Tech Facilitator Meeting April 2012

Ron Clark spoke in the area last night--Betty says he was inspiring as always.

Check out all the comments from today at:
http://todaysmeet.com/tfapr12

Personnel changes:

• Marlo Gaddis leaving for a position in Chapel Hill School 
• Ramika Rhodes—new at service desk 
• Bill Doub retired from Carver

Connect 5 is the replacement for Alert Now

•  If schools don’t come to training next week, they will not be able to use Alert Now the following week. 
• The training information is in the last TBT:  https://webportal.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/sites/DOT/blog/default.aspx
• Monday/Wednesday are face to face meetings--come to lab, get your log-in, and switch you over, show you the new system 
• Tuesday is a webex

More initiatives…Matching Funds Grant Program

• It’s not “buy what-ever you want to"/It’s not just give schools money 
• Specifically designed to give schools who don’t have classroom solutions, 
• 34 schools expressed interest
• Now They must know if schools have the money and can they provide by the time its required
• May 9^th (must complete the application)   
• Monies will be provided by June 1^st so schools can close out by June 30^th

Matching Funds Rules

• If there is enough money to do one to one, then that’s what the matching will be. 
• If not enough money, then they will do "the scales"--a certain percentage. 
• In order to do the solution, there must be a site survey, the price varies depending on the wiring situation 
• Rough Costs:  Middle/High School- $8500.00, Elementary:$10,000 
• Start with a complete classroom, This program is not designed to do “start-ups” 
• Any other questions, put in today’s meet. 
• If you have doubts about what you want/need, request site survey.

Fiber optic Network agreement with Winston-Salem and NC:

• Partnership with city of Winston-Salem/NC Department of transportation
• Betty shared with the school board this week 
• What will it mean? Some schools should see increased performance in connectivity 
• DOT is installing fiber at all stop lights in a circle around Winston-Salem 
• Will allow schools to “connect to those stoplights” and tie in and save costs and monitor and expand our band width 
• US is significantly behind fiber connectivity compared with other countries 
• For schools the goal is to increase speeds 
• WSFCS will be responsible for cost of fiber from traffic signal to the 34 identified school sites 
• There is supposed to be an article in the Winston-Salem Journal coming soon. 
• The school system is in contract with time Warner, and we are a little concerned about the possible changes time Warner might try and make as we transition to the new fiber optic source 
• Davie county has been on the fiber ring for a couple of years 
• Wireless Access points will need to have an adjustment to gain that bandwidth.

AMTR: Annual Media and Technology Report

Joan Proffitt: 

• Annual Media and Technology Report, impacts state report card and funding 
• Should have received an email about NCID account from Joan in the last week 
• Email Joan with password problems with NCID for TECH Facilitator 
• Principals should already have an active NCID account since they have to use it for other things 
• Media Coordinators should also have one,  if they need access, put in a ticket or call the service desk 
• Info on AMTR is on the tech facilitator webportal:  
• On right hand side (old links)—Kevin will update 
• On left: info for tech facilitators then the amtr 2012 folder 
• Registration procedures—for new tech facilitators 
• Joan will email all tech facilitators Friday 
• Everyone has to subscribe to the AMTR even if you have done it before 
• Helpful question and answers have been updated 
• Friendly url’sfor addresses of the school websites 
• Media data will be updated from Jackie Pierson and she will send information
• Up to you at your school whether tech facilitator wants to enter the information or have Media people do it directly 
• More than one tech facilitator can be linked to a school 
• Email Joan directly on questions 
• 2011 AMTR is live, so you should just have to update the data 
• Make sure you save the section, double check the question and answers since some of those have changed 
• Make sure you pay attention to dates 
• School system is requesting it be done by June 10^th
•  principals sign off by June 15^th

• If principal signs off and you still need to make changes, email Joan if that happens with the changes you made afterwards.

Kevin Sherrill

KACE:

• Newly re imaged machines, you might see some KACE management pop ups
• If you cntl-shift-backspace, will cancel that screen
• It’s been coming up more and more recently—they have an open ticket with KACE
• Additional modules for KACE, inventory etc. over the summer will be looking more at those features

E-rate Switch roll out 

• About five years ago, certain schools qualified for new switches under this program
• Now those same schools qualify for e-rate funding again for updates to those switches 
• Over the summer, they will be switching out the switches at those schools 
• There will be a bit of an outage during that time 
• They get these new switches at 10% costs, and can then use those older switches to replace non standard/broken or shortages of equipment at other schools 
• They are also going to be working on the Hill/Philo merger

Yearly re-image for lab machines, and classroom computers?   

