Meetings+of+Minutes

Role of the committee:
 * establish vision
 * advisory to Principal & tech director
 * Will be a district tech advisory group - representatives from this committee
 * Members from Union have voice in the discussions
 * Share info with colleagues
 * representation: 1 person from each department, will add students later

Where We Are Now:
 * Pilot Classes
 * 1:1 - Mike - slow start with Macs, different learning curves for students, how much use the Mac in class (most of assessments - paper & pencil), students say raised the level of collaboration (use Skype - Mike will get on Skype with students), discussion boards - put up there, but little discussion; helped their own organization - detailed notes with picts and dates - good for review, class avg. higher in laptop class than non 1:1, 18 students (8 Macs, 10 PCs), Skype & Jing works better on Macs because of built-in iSight camera and mic. Kids have their own Macs - Geometry stays the same all year long - American Lit will change.
 * Anne's online class - certain tech issues, challenge to get everything online - mixed bag with students (some have struggled at beginning and done well now), has stronger expectations for 2nd semester - lot more can do in BlackBoard than in Moodle, discussions in VHS a lot more focused - more casual conversations in the hhs course - Anne feels because know one another
 * Journalism - Sterling - next time will grade them sooner, were a month into it before received their grades, kids aren't as tech savy as you'd think, 1:1 will need a boot camp to address technology skills and applications, Moodle is great for seeing what they've done, can keep track of their logging and what they are viewing, some do their best work at 2 a.m.
 * 1:1 - American Lit - Sarah's and Mary Ann's classes were very different experiences - Mary Ann's was great with a larger class (might have been based on how many wanted to be there, assessment showed they liked doing projects, liked online discussions, doing online journals - if they liked using a computer (some didn't want to use a computer, even for typing their notes) - Are we preparing all kids to have the kinds of skills of the 21st century?

Online Opportunities for Next Year:
 * Consortium of 13 school districts doing online districts that kids can take - called for proposals - We have 3 teachers offering courses for next fall - Joe is teaching one (Intro to Business), Crissy Carr and ?? Moodle is the platform - taking a course to prepare these teachers to teach the courses next fall (to give students more choice - online schools are becoming more prominent - will be 14 courses, 20 slots for each semester - will be listed in the Program of Studies - question about how kids will be selected, expands opportunities for our students to take more online courses to meet our strategic plan goal of 2014 of all students having taken one online course. Like our own VHS - Might be one face-to-face meeting because of proximity of schools - from business perspective could charge tuition
 * Courses for next year - possibilities - hybrid calculus course, Latin/Greek, modern global issues online - target audience - upper level students? focus right now is for freshmen to have 1:1 laptops
 * Accept - received a federal grant for online learning - focus on STEM courses - looking for 4 teachers for each district, person gets laptop, enrolled in course to design an online course - run through Moodle

1:1 Implementation Plan
 * all freshman will have a laptop - same platform easier - Present Thurs. Jan. 22 - Alyson handed out the Updated Plan - shared cost between district and parents (non-refundable yearly insurance fee - kids need to be vested), haven't determined the cost - anticipate problems such as parents have bought their child a new laptop. Other schools lease computers, keep them through June, computers are upgraded during the summer by the school and student gets back a laptop in Sept. (not necessarily same one)- buy out possible after 4 years - believe will change the learning environment, more 21st century learning (project-based, critical thinking) - parents might be upset if students can''t have access to their computer all summer - can we shorten the time, or upgrade not all at same time - still have specialized computer labs with specific software -What happens if software not installed on their laptop? Need to see what software we'd like put on our images - have in plans bootcamp for 9th graders - go through camp in the summer time - way to teach them the correct policies and procedures - would it be possible to do it day 1 & day 2 of freshman year rather than summertime - idea of teaching a course of technology skills
 * Will need subcommittee to develop the policy issues - documentation etc. Ann Marie will head this, please consider whether you would be interested in this.

PD for teachers
 * Tech21, Apple courses (2 free days of training - learning applications on Mac), RM Math, building PD time for tech workshops, BLC 10 (Alan November's summer institute), Summer institute for teachers - last year Jen and Ann Marie offered a combination Moodle/Web 2.0, also TEC offers some - Anthony took a course on the social networking possibilities - Wikis, Nings, etc. He has established a Wiki for SPED
 * focus might be for 9th grade teachers
 * graduate credits need to be explored more - also would be nice to offer multiple sessions of learning an application within a project

Development of a District Tech Advisory Committe
 * Representation from our committee
 * Will be open to community, students, businesses

Suggestions
 * More online opportunities for other students who are not ready for certain classes
 * iPod Touch - give to SPED dept. - how do we pay for downloads and apps, how do we synch them - Sterling might get some
 * VHS - kids with organizational issues have difficulty with online courses
 * Mary C. wrote a grant for NovaNet - remediation program all done online - more scripted - curriculum is module-based, it's a whole pre-designed curriculum with assessment focus in math
 * Moodle visually is "ugly" to look at - feels like too much is crammed into the online courses.
 * Technical issues will be first on the agenda be next session

Here's the link to our 1:1 website with information for the community