BERNE — Lisa Ruud has been helping school districts embrace new technology for years, but she now will be aiding one particular school district.

Ruud was appointed on Feb. 27 by the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School Board as a technology-integration specialist, a new post for the district. She will be working as an administrator, with a salary of about $80,000, and will be starting on March 28.

Ruud currently works as a coordinator for instructional services at the Northeast Regional Information Center, which works with seven different Board of Cooperative Educational Services programs to help school districts with technology. Ruud supervises a team that oversees “pretty much everything to do with instructional technology,” she said. This includes setting up maker-spaces, as well as teaching coding and use of robots. Her work involves reviewing long-term plans and working directly with school districts.

Ruud’s new job is similar to her current role in that she will be planning for and leading the way in new instructional technology. She will work with the BKW superintendent and the school board as well as with the staff.

“The end game is talking about integrating instructional technology,” she said.

Part of her work will involve BKW’s capital project — a $20 million undertaking partly funded by state aid that will include $5 million in upgrades to technology at the secondary school as well as include redesigning instructional spaces to incorporate new technology.

Ruud will also help the district complete its current instructional technology plan, something that all New York State schools are required to submit every three years. The plan states how BKW will use technology to improve district development and teaching — such as by using technology to learn, increasing access to digital resources, and training educators. The plan must be submitted to the state Education Department by October.

Beyond these two projects, Ruud’s goal is to show teachers how to use instructional technology, working with them and coaching them. This could include creating better communications among teachers, she said, so that they can find each others’ “bright spots” in how they are using technology.

During her time at the Northeast Regional Information Center, Ruud also held administrative internships at the Bethlehem and Cohoes districts where she worked with school leaders to develop new initiatives for students or to modify current programs. In Cohoes, for example, Ruud studied the PAGE program, which offers a small-classroom setting to students referred to the program. She suggested changes in scheduling and curricula and adding more community involvement.

In Bethlehem, Ruud’s project involved gathering the district library media specialists to determine what role they would play in the future, coming up with ideas such as creating multifunctional spaces and adding new curriculum like internet safety.

Ruud taught art in both Cairo-Durham and Jefferson schools. She has also served in administrative roles at the Empire Education Corporation and the Brighter Choice Charter Middle School for Girls.

Ruud earned her bachelor’s degree in education at the State University of New York at Potsdam in 1995. She also earned a master’s degree in curriculum development and instructional technology, as well as advanced graduate certificates in school building leadership and school district leadership, all from the University at Albany. She is currently earning her doctorate in education policy and leadership from the University at Albany.

Technology in the classroom, said Ruud, is integral to student-centered learning.

“This is their language,” she said.

Ruud, who lives in Bethlehem, has spent much of her time at the Northeast Regional Information Center going from district to district to work briefly with an administration. By working within one district, she hopes to be able to connect more.

“I want to be deeply embedded in a community,” she said.

At this point, Ruud is not sure what sort of technology needs to be improved upon or brought into the classrooms at BKW. She said she would have to take an “inventory.”

Ruud was impressed by BKW’s administrative staff. The two technical support staffer who already work in the district are both women.

“Technology is historically dominated by men,” remarked Ruud.

Ruud also said that BKW has had very high standards and has been forward thinking when it comes to technology.

“It really speaks for who they are,” she said.