• State Superintendent Flanagan is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SuptFlanagan
• Dell is using Twitter to make money through viral marketing.
• Bruce doesn’t Twitter because he doesn’t have an iPhone.
• Bruce is jealous because he can’t get to the iPhone app store. He derisively refers to his Blackberry “brick”.
• METS 2009 are in public draft on techplan.org
• Need to empower students and reduce the digital divide by allowing students phones on our networks.
• Virginia is sponsoring a student programming contest for mathematical iPhone apps.
• iTunes U is now separate from iTunes Store. State of Ohio’s top downloads are foreign language conversations, not lessons.
• There is MiLearning on iTunes U. Oakland Schools is adding media assets daily.
• Mike Flanagan’s podcasts are on iTunes U. The podcasts have been so successful that MDE created a Green Room out of a conference room.
• Bruce uses Facebook like Twitter because his Blackberry Brick has a Facebook app.
• Wikipedia came up at the State Board level. They are concerned about why schools block particular sites.
• Read the book, Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation will Change the Way the World Learns MDE is taking this book seriously because of the online learning.
• Florida has taken off with their virtual learning. It works because the State of Florida pays for it. Ohio students are either online or offline. Ohio Charter Schools have out of sight course registrations.

Michigan Learns Online – Meeting the Needs of your Students by Melissa White, Ingham ISD

Navigating the Land of Online Learning 

• There are different roles you can choose to find out questions to ask about online learning from that perspective.
  • Administrators
  • Students
  • Mentors (teacher)
  • Counselors
  • Tech Coordinator
• Seat time is an issue
  • One attendee says they require attendance for tests and quizzes.
• Mentors are integral. Melissa sees more success where the mentors are hired exclusively as the online mentor. Assigning it as an additional duty to a teacher doesn’t seem to be as successful.
• Students can be online 100% as long as the district gets a seat waiver. Jenison uses it as credit recovery only so they don’t have to provide a mentor. Consequently, they haven’t addressed the seat time.
• Jenison offers MOODLE. The consensus of the session attendees is the enormous time it takes to setup a MOODLE (or Blackboard) course.
• The districts represented here seem to be picking a course or group of subject area teachers and that selection will offer the blended course.

June 22-23, 2009

(etlc) Complete Program

Supplemental Materials

 General Reflections

• Nice school. I came from the west and you’re going uphill. All of a sudden, bam, you see it. It looks like a wing from the Hogwart’s school, without the cupola’s. Very imposing and grand.
• The data projectors are the same model as the one in RMS 109. Very large compared to the Epson model we’re anticipating.
• The classrooms have a massive L-shaped teacher’s desk/teaching station. It doesn’t move because it is too large. You either present from the classroom side or you are constantly moving around to get to your things. I think our design of a tethered teaching station and free standing teacher’s desk is more flexible.
• The classroom layout is similar to ours. The teacher’s desk is across from the doorway and the projector is aimed that way too. The presenters were blinded as they moved about the front of the classroom. We will need laser pointers if our projectors aim to the wall opposite the teaching station.
• The clock was on the back wall, opposite the door. Yea to having ours above the entry door.
• They had a wall of cabinets and a work surface for additional computers. This is similar to what we anticipate in the RMS.
• All free standing cabinetry was on wheels.
• Darryl Tilley said one reason for the timing of the conference was trying to get the tech people together with the curriculum. So the tech leadership conference was moved. I’m not sure this worked well. The tech people greatly out number the curriculum people on what is supposed to be the curriculum date.

Shifting the Focus: Realigning Technology Support Services by Darryl Tilley, Ingham ISD

• There were three of us with an education background of the fifteen tech people in the session.
• He hit on a common theme: There isn’t any new money, but there will never be less technology. In fact it is going to get worse. More tech, less money.
• Our focus has always been on the critical IT systems
  • Payroll, business functions, SIM system
  • Food Service POS
  • Library management
• What’s critical IT system is missing from the list? None are education services. We spend most of our time on business services and little on our education services.
• Process Engineering is the most important item not being done. Too much of what we do and why we do it is because, “That’s The Way We’ve Always Done It” (TTWWADI)
  • Process Engineering is the “assessment and development of procedures and responsibilities in conjunction with personnel and technology capabilities with the intent to take advantage of inherent opportunities.” Definition from here.
• We need to spend time looking at our processes to see how we can streamline “business practices” and integrate technology in our “education practices.”
• Looking at our processes will help us overcome attitudes toward change because everyone will get input.
  • We would examine best practices
  • We would share success stories
  • Look out for fiscal realities
  • Project management is part of the tech departments process engineering. It’s what we do.
• Process Engineering is provided by education entities
  • MSBO certifications
  • CoSN
  • ITIL
  • Be sure to not get stuck examining practices only, “ITIL is IDLE” Implement changes.
• Don’t provide services in a vacuum, remember to collaborate.
  • ISDs
  • other districts
  • Look for TTWWADI areas and break the grip.