• Put comments on today’s meet and when schools should consider doing this (end of this year, start of new year?)
• DOT can provide resource to assist 
• Chris is working hard on updating all of the images. 
• Maybe a sign-up sheet to express interest?
• Several said difficult for Tech Facilitators to undertake this project on short notice due to all the different ways that TF are being utilized in schools (wearing so many different hats)
• But all seem to agree that re-imaging classroom computers and laptops would be a good idea

Carla Miller:

• Surplus window is closed –was due April 13^th.  42 schools submitted spreadsheets 
• Getting ready to schedule the pickups—testing is a concern 
• Expect an email the first of next week to schedule those pick-ups.

Race to the Top:

• Working to get all of the school done, only have about 8 schools left to complete?

Print Management:

• Ways to prevent printers from going “Stale” over the summer 
• Try and minimize the moves where-ever possible 
• Many schools have different V-LANs that have different IP addresses, so you must put in a ticket if moving printers 
• Someone suggested putting a green drop on the port where the printer is plugged in.  
• Try and get printers put back connected to network after rooms are cleaned as quickly as possible because they go “Stale”

 Wireless Project/Kevin:

• The whole project is designed to be able to add more devices.

Marlo Gaddis:

• Upcoming training (teachers have less to get than previously—only 1 CEU (10 hours) now) 
• Total requirement is 7.5 for the state—part of paper work reduction act 
• Here’s the problem—the state changed their definition of reading credit to literacy credit”—so with this ruling there will be two literacy credits that will be required—in the district—one of which will have to be in technology. -

June 14/15^th ad Admin center NCWISE lab

• "Boot camp" of technology credit offerings 
• Promethean users –camp this summer July 17^th and 18^th at Morgan 
• SMART Users at July 19^th/20^th at SPEAS 
• PLEASE let teachers know about this—it’s for anyone interested.  They would rather it not be completely new users, but have some familiarity. 
• Maybe give those people per-training that are completely new to Promethean or SMART

Professional Standards for Tech Facilitators:

• In April, state board approved new professional standards for Tech Facilitators and School Librarians/Media Coordinators 
• Purpose to guide graduate programs 
• The rubrics for the evaluation are being built now to go along with these standards 
• You have to be a full-time tech facilitator to use it according to state, but principal can choose to use TPAI (teacher performance appraisal instrument)
• Fall of next year, there will be a pilot for this new system 
• Fall of 2013, they will start new professional evaluation for principals to get trained on this new system, and may start with the new one for Tech Facilitators in Spring 2014
• More information:  http://it.ncwiseowl.org/standards/pro_standards/

ITES / Information and Technology Essential Standards

• It’s our job to send this information about the new ITES standards back to schools—everything is available on Learning Village now. 
• By July 1, the moodle course will be available to take any of the ITES  
• Tell teachers about the training

TPACK: ( Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge Framework)

• Draft document can be found on instructional technology page (Jan 23^rd ITES sessions) of the wsfcs website and on Learning Village 
• If you or your teachers use certain resources you want to add, send it to DOT 
• It’s not about making kids "dependent on technology" /but dependent on learning

EDCAMP:

• First state wide edcamp like this was in April 
• About 79 people from across the state showed up on a Saturday in Raleigh 
• Was one of the best times Marlo had with educators in a long time. 
• Flipping classrooms, bring your own device, web 2.0 smackdown and other topics were discussed—
• Marlo shared the resources they gathered in a google doc (in her presentation)
• Here's one Marlo liked:
• writing prompt site for middle schools
• http://writingprompts.tumblr.com/ 
• Ifttt:  http://ifttt.com/ (if this than that,site)   It’s a work flow process site--really cool.

The following were discussions we had about BYOD--"bring your own device" to school.  This is coming and there were many comments posted

Table top discussions:

• BYOD—Bring your own device, BYOT bring your own technology 
• Just because the state says all children should be tested in 2014, does not mean we should necessarily buy an online device for each student. 
• You don’t teach to the lowest, have to bring expectations up. 
• Have to look at big picture 
• Based on race to top grant, do we manage a pilot?, What is our goal of BYOD, are we just trying to test kids? 
• We need discussion on all of this  topics to think about:

A recorder…at each table.

Here are some background articles: 

• http://www.convergemag.com/classtech/BYOD-Forsyth-Infrastructure.html

• http://esheninger.blogspot.com/2012/03/moving-schools-forward-with-byod.html

According to Gardner study, four main things you need to look at:

1)      Revamp the curriculum

2)      Resolve the equity issues

3)      Infrastructure to support them?

4)      Acceptable use and other policies

Revamping Curriculum with BYOD:

• How would teachers use it if everyone had devices?

