Norton Gusky

For over forty years Norton Gusky has demonstrated in his teaching the power of technology as a tool for empowering kids, educators, and communities. Norton believes that technology offers students a tool for creative production, communications, and collaboration. Norton first began his exploration of technology in education as a teacher of the intellectually gifted in West Virginia. For over twenty years he worked as the Coordinator of Educational Technology for the Fox Chapel Area School District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Today Norton has transitioned his role and works as an educational technology broker.

Norton believes in using technology to empower communities. He serves as the Chair of the Board for Neighborhood Learning Alliance (NLA), a Pittsburgh non-profit agency, that works with underserved youth, K-12, providing out-of-school programming. Norton is also on the Board of Film Pittsburgh where he serves as Treasurer and chair of the Finance Committee.

Norton believes in empowering educators and community members. He chaired the planning committee for the Three Rivers Educational Technology Conference, a regional event in the Pittsburgh region for over twenty years and now serves in an advisory role for the conference. In addition, Norton has taught two graduate level courses at the Heinz College of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) – Technology and Educational Restructuring (changed for 2012 to “Planning for Innovation”) and Integrating Technology into Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction. From 2015 – 2023 Norton taught classes for the Osher program at Carnegie Mellon University. The Osher program provides life-long learning opportunities for senior adults.

Norton has worked with school districts on strategic planning, planning for innovation, grant-writing, and professional development. From 2013 until 2020 Norton worked with a team at the South Fayette School District to produce a Summer Institute on STEAM Innovation. Starting in 2023 Norton began to work with the River Valley School District on their World of Work project. Beginning in 2023 Norton helped the Quakertown School District with their Comprehensive Plan, assisted with a new focus on Computational Thinking led by Aileen Owens and the Digital Promise, and helped to document the work of Ed Hidalgo for Quakertown’s move towards connecting careers and learning.

Norton sees technology as a tool for innovation. From 2014-2020 Norton was the co-chair of the Consortium of Schools Networked (CoSN) Emerging Technology committee that publishes an annual series of reports on Emerging Trends in Educational Technology. Norton also has served starting in 2017 on the Advisory Board for the CoSN K-12 Driving Innovation Project. Starting in 2014 Norton provided consulting services around professional development for the Hummingbird project, a STEAM related robotics kit developed at the CREATE lab of Carnegie Mellon University. From 2015-2020 Norton worked with the Energy Innovation Center (EIC) and Parkway West Career and Technology Center  to coordinate a series of Design Challenges. Each design challenge brought a team of high school students as consultants to work with the EIC and its partners on real world problems of sustainability. In 2022 Norton began working with the Penn State Readiness Institute on the Hope Moonshot project for the Moonshot Museum. In 2023 Norton worked on a plan with the Consortium for Public Education and the EIC to develop a Sustainability Design Challenge for secondary students around the Pittsburgh region that culminated in a final presentation in the winter of 2024.

During the pandemic years Norton returned to his love of photography and video. In July 2022 Norton traveled with Classrooms without Borders to create a documentary about the study tour – Discovery Italy: Crossroads of Culture, History, and Heritage. You can view samples of his work on his Gallery page.