977), and an M.A. in Education from Stanford (1978). Prior to working at OSPI, he was a music, computer, and math teacher at Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma from 1978-1989.