• What are best practices, how do you plan differently

• How do you change classroom management in this model? 
• We talked about classroom management as the first and biggest issue for teachers 
• How about kids without computers at home –issue checkouts:  Students would have to be issued equipment 
• This requires us to "Think outside the walls…" 
• "Flipping the classroom":  brings a whole new way of teaching:We have to prepare teachers for this…with ideas for utilizing this stuff.

Equity Issues with BYOD:   

• How to we ensure fair access for everyone?  
• What hardware and resources will we need? 
  • Consider the population of your kids 
  • EC student needs 
  • ESL students

• Consider the type of hardware you provide already.   
• There are equity issues even if every student has their own device (different levels of knowledge levels for example). 
• In terms of states who are dealing with these issues, CA is leading the pack,  Philadelphia, FL and GA have initiatives too.

Infrastructure:  

• Ways we will let devices on network (via domain now)  Will be based on user based authentication.
• Access will be filtered. NAC is another but expensive option for user control 
• We are now averaging ~ 2500 devices  per day 
• Can support 10,000 concurrent connections with the infrastructure we have now.  May have to grow the infrastructure in the future 
• IP group membership will be given student rights for all BYOD machines. 
• State has a managed filtering that we will probably tie into later 
• What devices will be allowed?  Choose from a group of possible items? 
• Mobile device management app we would have pay for this 
• Have to have a district/consistent policy on what we would do and not do in terms of servicing equipment. 
  Acceptable Use and other policies

Acceptable USE Policies

• What if a student drops a piece of equipment?

• We already have pretty clear policies in place, but may have to revise

• Have to make clear instructions on care:

Overall comments:

• The rules what would we need the personal devices for in the school. 
• Poll everywhere is used quite a bit at EAST as an example of the technologies we could use with BYOD 
• Overall, we have said this will bring more learning and equity to the classroom, so BYOD will be a good thing 
• We like the idea that we have an overall policy that we  don’t support the students equipment problems.  Instead we have an inventory of devices we can hand out like tablets for those with problems on any given day 
• Color code system per classroom for technology use on any given day (test day for example) 
• We definitely need to revamp the curriculum.  
•  This should raise the level of blooms taxonomy—questions won’t be fact based anymore. 
• Charging issues in classes? may have to think outside the box on this 
• Focus on cooperative learning may come into play more. 
• Planning ahead will be necessary for teachers and teacher training. 
• Make curriculum more project based and use devices for research. 
• Social networking like edmodo might be increased by BYOD 
• Has to be a different method of teaching not just “plug and play” 
• Training for teachers?  Will only help if supported by leadership 
• “Genius device location” Where they keep technology for check out. 
• Hacking concerns 
• Signal Strength: not an issue since they need to be on wireless not 3G 
• The Friday Institute is working with the plan NCLTI Master Plan —
  • Friday Institute:http://www.fi.ncsu.edu/project/nc-11-learning-collaborative/nclti/ 
   
    
• Marlo:  "As soon as people get software, teaching stops" 
• Policies in WSFCS are in place, might need to be lumped together better. 
• Expectations have to be high and clear all around 
• Issue:  Technology Facilitators being used in other roles and not just supporting technology 
• Overall, this is a very complex subject 
• There is no for or against this—it’s a tsunami coming at us. 
• Need everyone to help form these policies—Betty agrees every school with BYOD should have a full-time tech facilitator.

Last tid-bits---

CYC:  Connect your community:

• is still going (by end of May will have 1000 families with Internet access)

• All trainers were unemployed or under employed and now are employed. 
• They need some teachers for the summer—contact Katherine Davidson.

Texting Policy:   

• Board Policy committee is currently developing a policy to show which parents allow teachers to be texting between teachers and students 
• NCWISE would track who has permission to text. 
• Enrollment forms that are taken home on paper at the start of the year--, one of the questions would be:  is student allowed to receive text communication? 
• Who will monitor this?

Online Field Testing:

• IE7 issues with field testing.  IE8 most stable browser, shared with Dana Wrights. 
• Looking at Google Chrome and IE8 will be the approved browsers in the fall.

Intrinsic Motivation

 Picture obtained from:  http://www.life-magazin.com/2011/03/28/intrinsic-motivation-in-class-room/

As I was captured in the dungeon of Math field testing this week with no windows and very little fresh air, it got me thinking about intrinsic motivation!  I know, that is freakishly crazy!

