Agenda_2011-12_ITS_March2

=**Agenda 2011 - 2012 ITS Meeting March 2**= - __8:00 - 8:30 Welcome (Samples of polo shirts will be available Order form)__ Celebrations: Thomas Friedman came to speak at Southwestern, talks about Education, his new book "That Used to be Us". Video on YouTube. Angie H. survived her Refresh - Yay! She created documents for it and is available for the rest of the ITS. All the principals are trained in tablets, except maybe 3 or 4. Thank you to the ITSs that helped out with the trainings. Brian W. has created and updated all the Apps for the Tablets in a form which is availabel for everyone to enter and look at. We would like the other ITSs to review the Apps and state your opinions. Google Training - we've completed 2 so far. The make-up sessions for those that missed the sessions will be done sometime next week and set up by Jeff U. Jan P. is a grandma! Granddaughter born last night.

- __Overview of Video Services Department (Larry Barnett)__ If you have questions for individual campuses, EMAIL them. Look at the website - has lots of information. [] Example - Mark K. has 10 video conferences set up through Video Services. Depending on how interactive the video conference is, they will set it up at their location and/or bring equipment to the campus. ITS do not have to "mess with" anything, Talk to Mark. :-) Difference between video conference vs. Skype (people can confuse the two because the technology is different. TETN - can be run through video services. They will set up a ticket system (possibly) to handle issues (broadcast, etc.) where ITS receives email that someone will come out to take care of media issues. For schools built before 2008 - TVs that go out will not be replaced. Instead, teachers can go to site to click on 20 designated channels to project on projectors (including one for Broadcast). BUT it HAS to be connected via ethernet, NOT wireless. To get the URL, EMAIL video services to get it. The license for this expires every year and gets renew. Currently, it is as needed. This is not for ALL classes right now (licenses to be purchased, bandwidth, etc.). This is NOT the end-all-be-all solution. This is for teachers that currently NEED the TVs in the classroom that cannot get it replaced. Ed Zaiontz will help out with getting a better server for the Discovery Education videos. Quality of signals/videos will be better and will be ready by next school year. Possibility of Spanish titles for Discovery - Larry will contact them and see what the status is. Call 2960 instead of direct extensions for Jennifer, Larry or Matt that way it will go to all of them, not one. Also, email Video_Services@roundrockisd.org so that it goes to all three. Broadcast equipment issues: Visual Communicator works best with 755 (if you have it around your campus, hang on to it). If you have U-verse, you can watch school board meetings live on channel 99.

