By Bethany Hofstetter

Published: Wednesday, March 6, 2013, 9:00 p.m.
Updated: Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Though Ed McKaveney is an affiliated board member of the Pennsylvania Association for Educational Communications and Technology, he was shocked when the same organization named him Outstanding Leader of the Year.

“Someone in the organization decided to nominate me, I wasn't paying attention to that track of awards and wasn't thinking about it in terms of myself,” said McKaveney, Hampton Township School District technology director.

At the awards dinner, McKaveney said the presenter read a description of the awardees before naming the winners and one caught his attention.

“They read a brief profile (for the Outstanding Leader of the Year award) and I was thinking that sounds like my LinkedIn profile,” he said.

“Then I realized it was me.”

The Pennsylvania Association for Educational Communications and Technology is an affiliate of the International Society for Technology in Education, a nonprofit organization that supports the use of technology to aid in classroom learning.

McKaveney, who has been at Hampton since 2004, has worked to advance the district's diverse technology initiatives, use and support as well as promote community technology education through presentations on educational technologies, Internet safety and digital media.

“We're always trying to keep current and relevant in education and … with technology,” McKaveney said.

The district recently started a program to enable students to bring their own technology devices into the classroom to enhance the curriculum, and McKaveney worked to install WiFi in every district building to make technology more dynamic and accessible.

“Whatever idea they (the teachers) come up with, we have a way to implement it,” McKaveney said of his goals.

“I look at it (technology) as an integrated approach, whether it's an art class or science class, there's technology in all we do.”

As a result of receiving the PAECT award, McKaveney has earned an all-expense paid trip to the International Society for Technology in Education conference, which will be held June 23 to 26 in San Antonio, Texas.

He also has been nominated for the 2013 National ISTE award.

Bethany Hofstetter is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 724-772-6364 or bhofstetter@tribweb.com.

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