As I watched (particularly the 8th grade algebra students) work away sometimes for hours on a test with no obvious motivation to do well (no carrot or stick), several things occurred to me.  I was intrigued by the students who might have realized that there was no reward for doing well on this test, yet worked arduously.  There was no grade attached to this test, no one here at school will probably really look at the results, and the students knew this.

Interestingly, some other students who I perceived as "really smart kids" (who are probably accustomed to being told they are brilliant, and ordinarily "work for the prize") seemed to rush through the test.  Perhaps there was no obvious reward for spending much time on this field test.  Some of them quickly finished and it appeared to me made very little effort. What does that say about them?  What do they "perform for" normally?  And, is this what we really want to teach them to do (only work for "the prize" (of the good grade)?

Others worked diligently for hours to get the job done, and it occurred to me they might be what we call intrinsically motivated to do well--doing well for the sake of doing well or for the fact that this test might help the state figure out if this is a indeed a good test (as we had explained to them). Some may be perfectionists too, and what makes them perfectionists? I wondered.

While I was standing there observing the test takers, I just happened to glance at the article linked below on twitter, and a light bulb went off!  It reminded me that research study after research study shows that the "carrot and stick" approach does not work for motivating our students to solve complex problems.  But what about doing the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing?  After reading this article, "the behavior" I was seeing in that field testing situation over several days made more sense to me.

The question is..."How can people (particularly teachers) create the conditions within which others will motivate themselves?"  Is what we do on a daily basis in our classrooms teaching students to be fundamentally motivated? This article has some very good answers and thought provoking ideas:

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/09/guest-post-helping-students-motivate-themselves/

Tech Facilitator Meeting March 2012 at Walkertown High School

• Time Zone patch File
• Surplus Pick-up Spreadsheet
• https://webmail.wsfcs.k12.nc.us 
• email resources:  http://wsfcs.k12.nc.us/Page/56169
• available email groups on the Webportal 

Kevin Sherrill:

• Overall, The e-mail conversion went well. ~9000 users was a big deal! 
• Migration--for most it worked 
• Some Known E-mail Issues:
• Some users get kicked out 
• There is an 8 hour time limit to be logged in and it will log you out. 
• They can't change this :(
• Trying to change the fact that when it logs out it goes to an MS outlook log-in screen vs the WS/FCS mail log-in screen 
• Why does the ws/fcs user name and password not work on the MS LIVE log-in page?  There is a different cloud password at outlook.com--the password is randomized not like AD
• Kevin wants to know--When it does it happen?  just after 8 hours or when doing other things?

• A helpful address to know is:  
• https://webmail.wsfcs.k12.nc.us
• Remind folks to book mark this link

• Daylight savings time issue--on computers, time zone was right, date was wrong--this has been causing some errors with mail
• Sometimes resetting browser can clean up issues (tools, Internet options, advanced tab, reset)
• otherwise try running this script: Time Zone patch File

Flag an e-mail will turn it into a task

• Many people like this especially admins, but it will not synchronous to Galaxy phones --It is a known issue with galaxy phones and they are aware of the problem and trying to fix

Email hot links

• People click on email "hot links" on websites, etc. and computers look for locally installed default email program to send a new email
• This used to work lotus notes client users, it will not work with web mail
• Speaking of Lotus Notes, there are a handful of databases and locally archived emails-- is why they still have lotus client
• Can still see old mail on lotus
• email hot links may in fact launch lotus client for those old lotus users, but of course it will no longer "do anything"--bottom line don't use email "hot links" (copy email address and create a new message in email instead)

Other Issues from the audience?

• Attachments. Slow loading?  
• Joan Will make a note of it
• Marlo: Sometimes cleaning browser, remove tool bars, etc can improve this slowness
• Dump profiles on those machines might help--Kevin suggested maybe more profile sweeps (but this does not help admin machines)
• Speaking of which--Trend micro has had trouble with updates hitting older machines--Memory and age of machine are a problem

Checking for names

• There are two address books, the global and local contacts
• When you type a name,  it does "type ahead cache" so if you have written to them before it comes up
• When someone clicks on the To button-- defaults to global address book
• Most prudent to search by last name
• if you put a comma after name it will search by last name only
• It searches by first part of the hyphenated names
• It searches in active directory
• Had to make active directory names match email address

Email signature spacing

• Low vision version:  signature spaces out strangely
• Suggestion: Create the signature using "shift and enter" between the lines

Junk mail

• people are seeing much more--mail rules are the answer
• We are at mercy of ms live filters
• At least Parent emails seem to be getting through better than i-notes
• Kelly from EAST HS--MSN and AOL mails coming thru as HTML? Kevin had not heard that

