Eric Hines Wins 2023 Excellence in Innovation Award from Loyola University Maryland

The Educational Technology Program is pleased to announce Mr. Eric Hines, math teacher and basketball coach in and M.Ed. in Educational Technology from Loyola University Maryland, as this year’s Excellence in Innovation Award recipient. Eric believes that technology is an important aspect of education for the advancement of all students. He implements technology in a wide range of creative ways because he witnesses his students consistently navigating and using technology on a daily basis. One of the first things he does to encourage and implement technology in his classroom is to discover the interests of the students in that particular class. In his school, the students are each assigned a Chromebook so from the first day of class he is able to demonstrate and discuss proper use of technology and the standard technological programs, such as Google Suites, Canvas, and Clever, that will be used throughout the year. He uses Canva and Google Slides to have the students create a slide or multiple slides of places that they would love to visit. His students use technology in creative ways in order to learn different types of places and things that they can do at the location. Eric also has the students creatively set their goals using technology. The students choose between multiple multimedia platforms, such as Thinglink, Canva, Genially, Tik Tok and Google Slides, to select their goals and design their digital vision boards in the classroom. Furthermore, Eric also has experience teaching Special Education and ESOL populations at the high school level. These populations have additional accommodations to help aid their academic achievement and he is able to utilize mobile and web translations as he teaches so that students that speak more fluently in Spanish, French, Ukrainian, or other languages can follow along. He also provides the students with multiple means of understanding using videos with multiple translations, infographics and digital images to represent work in a visual means, and audio features and captions for various language needs. He is constantly finding new ways to use technology in the classroom to make technology not just a tool to complete tasks, but a creative outlet for student growth and understanding.

Eric is a leader and mentor to his colleagues and assists them with improving their technology integration efforts. He was selected for the Amazon Externship through the Maryland Chamber Foundation to help other teachers in Maryland, DC, and Virginia to build more interest in technology and computer science at the high school level, especially within minoritized populations. Through the externship program, he worked with colleagues to learn new innovations in the technology and computer science field and help establish plans to bring new strategies to promote and develop technological integration in the schools. With one of his colleagues, he formed the computer science club at his school. From this club, a new computer science course was offered to students and it also provided teachers in the technology department the option to teach coding and create new computer science projects. As the Mathematics Teacher Coordinator, he has helped the mathematics department to integrate technology using a variety of content-specific, and course-specific technology. For example, algebra 1 and geometry courses use IXL as an additional support for students. The quantitative modeling courses use JA Finance Park as an interactive project to drive conceptual understanding in a real-world setting. Eric strives to encourage fellow mathematics teachers to be creative in the needs of their students and discover new innovations that can drive engagement and comprehension. He has spoken in Ocean City at the Common Ground Maryland 2022 Conference and is scheduled to speak at the 2023 ISTE Conference in Philadelphia, PA about using technology to help students design digital vision boards.

Eric believes that educational technology has become integral to his life’s work. Continuing to pioneer innovative channels for his students to succeed in setting and achieving their academic and career goals is paramount to him.  As a self-described “forever-student” himself, his experience across digital and multimedia formats has provided a foundation to lead students and families innovatively in core curriculum theory and application. He wants to create disruptive transformation and transformative leadership to change how education operates around the world and believes that we must look forward towards what education may look like in the future and begin to create that reality today. With limitless ideas, simple faith, and strong persistence, Eric thinks that we can use the evolution of technology to make major impacts on the lives of others. His education and experiences in education technology have developed him into the type of enthusiastic and compassionate leader that students need to face the exciting challenges of the new look of education in the future.

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