How to Spend on IT When You Have No Budget: 8 and 1/2 Good Ideas by Paul Hillman, CDH

•  Paul began with an interesting aside that became related to what D. Tilley said in my first session. 75% of all IT projects fail because they are over budget, delivered late or have reduced functionality. Project management helps control the failure rate. Project management is part of process engineering.
• “I’ve got no money is unacceptable.”
• Unfortunately, IT cannot stand still. Demand for more services is not going to go away.
• You’ve got to take control of your budget and know how much you spend. (Apparently, most people here don’t know their budget. They just ask for money and it is either approved or not. I felt good about my situation).
• 8 and 1/2 ideas (”not 9 because 1 is not really good”)

Acknowledge others think differently. I wonder if Marcy, Mindy, Cindy, Amy, Trish and think I apply this.

• The Suggestion Box is not a quaint 50s relic.
• Implement it as an anonymous, electronic Zoomerang survey.

Virtualization

• Reduce footprint
• Cut heating and cooling power
• Reclaim space
• 15:1 reduction in servers. Don’t reduce too far. You still need redundancies
• Gotcha: Need a really good SAN
• Gotcha: Solution is more complex than stand alone servers (Yes, it is. I have talked to CompuCraft about this. If the goal is to save money on servers, don’t virtualize. If it is to save money or reclaim real estate, then move forward)
• Ask VMware and MS to come and prove they can save money through virtualization first. Must prove.

Buy into Suites. Stop Best of Breed purchases

• Make a list of all the utilities, challenge yourself to eliminate 50% by combining into a “less than the best (but good enough)” suite.

Use video conferencing, not travel

• Hard to find real reductions in education because you don’t travel like business.
• Commit to webinars, but not travel.
• Buy high quality video components. Don’t save money in the upfront costs.

Wipe Out the data center

• Move to cloud computing
• amazon.com web services (largest provider)
• If Paul were starting a new school district, this is what Paul would do
• Avoids the up front capitalized costs

Move to Open Office now

• Feature for feature OO is comparable to Office 2000 or 2003. Paul is not a fan of Office 2007.
• People don’t like change, but break the Microsoft grip
• Keep it where it is required in the curriculum but don’t keep because “it’s what business does.”
• Interview user base to find out what features users use and then set up trainings

Implement free WSS 3.0

• Windows Sharepoint Services doesn’t apply to us
• Typical MS distribution. Get hooked on the free stuff, then you’ll quickly want the rest (and pay for it).

Shut off all computers at 6:00 pm.

• We already do this.

Commit to Bing Services

• MS will pay you to set IE as your default Home Page
• MS will pay you to search
• Get the money while you can.
• I need to look into this.

Curriculum and Technology Panel Discussion – Panel Members: Paul Hillman, C/D/H, Annelise Woitulewicz, Summit Academy Schools, Tim Staal, MAME and Melissa White, Ingham ISD

Rikki Chowning moderated.

What Web 2.0 tools are you using?

• PH: email is old with young staff. IMing and texting is how they begin.
• AW: Twitter opens up to the world and communication.
• MW: Turned on by Google Docs. Collaboration saves time, reduces travel and is F-R-E-E!
• TS: Started with wikis to share county-wide information. Jenison did not have GroupWise or Exchange. Used sneaker-net until they went to Google Docs. Been working on students and teachers to think about the content of the message to determine the medium. For instance, if they lost connectivity, use the telephone. Don’t wait for system to come back. Web 2.0 = collaboration

RC: The Horizon Report 2009 K-12 needs to be read to help future proof your district.

 What Web 2.0 tools get you excited?

•  PH: Emphasized TS’ call to encourage different mediums. CDH is moving to Unified Communications for the real time interaction. They have audio, video setups at all stations. This is taking their collaboration to the next level. They will have constant 2-3 communications throughout the day within their offices and between their Royal Oak and GR employees.
• AW: Publishing and sharing work is motivating their students. When it is viewed by others student are more apt to revise and increase the quality of their work.
• MW: Adobe Connect is indispensable and real time. I teach all day from my desktop. (Note: ARD provides Adobe Connect like services, but only internally) You pay for Adobe Connect, but look for fre webinar tools.
• TS: Sees long time teachers getting excited by flickr, youtube because they like to see info on their grandkids. Lately, they are seeing ways to use these tools for their teaching.