Email resources

• Under departments/Technology: http://wsfcs.k12.nc.us/Page/56169

Calendars

• Giving access to someone else calendar or sharing 
• To actually manage some one's primary calendar--you have to put in a kace ticket.
• Needs to come from person wanting to give access
• But users CAN give rights to any calendars they create that are additional to primary one 
• Only personal calendars sync to Galaxy phones

Groups

• There are lists of the available email groups on the Webportal
• Some of the ones besides all staff at the schools include:  Secretaries, counselors, data managers, curriculum coordinators, principals, tech facilitators, mobile device users, sit chairs, Media coordinators, leadership team, assistants and many more.
• Distribution lists/all the globally supported groups (are based on designation in HR)
• If there is a question about whether a person should be in a  group or not, put in a KACE ticket
• So there is a group for all schools but it includes all staff including cafeteria. so if people want other specialized groups, they will have to be manually created
• Sharing groups is difficult so if one person creates it, it is tricky to share them (has to be in right format and proper separation)
• Rights to different groups can be an issue--so some people might not have the right to send an email to certain groups
• There was a problem for about two days with groups that were set up incorrectly
• if people sent to those groups at that time they needed to clear their cache
• how to clear cashe of a bad name or bad group?
• go to a new message, Start to type the name of the bad name or group, Hit delete not back space, then find that group in global address book again
• Groups will be updated daily as changes happen in HR
• Problems happened when people tried adding group names from old contacts from lotus addresses -- if the format was in the old/WSFCS format, people had to pull those names out manually and re-add

Other Comments/Issues:

• Thanks for putting the location in the search--helps distinguish when searching for common names like Debbie Brooks
• Complaint about hard to see screen issue: There is the low vision view--options/all options/settings/accessibility
• affect some other options --just keep that in mind
• Add to the dictionary. Not an option
• Check box issue:
• Remind teachers not to place a check in the check box to open an email click on the words instead
• The check box should be used as an ACTION--to move or delete an email--doing so as resulted in some people inadvertently deleting mail that had not intended to delete.
• Overall, the trend seems to be that former "Lotus Notes Client users" are less happy with the change over than i-notes users (teachers)
• With everything moving to the cloud, the trend is away from client use anyway, so this was a reality that was coming regardless
• Browsers usability is another advantage of this new email
• Speaking of which Google chrome may come out soon as a browser option for school computers
• Another big advantage is the mail file size of 10 GB, tho Email should still not be used for file storage
• Remind teachers again that email should be used only for WSFCS business, not for any personal business--it's school board policy
• There is an individual attachment size limit of 10 MB and 25 total MB per email
• There is a 1500 email limit per day--this could be an issue for people sending several emails to large groups like parent lists
• People should probably use alert now if sending to those types of large group emails
• Local created groups count as the number of members in terms of emails sent, while the school district created global groups count as 1

Betty Weycker:

• So, what about Email on personal phone?
• First of all, they are not preventing people from accessing email on their Smart phones--people can already open email through browsers on those phones
• What teachers are looking to do is access school email  via an APP on those phones
• There are a couple of issues:
• Legality of it/Confidentiality issues/policy/gray area
• They are Looking at updating policies
• There is a fine line between promoting it/supporting it
• verses the fact that they can do it
• Teachers that have school blackberries--they have been provided the connection (the cloud password) 
• On tablets currently can access email through browsers
• The cloud password has to be provided -- the encrypted one to be able to be set up as app email
• The password could be provided but it is a management issue right now
• m.outlook.com will be the server after the "may changeover", and people will be able to use their active directory user name and password at that time to figure it out

Other Issues:

• Only school issued devices can access the "managed wireless"
• Folks should not set up personal email accounts on those school issued devices
• Working on strategy to BYOD. (Bring your own device)
• They are digging into platforms--the best ones they can support and what's best  for students--we need guidelines
• Start of next year should have something specific

Race to top progression/Carla Miller

• They are updating the progress spreadsheet on the webportal
• Green and check mark will not be totally complete until all trailers are done
• ~ 30 schools on the new controllers

Spring Surplus Pickup:

• Go thru surplus spreadsheet ( Under info for tech facilitators
  Request for information/Spring file)
• Surplus anything electronic minus TV's
• Can surplus:
• remotes
• laptop batteries
• Bulbs from projectors
• VCR's
• Monitors
• Overheads (non working) 
• Keyboards and mice
• Deskjet printers
• Laser printers (they strip the parts)
  No personal equipment!!
• Have to check out spreadsheet ( drop down arrow)
• Has outward pointing arrow when checked out
• It is only for non working equipment
• Fill out and save
• Please say yes to check it back in
• They are due Friday April 13
• Same company as we used in the fall
• Only do it twice a year--fall and the spring, not "at your convenience"
• When can we do TV's?
• Trying to find someone to take tv's and not charge for them
• How so we make sure everything gets picked up?
• Separate working and non working