- __E-Readers (Carlyn Gray)__ Research done by Carlyn and Mary Jo to know what is legal and what's not (like Napster). E-Readers are beneficial: students love them, inspire reluctant readers, provide variable font sizes, load multiple titles, have highlighting/note-taking/built-in dictionary features. Terms and conditions are defined for PERSONAL USE ONLY. The digital content for e-Readers is LEASED, not purchased. Leased content does NOT have the right of first sale (the right to lend, sell, or give away). Because of that, libraries cannot load multiple titles on an e-reader and lend it to multiple students. Teachers cannot load multiple titles on an e-reader and use it with multiple students. It is STRICTLY FOR the PERSONAL use - cannot be used for someone else. Vendors (BN, Apple, Amazon, etc.) who sell e-Readers are not libel for the misuse of the digital content they sell. If you choose to use it for other than personal use, they will not be held responsible. Mary Jo was a huge proponent, wanted actual proof in writing that this was legal or not. **They contacted the regional manager of Barnes and Noble to give a document that allows that they can load the different books and pass them around to different students (i.e. Nook for Education, etc.) and she said she cannot because the publishers will NOT allow it**. They said (in their writing essentially) that you should buy a Nook for each and every child and a copy of the book(s). They wrote those agreements to make sure they are not libel, but the district will be if they do not follow the agreements. //RRISD does not authorize using district funds to purchase e-Readers at this time. If the district funds are used to buy e-devices, the buyer will be asked to cover the expenditure with their own money//. This includes Grand money because the money was present to the teacher in RRISD, therefore, the money belongs to RRISD. All RRISD stakeholders must be informed about this to be able to comply with the law. Another vendor stated that another district in Austin never asked about all the legalities of the e-Readers and ramifications and they just purchased hundreds of them. He just set up the contract for purchase only and he is not versed in the legal stuff behind the devices. //Carlyn have contacted attorneys and experts in the field, and spoken to vendors. All confirm that the information included above is true//. Solutions are being sought: the American Library Association is dialoguing with five of the six largest publishers; all parties want to find a mutually benficial way to library e-book lending to legally occur in schools and libraries; for this to occur, terms of use will need to be //**standardized**//. Harper Collins, Penguin both tried to lend and had some issues and had to withdraw. What is the difference between Cedar Ridge digital copies and lending? Cedar Ridge purchased those and own them (first sale rights). Some books are one-to-one and some are one-to-many. Ex. ASCD professional books are one-to-many. Follett e-books: they call it the e-Book shelf, but it's not integrated into our system and we cannot obtain the statistics for it. We have to provide personal data to access the shelf, which we do not want to do. But currently, it is "okay" to access it, but not necessarily going to be okay later. How to tell the difference between buying and leasing e-book: difficult because they don't say it out right. You have to read the fine print in the agreements. However, if you "buy" it on Amazon, it's leased. Not bad news completely - conversations with ALA to standardize the usage and make sure the publishers are compensated fairly are continuing. Mary Jo will send powerpoint presentation to JoyLynn for "official" RRISD legal stance.

- __Web (Linda Aschenbrener)__ [|Report on Content Management Systems-ITS.pdf] We are moving to Google Sites in a few weeks. We have TeacherWeb for one more year because we only have money for one more year. We are currently grandfathered into TeacherWeb because it's gone (bought by Edline). Don't tell teachers that have TeacherWeb yet to move over now. We have a year. For the new teachers, they can use Google sites or TeacherWeb (not endorsing one or the other, but think about the long-term usage), but ultimately, we want one system that will work together (TeacherWeb NewsFlash not working with E-News, would like it to be one system in the future). What to do with teacher websites? Linda is currently looking into getting a new website for district. Linda and Tao went over what we have in RRISD - district-level and campus-level, the problems, and goals. E-News has 21,000 subscribers. We want to move to a new system without losing the push notifications. Linda and Tao checked out and tested about 30 systems out there (K-12, business, higher education, blogging like Wordpress, etc.). Google is a game changer - we do not know what it can and cannot do yet. What to do with teacher websites - still currently searching for something. We want one system that works well with district and campuses together without having to go through other systems. Read over document in link above for more details. There's nothing that is decided yet. Goal is to get campuses first, then district will be after. But NOT FOR THIS YEAR. The search for a new system is a very long process, can take up to a month, due to all the backend stuff, the sales stuff, etc. If we can also have it pull up a report that shows when the teachers last updated their websites - that would be great.

- __Ed and Jan updates__ Jan is not here because she has a granddaughter (born last night in Houston, TX). Congratulations! Marcela Baxter has resigned. She has accepted a position outside of the district in a private enterprise. We are looking at replacing the position, but currently going to outsource till position is filled. Google Roll-out - We wanted to wait till STAAR testing is over before the switch. The last day for teachers is May 29th. If we went for conversion after teachers leave, teachers could potentially not have access to email. Could we make the conversion before they leave and provide training sessions (or help via phone) till our last contract day? Suggestion for conversion date to be Friday, May 25th. Also, Active Directory being restructured - possibly using Employee ID instead of campus number. Just all ideas, not set in stone yet. What is crucial is to have teachers be able to log into their GMail before they leave for the summer. July is not a good time for training because that's when they are preparing for the new school year. We are still researching a method that will be best suited for all the needs of the campuses and ITSs. Currently meeting with other districts on how to roll-out to see if it's a best-fit for RRISD. Project Team consist of 15 people, 12 are from Information Systems department. There is no discussion of staff reduction in the budget for at least the next school year. A 3% raise for salary costs $5.2 million. For any concerns, email Greg Smith so he can forward it to the committee.

