Technology Services

Technology Committee November Agenda

Agenda for Technology Steering Committee

November 11, 2008

Agenda also posted at:

http://community.elmbrookschools.org/technologyservices/default.aspx

Review of Key Data (7:15-7:20)

• Data
• § Response Time to bigWeb Tickets
• o Goal: 1 Day (10.5 hour) Response - 96%
• o October Actual: 80.1% (-14.9%)
• o September Actual: 78.6% (-17.4%)
• o October '08: 617 tickets
• o September ‘08: 1190 Tickets
• § Ticket Closure - Issue Resolution
• o Goal: 3 day resolution - 95%
• o October Actual: 85% (-10)
• o September Actual: 82.6% (-12.4%)
• o October '08: 617 tickets
• o September ‘08: 1190 Tickets

Moodle v. Blackboard (7:20 - 7:25)

• Moodle will ultimately be our District's course management system for two reasons:
• a. More features, options, and flexibility
• b. Cost - $0 annual fee compared to $12,000 for Blackboard annually
• New users wanting a course management system are being directed to Moodle
• District will not switch from Blackboard until course content can be converted to Moodle automatically and existing Blackboard users can be adequately trained
• Estimated timeline for conversion would be summer, 2010 - only a severe budget crunch would accelerate this conversion
• Next Steps
• a. Chris is identifying existing users and courses in Blackboard to determine scope of conversion
• b. Chris will continue to search for a conversion tool (possibly a company) to perform one-time conversions of existing courses

Shared Storage - coming December 1 (7:25 - 7:30)

• Product is installed and will be tested and configured over next three weeks
• Documents can be uploaded in mass
• Documents are web-searchable (name, type, tag words) and can be tagged (i.e. 4^th grade math, or 8 grade social studies) to make searching more meaningful
• Security is also included using network login information

21^st Century Classroom (7:30-7:40)

Discuss components of 21^st century classroom:

• SMARTBoard
• SMARTBoard computer with DVD and TV Tuner
• Projector, speakers, wireless keyboard and wireless mouse
• Teacher computer - could be laptop or desktop as 2^nd computer in room
• Optional Accessories (supported but not installed in every classroom - teacher or curriculum dependent for their success): Document Camera (Elmo TTs - $550 per), Student Response System (Clickers) ($1674 for set of 32), Airliner ($349)

SMARTBoard Integration Strategy (7:40-7:45)

• Post-installation - 8 hours of training for teachers with SMARTBoards
• SMART certification for seven staff members, 6-8 more certified in June, 2009 (secondary focus)
• CEU sessions to provide quick tips, skill development and sharing of lessons as needed by building
• Training and certification of substitute teachers, documentation created to support basic use
• Sally Ride, 1 credit courses offered throughout the year to provide opportunity to collaborate and delve deeper into subject-specific courses, Sally Ride dictates enrollment be split between Elmbrook (10) and Sally Ride registration (10) - outside district registrants pay $100 more than Elmbrook staff, Stritch credit offered for $155
• Sally Ride Academy - week-long academy (3 credits) offered to Elmbrook and non-Elmbrook teachers in summer (early August), variety of content-specific courses

Tablet Integration (7:45-7:55)

• Year 1: Small pilot to determine value of software and hardware
• Year 2: Expanded phase 1 users (50) to:
• Determine how to scale rollout to broad range of teachers
• Determine training requirements
• Develop training materials
• Develop standard configuration (OneNote) and templates
• Develop and explore collaboration opportunities (shared Notebooks)
• Training Options
• Optional setup/use training in summer
• Small group training for resource staff (by position or by building)
• 2.5 days of substitute time during year
• 1-1 training with integrator
• Year 3: Expand rollout to all elementary teachers with common expectations of use
• Clear outcomes drive core training
• Collaboration needs drive access for all
• Training Options:
• Summer Academy
• Weekly summer-help sessions
• Mandatory day for setup and basic use training
• Integrated use during most early release days
• CEU Sessions to provide quick tips, skill development and solution sharing
• Sally Ride course(s) to develop skills and provide more, in-depth instruction?
• Small group training for resource personnel or building leadership teams

Office 2007 Rollout Proposal  (7:55-8:15)

• January - March: Begin CAO and office staff training sessions for Word, Excel, Publisher
• Jan - March: Send 2007 version home for office staff interested in home use
• Upgrade CAO and Office staff in the Spring of 2009
• Send 2007 version home for Elementary/MS teaching staff in late Spring
• Targeted installation rollout in summer for:
• Elementary teachers and staff (not students until 2010) on laptop and SMARTBoard computer
• MS Students and Staff - most, if not all computers (changes Computer Class curriculum)
• Summer Academy (June) - training for teachers on Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher (some combined)
• Summer training sessions for office/support staff
• Provide access to virtual test environment for practice and training
• Portion of staff inservice day(s) in August would cover the highlights of the new version and support resources

Training and support resources

• Create virtual environment for use of software from home or work without upgrading local machine (with file access to Home/shared directories)
• Create quick tips sheet for each Office application (above + PowerPoint) for desk reference guides
• Consider subscribing to online, just-in-time professional development site such as Atomic Learning (provide short, how-to clips for tasks/features)

High School - Not sure yet of timeline for implementation

• No real good strategy with remodeling
• Rollout must follow hardware upgrades in each room
• In advance, send home 2007 software for home installation (2-3 months) and provide access to virtual test environment for practice and training
• Concerned about having a mix of users
• If we knew laptops for teachers we could roll these out during 2009 school year with Office 2007 and simultaneously upgrade most computers