   Wake forest laptops

• School district policy says they do not support batteries
• Preferred vendor?
• On website--have used Laptops for less:   http://www.laptopsforless.com/
• For teachers
• EReplacements.com for  PO/school orders
• Power cords. They are trying to keep a stock. 
• But damaged ones sent back to school/damaged screens and damaged keyboards
• Students who damage laptops need to be told and Carla can't pay for those.
• Submit ticket and Carla will get a quote that only lasts for 30 days
• The LCD screen damage is different than cable damage 
• Dropped ones they try to repair--accidents happen

 Time zone patch/filtering issue

• Posted a fix link is on tech facilitator web portal:  https://webportal.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/sites/Techfaq/Shared%20Documents/WindowsXP-TimeZonePatch-ENU/WindowsXP-TimeZonePatch-ENU.exeup
• Under resolutions
• M86 client service is on aicp to help when filtering is not being applied to a machine
• Can also make a link to aicp through run (see Joan's notes) 

KACE TICKETS

• They are trying to make the issue box in Kace a paragraph box
• For now, say "see comment below" and then put the rest of what you want to say in the comment below
• Can we Simplify the process especially for teachers?
• can those requests go by default to tech facilitator?
• Expand software install on Kace?
• Kevin--next month we will have a deeper agenda item for Kace we are short on time today
• Can we get Comments to show up in email?

Instructional updates: Marlo Gaddis / Steven Anderson
Steven's presentation:  http://portal.sliderocket.com/AFKUJ/My-Presentation-1_2

• Schoolwires. Winter release/update on March 30th
• Table borders issues  will be fixed
• Photo galleries. Used to not work with quotes --that is being fixed
• How do I?  tab. Will now have a suggest location
• Post events to "parent" calendars
• Collections have not worked well
• Teachers will now will be able to post to main school calendar without using collections
• Wiki app is now available which is accessible to registered users
• There will be a mobile app now available

Moodle/Spring Workshops

• Short URL: http://wsfcs.k12.nc.us/technologypd 
• Moodle courses are available for spring
• Two ways people can login
• Old user accounts, email my  password  doesn't work
• Try Active directory user name and pw--if that doesn't work, just put in a ticket
• All explained on moodle page and email you get when u registered

 Free event edcampnc:  http://edcampnc.eventbrite.com/

• Raleigh Saturday April 21. Anyone who teaches.
• Opportunity to learn or to teach
• Limited to 200 people, and you  need a "ticket" 

Summer training

• Promethean July 17 and 18th
• Send information to teachers

Instructional improvement system (iis)

• Way to deliver content to teachers. 
• Marlo will post this presentation later
• Four main initiatives
• Learning village is closest thing we have to this
• (PDR) Project deployment road map/NC education cloud
• RFP. Finally went out request for project

You Tube for education:  http://www.youtube.com/education

• They continue to get request for Kace ticket requesting access
• education version has tripled in resources since November
• Khan academy became very popular request after a 60 minutes story
• ***BIGNEWS***Unblocked for all teachers  Monday March 26
• Not access to everything but will be a good start
• You tube for education--How it works?
•  School and agencies have to apply. Teachers have to apply to add content
• Teacher finds a great video and embeds in their website and students at school will still not have access at this time

Jackie Pierson

• Need a working tv?  Email Jackie with the size and room
• They have some old fashioned tv's in stock
• It is a slow process of redistribution
• Overheads
• Not physically moving them
• Not the "big blues"
• Email Jackie and she will coordinate people requesting or giving them up
• Dead TV's just find a place to store until they find a vendor to take them

Destiny 10 is coming

• Great new features
• Not just cataloging
• Will have a mobile app for android
• Probably app will allow e-reading
• Destiny maybe Down over spring break
• Not expecting any database issues

 AMTR

• Dpi is saying no big Changes
• Media part--Jackie will send FAQ's out
• E-books do count
• Betty Weycker will get us names of contact people for help with AMTR
• Subscriptions don't count in book counts
• Panthers with wireless issues?  Jackie will follow up on that
• Can still be used for inventory

Betty/Alert Now

• Connect 5 is new version of alert now
• Eva Palmer is here if we want more info
• Alert now is many things:
• Attendance calls
• Has email capability
• Highly recommended to any parent groups you can ask for email version. You can use HTML version
• Blackboard bought alert now an connect 5
• In order to make conversion, Betty needs to know users and additional numbers and Any replied to email accounts
• Betty thinks we will like this so much better

