I hope that we can use this page to keep each other informed on technology issues through the building. Please keep in touch with your assigned grade level and report back here, or on the discussion tab, any comments you might have.
Here are the minutes from District Tech meeting on September 28, 2010. They are also saved in their own page on this Wiki - Do not change the other page. UseTHIS page to post comments, questions, etc. Color code your changes to make it easier to find - Jean.
District Technology Committee Tuesday, September 28, 2010 Ebenezer Tech Conf Room 4:15 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.
MINUTES
Participants: Stephen Yi; Daryl Janus; Brian Graham – West Middle; Torry Jones – Winchester; Kristen Frawley –East El; Rosalia Carraba– Northwood; Sandy Eichelberger – East Sr; Jennifer Borowicz – East Sr; Ryan MacKellar – East Middle; Jeff Pacer – Ebenezer; Jean Turner – Clinton; Colleen Zak – Ebenezer; Jaclyn Bzibziak – Potters; Haley Burakowski – East El; Lydia Wrobel – West Middle; Annelle VanNortwick – West El; Mike Tenhagen- Allendale; Teri DeGlopper – West El; Tony Bellittiere-Winchester 1) Welcome, Introductions and New Members
2) Review Last Minutes of 2009-10
3) High School Technology Turnover: SY: Replaced 1200 with 1350 machines. Shift from Mac OS to newest Windows version (Windows 7). More mobile labs and use of laptops instead of fixed workstations. Problems with printers, interactive boards, and software issues are being resolved through building techs. At next turnovers, the District will turnover to newest operating system for elementary level and middle level.
4) Parent Portal Initiative a) Daryl Janus: District has been working with WSTA to activate the Parent Portal for grades 7-12. Discussion of opening it at the Elementary Level to be discussed. Portal will be live on 10/13. Parents will access through a link on district site. Parents will receive a letter with complete information on what is available as well as id and passwords. If ids or passwords are lost parents must go to a school office in person to request another one. Darcie has asked for more information on when this Parent Portal for grades will be put in place for our elementary schools. Does "publishing assigments" (see next paragraph) mean our plans will also be required?I have heard in meetings that the district is considering bringing the elementary schools on board with Parent Portal next fall. But no definitive dates have been set yet. Our plans are not required as part of Parent Portal - just grades. (Kristen)
b) Daryl has sent a video to 7 – 12 staff about publishing assignments in grade book. Published assignments are those that will be available via web. DJ is also developing a video for parents that will be available on the District site. This will also be made available to teachers. c) Parents can also continue to receive paper progress reports (if they submit a tear off slip stating they do not have access to technology). Parents can also sign up for auto-generated emails on grades, lunch balances, and attendance.
5) Active Directory and Automated Student Account Creation – SIF – Daryl Janus: a) DJ: Students network accounts will be automatically created when a student enrolls and is entered in PowerSchool. b) The new ID’s contain the child’s day of birth in the month (19th for example, would equate to a student password beginning with “19”) c) Student passwords were problematic. Changes in student issued passwords will be considered for next year. Maybe District generated passwords for students might be all upper case letters (or all numbers) Discussion on when to reset student passwords during the summer. NOTE: If you want to activate student email, their log in includes their birthdate just like their network log in. ex: 27jturner@wscschools.org
6) CSLO Days, ITP and Other Staff Development Opportunities: Daryl Janus a) Teacher Center Courses: Over 50 courses were offered, and were well attended, but with reduction in paid hours, more teachers and administrators will probably attend fewer courses. b) Staff Development Day: The loss of 1 day significantly impacted technology professional development. Much was planned for the “Pick your course” day that the district used to have before the school year started. c) West High School is offering Tech courses during staff development hours. d) CSLO trainers from BOCES are available to work in a building as a resource for teachers. However District has significantly curtailed the use of subs. e) Daryl will pursue the list of available courses from BOCES through ITP and share when available.
7) Outlook: Stephen Yi: a) SY: Titles have been added to names to avoid confusion with email recipients. Global list was further subdivided into Student and Staff lists. Work is still being done on additional global lists. b) Outlook from Home: Students and staff should use Outlook, not other email programs. c) Student use of Outlook: Students should use the web version of Outlook, even when at school. d) Global Lists: DJ sent out directions for setting staff addresses as default.