How are Web 2.0 tools reducing your costs?

• RC: Her superintendent is eliminating travel outside building beginning Feb 2010. Will have to teleconference. (Rikki is at OAISD?)
• PH: Business is nearly out of face-to-face meetings. 95% of training is via webinars. Video is critical. Need proctors to help with video conferencing tasks. His 20 somethings want to work from home and constantly ask for release. CDH requires local office time for the “richer” contact it provides.
• MW: Students need help with appropriate use. The mistake many people make is that students “know” how to use the technology.
• TS: Google Docs and shared space eliminates the platform. For instance, his daughter’s laptop died mid-semester at GVSU this year. She finished the rest of the year using her iPod Touch and Google Docs without missing a beat.
• TS: The need is to teach students appropriate use.
• AW: Summit is opening up their network to all user devices. They are going to a public Internet, MOODLE and nings.

Paul was asked what skills students need for business?

• “Teach them to write.” All the tools are predicated on the ability to communicate clearly via the written word. If they can’t write, it doesn’t matter what platform they are using because (he) can’t understand them. All the new hires he has let go recently was due to their inability to write clearly.

Electronic Communications in Your District–What You Need To Know: David Palme, Portland Public Schools

David’s email archiving website

The importance of this is something we should discuss as an Ad Team.

• The consequences for not having an email retention and disposal policy can be costly.
• The consequences for having an email retention and disposal policy and not following it can be costly.
• Eventually, you’re likely to get sued because you can’t supply FOIA’d emails.
• Michigan History, Arts and Library is responsible for document retention standards
• Do the best you can
• Train users. MHAL has an online tutorial. Print out the certificate and put in employees personnel file.
• Principals cover the definition of “records” in an early staff meeting.
• This is

Mindy and I attended a session presented by Eboni White from Southfield. She had four categories for using technology in her classroom.

Get Organized

• Lunch count: Set up an Excel spreadsheet and have the students fill in themselves as they enter.
• Save the lunch data for graphing later.

• Prepare tech materials like other subject areas

• Have binders, folders depending on your preference for instructions.

Username/passwords

• • Portability is crucial.
  • Create student badges.
  • Use Printshop to create a business card ring
  • laminate everything.

Spice up Environment

• forget store bought posters. Use Printshop.
• original posters are more relevant.

Integrate technology into the Curriculum

• Utilize Microsoft Office.
• Research student-friendly software at MACUL.

English Language Arts

• MS Word: Have students type in their spelling list (Mindy uses Pixie 2 to do this).
• Use different colors and fonts.
• “at” family example.

• Use clipart & pics to retell & create stories (again Pixie 2 could be used at BCH too).

• Kelly’s Kindergarten website has pages of premade Powerpoints.

Science & Social Studies

• Word as a starting page. Hyperlinked “Go” button to NG Kids in homework assignment. When emailed to parents, they can get directly to the correct page.
• “Caption” writing to get going in the morning. Use clip art.
• Create brochures in Printshop.

Remember, you don’t have to do everything. Let the students do it.

Don’t think, use Google.

Link learning with your classroom site.

• Make an effort to reach working parents.
• Don’t forget text messages.
• email notices.
• Take classroom newsletter and put on your site.
• Take a survey of parents
  • Computer at home: Y N
  • Internet access at home: Y N
  • Student access at home to Internet? When, where
  • Open to paperless home work options: Y N
• Take a post pictures
  • No names.
  • If you post it, they will look.

All time faves.

• Print Master (We have Printshop 1)
• LD Lettering Delights (fonts)
• Discovery clipart
• Eval-u-write by Great Source Publishing
• Unitedstreaming  (already subscribe)

“Web 2.0″ – Ok, this one isn’t new but since no one seems to have the true definition, it’s like new. Think social networking like Facebook, Myspace along with “resources for collaboration, skill building, communication, critical thinking and creativity.” I bought an ISTE book called “web 2.0: new tools, new schools” to help translate it for you.

“UDL” – This is a new one to me. Universal Design for Learning “offers students the opportunity to learn without barriers.” Apparently, “Discovery Education Streaming, Inspiration (and) CPS” are part of UDL. More on this in the next two years.

Let me know if you’re interested after looking at the site.

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