Classroom solutions

• $750,000 has been awarded for classroom solution. 
• Board is still convinced and so our the county commissioners
• There is sense of urgency/so every school gets them
• Full solution includes:
• Teaching station
• Sound
• LCDTV
• Doc camera
• Clickers
• Some people say they don't need sound
• Number one research item says sound is what makes the difference
• Currently 1301 classrooms in the district are done
• 1700 more to do
• Last year they had $200,000 to spend for the matching funds grant/This year $700,000
• Has not gone to commissioners yet
• 16 schools last year applied
• Interest survey for matching funds will be collected first of April
• Then, assessments will happen in April and May
• By end of June money must be in hand
• Some PTA money has to be spent by June 1st, and this will be perfect for that
• Could be a two to one or one to one
• Title one as a match?
• Worst case is one to one funding
• Only for classroom solutions not wireless labs
• Last year they required the matching funds at least be for some components of classroom solution/May do same this year
• Betty believes and people concur--if tech tools are not in the hands of an individual  teacher, they will not be used--in other words sharing rarely works
• More cost effective and efficient to do total solution
• In May the decision to go forward with the bond will be decided
• Has to be made sustainable by first getting all classrooms done now
• So what do you say to the principal who says:  why not wait and see if the bond passes?  
• Also good to get some in place now and get some teachers to start immediately and get on the bandwagon going
• Dr Martin gets the point on sound

 2014 BYOD

• Tools of classroom solution prepares teachers for that environment
• Assessment through self paced response?

 Having a true tech facilitator at each school?

• not even an option on the table this year for additional personnel :(

They are doing a "Smackdown" like Steven did at Ncties with Richard Byrne at Ncties/Sharing of best practices:

• Marlo. App
• X construction lite.  Build a bridge app:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.hms.xconstruction&hl=en
• Pinterest:  http://pinterest.com/
• common core pin, Classroom management, Quotes:   http://wsfcsintouch.blogspot.com/2012/02/are-you-addicted-yet.html
• Steven:  evernote
• Handy tool check out his blog on it.   http://wsfcsintouch.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-things-changed-with-evernote.html
• Screencastomatic:   http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/ 
• Steven uses on email training videos
•  Theresa--Digital citizenship agreement when starting edmodo
• Marlo has access will post on tech facilitator portal
•  Doreen: Studyblue flashcard also works in edmodo:   http://www.studyblue.com/
• Richard Byrne says you can search for other created flash cards
• Math snacks on blog that Marty Creech wrote a blog about it:   http://wsfcsintouch.blogspot.com/2012/03/are-you-hungry-for-learning.html 
• Livebinders one on common core. Search  for it
• Edmodo now can synch with google docs:   http://blog.edmodo.com/2012/03/16/google-docs-integration-is-now-available/
• Learning communities
• Now there are topics with subjects
• Books source classroom organizer:   http://classroom.booksource.com/ 
• Mangahigh.com math site:   http://www.mangahigh.com/en_us/?localeset=en_us
• Promethian active table
• Video Marlo showed
• Jeanne: http://cyberkidzgames.com/ 
• Symbaloo common core:  http://nagel.symbaloo.com/mix/commoncore

backups, backups and backups

This past week a teacher at my school, Curby Griffin had a bad experience with a flash drive, so I decided to  send out this gentle reminder about making backups.  Curby gave me permission to be the example of "listen to your tech facilitator"  Ha!

What happened was...Curby had a flash drive with a large number of files that she mainly uses for athletics with templates, forms, etc. She uses this same flash drive from year to year and reports that the files on there have taken many, many hours to create.  This past weekend she got a message when she tried to access the flash drive that said:  "drive __ was not formatted, and did she want to format it now?"  Formatting would erase everything completely, so she obviously wanted to say no to that message. But it would not let her access any files :(

We did a little research and found this to be a fairly common problem with flash drives.  The following sites give more information on this issue (I recall this happening to a AP, Peggy Dickey not too long ago too)

• http://kentbrewster.com/easy-flash-drive-data-recovery-with-photorec/

• http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/251280

• http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/251280/6_data_recovery_tools_for_sd_cards_usb_drives_and_more.html

We actually were able to recover SOME of the files using:  a free online program called photorec (http://www.cgsecurity.org/ ) Much to my surprise it actually worked!! and we didn't have to pay some of the high prices out there on websites for data recovery (some as high as $70.00!!)  Don't be fooled by them :(

The moral of the story:  Make backups and make them often.  There are many options for saving--other flash drives, the K drive at school, external hard drives,  hard drives of other computers. 