8) WSCTV Demonstration: Jeff Pacer. System is now available to everyone. At any District workstation just type “wsctv” into the address bar of IE browser. Username and password are the same as Seneca-Net. WSCTV has 3 components. First component is portable live feed – Jeff will be able to transmit from anywhere to anywhere. Second component is live TV – 20 channels are available from the TW feed. Click on the channel and view through the Promethean board or through the classroom TV. Channel 1 also has a digital signage feature. Each building could have its own announcements, upcoming dates, and live video, playing on a flat screen placed in the building. Third component is the video asset library. Folders will contain Discovery Education video resources– which includes PBS and PowerMedia. Content will be organized by grade level and topic, lesson plans will be included. There is a search feature. District created content will also be part of this asset library. Teachers can create playlists as well as schedule programs. Computers accessing the system must be hard wired – content will not transfer wirelessly. WSCTV is currently only for staff, in-District, use. Try the above - it is cool.
9) Other: a. Print Shop now has a Departmental Share, which everyone has rights to. Now large files can be sent to the Print Shop electronically. In the Print Shop common share (inside “Departmental Shares” is a “Shared Docs” folder. People requesting print jobs can drop their files into that and contact Danette. It is recommended people add their name to the file so she can keep the files straight. People can drop files in…but, not delete or edit files within the folder. b. Daryl addressed the trial use of Novanet for online high school courses. This will be used with students only reviewing for Regents Exams. Training of the first group of teachers begins on October 15th. c. Stephen addressed planning for the next technology turnover that will impact Elementary schools. He proposes splitting up the Elementary schools and completing the elementary turnover over a 2 year period. The first group of elementary schools to be turned over would be those schools which were not Title I the first time (Allendale, West and East El). Clinton is in the 2nd year of Elementary Turnover as a non-Title I school - 2011 - 2012 d. Next capital improvement project will include installation of additional interactive boards. Goal is an additional 150 rooms to receive upgrade.
e. Web filters are now based on user names – students or staff.
CLINTON BUILDING TECHNOLOGY PAGE
I hope that we can use this page to keep each other informed on technology issues through the building. Please keep in touch with your assigned grade level and report back here, or on the discussion tab, any comments you might have.Here are the minutes from District Tech meeting on September 28, 2010. They are also saved in their own page on this Wiki - Do not change the other page. UseTHIS page to post comments, questions, etc. Color code your changes to make it easier to find - Jean.
District Technology Committee
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Ebenezer Tech Conf Room
4:15 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.
MINUTES
Participants: Stephen Yi; Daryl Janus; Brian Graham – West Middle; Torry Jones – Winchester; Kristen Frawley –East El; Rosalia Carraba– Northwood; Sandy Eichelberger – East Sr; Jennifer Borowicz – East Sr; Ryan MacKellar – East Middle; Jeff Pacer – Ebenezer; Jean Turner – Clinton; Colleen Zak – Ebenezer; Jaclyn Bzibziak – Potters; Haley Burakowski – East El; Lydia Wrobel – West Middle; Annelle VanNortwick – West El; Mike Tenhagen- Allendale; Teri DeGlopper – West El; Tony Bellittiere-Winchester
1) Welcome, Introductions and New Members
2) Review Last Minutes of 2009-10
3) High School Technology Turnover: SY: Replaced 1200 with 1350 machines. Shift from Mac OS to newest Windows version (Windows 7). More mobile labs and use of laptops instead of fixed workstations. Problems with printers, interactive boards, and software issues are being resolved through building techs. At next turnovers, the District will turnover to newest operating system for elementary level and middle level.
4) Parent Portal Initiative
a) Daryl Janus: District has been working with WSTA to activate the Parent Portal for grades 7-12. Discussion of opening it at the Elementary Level to be discussed. Portal will be live on 10/13. Parents will access through a link on district site. Parents will receive a letter with complete information on what is available as well as id and passwords. If ids or passwords are lost parents must go to a school office in person to request another one.