- __Technology Committee Update (Anne Mattingly, Lori Warren, Erik Weiler, Debby Acevedo__) There has been 9 meetings so far. Met every Tuesday from 4:30 to 6:30. Final document available on [|wiki]. Biggest thing that all the campuses want: more support (one at elementary school full-time, 1 at middle school, and 2 at high school). Divide time 50% fixing and 50% integrating technology into curriculum. Management system for the computer lab (where teacher or etc. can see all the screens on the computer). Intelligent Classroom model was more preferred than 1-to-1/BYOT. Instead of equality of one device to one student, give autonomy to campus administration to determine what hardward is needed. Have technology solutions available for the fine arts department. Laptops across the board may not be the best solution; tablets/netbooks/etc could be a better alternative. PD - why are TA TEKS separate component? Why can't they be integrated into the other lessons in the ARRC? Also, provide more PD for district and campus levels. Have a separate, dedicated person to work in the Curriculum and Instruction department that will integrate technology into the lessons. The document will be presented to the Cabinet later in March/April. Also suggested that some kind of committee will be available to review it on an annual basis. Mary Jo, Robert, Jeff, and Angela was also on the committee as well.

- __District Leadership 2-21-2012 Presentation ([|Leadership Page]) ([|Getting I.T. Right!)] (Robert Autrey and Jeff Uselman__) Presentation and information provided in link above in PDF. Jeff and Robert also showed various links in the Getting I.T. Right blogs around the district. Dr. Chavez was present and able to see the different blogs. There were plenty of BYO questions. Ed explained the bond budget and what was spent on what devices and such, etc.

- __8th Grade Tech Lit Assessment information (Jeff Uselman__) We're currently waiting till we add students to Learning.com to get final number. Testing window is March 1 to June 6. Will wait till next week (Marcela's last week) to upload student info. Jeff attended Learning.com session and obtain information: 85% of students will finish in 30 minutes. Only 42 questions will count. If a student gets kicked out, student will be able to log in and continue from where he/she left off. There is no sound so headphones not needed. Sample Tests are okay to give to students, parents and teachers. All district reports will be emailed to the district in June. Base minimum skills score is 220.

- __STaR Chart check up (Jeff Uselman__) Reminder: DON'T FORGET ABOUT IT! 4 Elementary, 2 Middle schools, and 1 high school have 100% completion. All need to be done by March 30th. Get it done by then, please.

- __Tech PD sharing (Michele Kincaid__) Had a whole day dedicated to technology at Cedar Valley Middle School (Feb 20). The PD is on the [|website]. Teachers were given Flip cams to record their PD throughout the day and at the end of the day, they get together and make a movie from their movie clips. It was divided - Instructor-led sessions and 20-min-self-paced sessions. After the professional development session, the teachers had to answer key questions to make them think about the information they learned on the camera. QR codes was a popular session. Skype (where teachers Skyped with other teachers on campus) Current on-going session is Web 2.0 Prior to PD - gave them Pecha Kucha presentations, map, outline, schedule.

- __Eduphoria tips (Michele Kincaid__) Eduphoria will delete all the data if you walk out and lose your WiFi. But if you click back to the teacher's name, it will save it. Once the principal submits, it will be gone from the tablet because it is sent to the teacher to show the results. Eduphoria - when you're logged on, you see all the teachers on you campus. Orange icon means walk-throughs are okay, not official appraisal. As part of the security of the tablet, the walk-throughs/observation notes are saved elsewhere more secure. The principal/AP need to save after finishing their walk-through observations on the tablet prior to leaving the room in case the WiFi gets dropped and they lose the connection to the server. To save, they have to click back to where all the teachers' names. To make sure it is saved, click on the teacher's name and see if the information is there. The principal/AP can use the browser in the tablet to do the observations as well.