I really recommend "cloud saving"  (  http://computer.howstuffworks.com/cloud-computing/cloud-storage.htm)    When you save in the cloud files are accessible anytime/anywhere you have internet access.  Cloud sources are all over the place these days:

• google docs:  http://www.google.com/educators/p_docs.html

• amazon cloud:  https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/learnmore

• and drop box:  https://www.dropbox.com/

to name just a few are great places to save those important files.

Bottom line, if it's important to you, make sure it's in at least two or more places!

NCTIES 2012

Recently, I made my annual trek to the North Carolina Technology in Education (NCTIES) conference in Raleigh.  While I did not plan the following strategy when I walked in the conference center, I ended up "immersing myself" in three main themes with three speakers presenting at the conference. Those three speakers were:  Ken Shelton, Richard Byrne and Jennifer LaGarde.  NCTIES never disappoints.  It stretches my mind and I leave feeling enriched not only by the new information, but also the collaboration with colleagues and friends. 

Ken Shelton

In reflecting on the experience, the person this year who changed my thinking the most is a man by the name of Ken Shelton.  I attended two of Shelton's sessions; one of Visual Storytelling and another on Presentation Design.   

What stood out?  The idea that we as humans gain most of our knowledge through our sense of vision, yet what do many presenters cover their presentations slides? -- Words.  I thought more about this concept and it occurred to me that during the long history of humans, the written word only makes up a small percent of our past.  Therefore, it truly makes logical sense that we are "built" to learn more from pictures and the stories they tell and inspire.

In the spirit of Mr. Shelton's idea of avoiding death by power point, I am going to try and limit my words.  I will aspire to live by  the motto of Leonardo Da Vince:  "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"

Mr Shelton said In planning a presentation, not considering your audience is like a love letter addressed to "whom it may concern". This is especially important for teachers who are often over-whelmed and sometimes close to the tipping point.  A long message or wordy presentation from me is the last thing they want or need.  It's something I have to consciously think more on...

Here are some resources about presentation design that Ken's shared in his sessions:  http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/kensheltonpresentation

The next person who I stalked attended sessions with at NCTIES was Richard Byrne.  I have been a fan of Richard for some time now on twitter.  Richard is a mild mannered 33 year old twitter celebrity and Ray Romano sound-a-like from a small town in the state of Maine.  His website, ( http://www.freetech4teachers.com/ ) is one of the hottest education sites in the country.  I attended his sessions  Best of the Web 2011/2012 as well as favorite android apps for education.  I made a symbaloo of the apps/sites that I want to investigate more. There were so many in fact that I could not even fit all of them on my symbaloo: Here are two more:   gooru for math and science, and National Archive digital Vaults

Android apps on the left in blue, and web apps in pink on the right

Last, but certainly not least is a mover & shaker and librarian extraordinaire--none other than my dear friend and colleague, Jennifer Lagarde.  Jennifer always inspires me, and one of the many things I love about Jennifer is her fierce advovacy for the librarian profession as well as her self-deprecating and humble nature.   I adore how she pleads for that child who might ordinarily "slip under the radar" but has the potential to blossom into something special.  Where does this inner strength and strong advocacy come from you might ask?  A small remark LaGarde made in one of her sessions reminds us of her humble beginnings.  LaGarde said growing up she attended more than 20 different schools and WAS that child "flying under the radar".  A tear welled up in my eye, and it was a moment of clarity for me in realizing what might actually motivate her.

LaGarde led two sessions at NCTIES.  The first was a "smack-down" with Jennifer Northrup, of Flat Rock Middle School near Hendersonville, NC.  Both shared a variety of web resources via a symbaloo:  http://edu.symbaloo.com/mix/ncslmaweb20  Some of the many resources I am anxious to share with my teachers include:  class dojo, timetoast, flipsnack and Q-wiki

Jennifer LaGarde

LaGarde's next session was geared toward Librarians, but begged participants to remember that Librarians ARE teachers who are embedded in a school's instructional program and not the stereotypical "controllers of the books".  Every interaction Librarians make is a "chance to spread the gospel of Library" LaGarde said.  Check out this presentation--it is full of ideas that have the potential to inspire any school:  http://prezi.com/cxd3lnl4kb3j/librarians-are-ready-a-snapshot-of-a-21st-century-library-program/

Finally, what was best for me was sitting in the front row after the show and listening to librarian after librarian step up to speak to LaGarde sharing their stories of successes and inspiration.  This is why we come to NCTIES!  Now what?  http://www.edutopia.org/blog/conference-to-dos-professional-development-nicholas-provenzano