Darcie has asked for more information on when this Parent Portal for grades will be put in place for our elementary schools. Does "publishing assigments" (see next paragraph) mean our plans will also be required?I have heard in meetings that the district is considering bringing the elementary schools on board with Parent Portal next fall. But no definitive dates have been set yet. Our plans are not required as part of Parent Portal - just grades. (Kristen)
b) Daryl has sent a video to 7 – 12 staff about publishing assignments in grade book. Published assignments are those that will be available via web. DJ is also developing a video for parents that will be available on the District site. This will also be made available to teachers.
c) Parents can also continue to receive paper progress reports (if they submit a tear off slip stating they do not have access to technology). Parents can also sign up for auto-generated emails on grades, lunch balances, and attendance.
5) Active Directory and Automated Student Account Creation – SIF – Daryl Janus:
a) DJ: Students network accounts will be automatically created when a student enrolls and is entered in PowerSchool.
b) The new ID’s contain the child’s day of birth in the month (19th for example, would equate to a student password beginning with “19”)
c) Student passwords were problematic. Changes in student issued passwords will be considered for next year. Maybe District generated passwords for students might be all upper case letters (or all numbers) Discussion on when to reset student passwords during the summer.
NOTE: If you want to activate student email, their log in includes their birthdate just like their network log in. ex: 27jturner@wscschools.org
6) CSLO Days, ITP and Other Staff Development Opportunities: Daryl Janus
a) Teacher Center Courses: Over 50 courses were offered, and were well attended, but with reduction in paid hours, more teachers and administrators will probably attend fewer courses.
b) Staff Development Day: The loss of 1 day significantly impacted technology professional development. Much was planned for the “Pick your course” day that the district used to have before the school year started.
c) West High School is offering Tech courses during staff development hours.
d) CSLO trainers from BOCES are available to work in a building as a resource for teachers. However District has significantly curtailed the use of subs.
e) Daryl will pursue the list of available courses from BOCES through ITP and share when available.
7) Outlook: Stephen Yi:
a) SY: Titles have been added to names to avoid confusion with email recipients. Global list was further subdivided into Student and Staff lists. Work is still being done on additional global lists.
b) Outlook from Home: Students and staff should use Outlook, not other email programs.
c) Student use of Outlook: Students should use the web version of Outlook, even when at school.
d) Global Lists: DJ sent out directions for setting staff addresses as default.
8) WSCTV Demonstration: Jeff Pacer. System is now available to everyone. At any District workstation just type “wsctv” into the address bar of IE browser. Username and password are the same as Seneca-Net. WSCTV has 3 components. First component is portable live feed – Jeff will be able to transmit from anywhere to anywhere. Second component is live TV – 20 channels are available from the TW feed. Click on the channel and view through the Promethean board or through the classroom TV. Channel 1 also has a digital signage feature. Each building could have its own announcements, upcoming dates, and live video, playing on a flat screen placed in the building. Third component is the video asset library. Folders will contain Discovery Education video resources– which includes PBS and PowerMedia. Content will be organized by grade level and topic, lesson plans will be included. There is a search feature. District created content will also be part of this asset library. Teachers can create playlists as well as schedule programs. Computers accessing the system must be hard wired – content will not transfer wirelessly. WSCTV is currently only for staff, in-District, use.
Try the above - it is cool.
9) Other:
a. Print Shop now has a Departmental Share, which everyone has rights to. Now large files can be sent to the Print Shop electronically. In the Print Shop common share (inside “Departmental Shares” is a “Shared Docs” folder. People requesting print jobs can drop their files into that and contact Danette. It is recommended people add their name to the file so she can keep the files straight. People can drop files in…but, not delete or edit files within the folder.
b. Daryl addressed the trial use of Novanet for online high school courses. This will be used with students only reviewing for Regents Exams. Training of the first group of teachers begins on October 15th.
c. Stephen addressed planning for the next technology turnover that will impact Elementary schools. He proposes splitting up the Elementary schools and completing the elementary turnover over a 2 year period. The first group of elementary schools to be turned over would be those schools which were not Title I the first time (Allendale, West and East El). Clinton is in the 2nd year of Elementary Turnover as a non-Title I school - 2011 - 2012
d. Next capital improvement project will include installation of additional interactive boards. Goal is an additional 150 rooms to receive upgrade.
e. Web filters are now based on user names – students or staff.
10) Next Meeting: November 16, 2010
Submitted by: A. Bellittiere