- __[|Tablet issues doc](Jeff Uselman__) Please document any issues you encounter using Eduphoria and/or the Galaxy tablets through the google doc link above. Be as specific and provide as much information as possible.

- __Summer Professional Development, SPHS, 7/30-8/2 and 8/6-8/9 (Institutes 6/4-6/7 and 6/11-6/14__) Mary Jo needs to turn in what we want to offer for training by March 9th. Definitely offering Moodle and capping at 15 per class. Also training for ActiVotes, ActivExpressions, and ActivBoards. And also a Promethean Playground. //**Any other ideas and suggestions - PLEASE LET MARY JO BY TUESDAY, MARCH 6th!!**//
 * Digital Storytelling (or other substitutes like Animoto) - Brandie Cain-Heard
 * How-To videos with Movie Maker Live (teachers create their own How-To videos for their classes) Vernon Renegar
 * Teacher Created webpages - to do on campuses
 * Elementary Tech Tools - STEMScopes (led by a Science lead), Envision (led by Math lead), ThinkCentral and Write Source (led by ELA lead)
 * Lego Robotics and First Lego League - Not going to provide a training, not enough turn out.
 * Online Resources and Lesson Ideas - will break them up and divide for more meaningful training (Robin Young and Brandie Cain-Heard)
 * Smart Slates and Notebook for Beginners - will provide training
 * Wikis for Beginners - Provide training
 * Blogs and RSS for Beginners - provide training
 * Google Training - needed because we don't always have the luxury to train on campus (Google Mail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs)

- __Google Apps rollout/training summer/fall (MaryJo Humphreys__) Greg Smith and Mary Jo on the committee for Lotus Notes migration to GMail.

- __2012-13, campus assignments, job description, transfers (MaryJo Humphreys__) Allocations are sent out to principals, not to Mary Jo currently. The allocation numbers are not accurate enough. HR has stated that we are not losing anybody, but we're not hiring anybody either. Need to see allocations to see where to balance the ITSs. All a balancing act. No matter what the allocations are, WE ARE NOT LOSING ANYBODY, but WE ARE NOT HIRING ANYBODY, even with the opening of a new elementary school because it's supposed to alleviate an elementary school. Cannot be determined yet. Mary Jo is going to try to keep it as same as possible (littlest amount of upheaval). ITS is not part of transfer process because we are part of the Technology Curriculum department (905). All district level jobs at the campus level job descriptions: 15 principals came in to help out ITS job descriptions. All had positive things to say about the ITSs. All want a full-time ITS on their campus, not 0.4 or 0.5 or 0.6. Job description changed a little bit - ALL INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT needs to be at the top, the "fixing things" will move to the bottom. Would like ITS part of the leadership team. Supervision of the ITS - Mary Jo will be the supervisor and do final evaluation, but principals will be making decisions as well. So, it means Mary Jo/your principal are your supervisors but the principal does not do the final evaluation. Also, they requested that ITSs attend the leadership conference.

- Checkpoint 2 (MaryJo Humphreys) Mary Jo will take all the Checkpoints 1, 2, and 3 to HR as a model for future evaluation methods. Checkpoint 2 is going to occur soon. Angie H. and Debby A. have provided evaluation of the document. Look over the document. All the items are the same as Checkpoint1, no additional items. Between now and March 30th, Mary Jo, Jeff, and Robert will come by and visit with you to make sure you have the necessary documents for the check points. Blame Mark K. for this because he needed Mary Jo to fill out a reference and she liked what it was all asking. :-) Expect an email from Mary Jo, Robert, or Jeff on when they are planning to visit with you.

- __Adjourn and return to campus__

- No meeting in the afternoon. Spend the afternoon taking care of your campus(es) to compensate for all of the Google trainings.
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