March+2010

C-Forum
March 26, 2010 Host: Nebo School District Location: Nebo District Office Boardroom - 350 South Main, Spanish Fork Starting Time: 9:00 AM


 * **Welcome** - Cory Little


 * **Districts shared** what they are doing currently and how things are changing next year.
 * __Nebo School District__ - Cory Little, Pam Turley and Jared Orton
 * Their jobs are secure for next year. Currently Nebo's Elementary area has instructional literacy coaches - and the ultimate goal is to have those folks take care of training. Currently the high schools have educators who are paid a stipend to take care of technical issues. Nebo SD has 28,000 students - 5 High schools 6 Junior High schools and 26 Elementary schools
 * __Granite School District__ - Celia Powell
 * There are six tech leaders and they have School Technology Specialists (STSs) in the schools (Elem responsible for 2 schools and secondary responsible for one school) Granite also has Library Media Technology Specialists who are the STS and the Library Media Specialists. (The Library Media Specialists are paid to work 10 hours a days and additional hours during the summer.) The "Leaders" do a lot of training for the STSs and the Library Media Specialists. (Celia strongly believes those high schools with LMINTS need a classified assistant to help them.)
 * __UEN__ - Jared Covili
 * Seeing more participants with lower skills. Reaching a different audience now. There is an increase in Charter School participants. Requests for courses on Interactive Whiteboards.
 * __SEDC__ - Clint Stephens
 * There are 6 districts and 90 schools in the SEDC region. Clint says this year has been crazy. Very busy but haven't had time to do "his job". The Service Centers were on the chopping block so Clint did a lot research to prove NetSafe Utah grant, EMED grant and a principal grant.
 * __SESC__ - Derald Kurtz
 * There are 4 districts in SESC. Derald said things are similar to SEDC. Both Derald and Theresa Wilson spend a lot of time traveling between the districts in their region. They spend a lot of time with data mentoring as well. None of the districts have School Technology Specialists (STSs) - so when they enter the schools they have to deal with a lot of tech issues.
 * __CUES__ - Cal Hales
 * Their region used to have a data specialist and a literacy specialist but they left and won't be replaced. There are 7 districts in CUES and each district has a different situation in regards to tech support. In regards to teachers - it's similar to what UEN said, he is working with more educators that need basic teach skills. Districts have cut educator training days. One certified librarian in the whole region.
 * __NUES__ - Robert Gordan
 * Robert was at C-Forum, but he was overlooked. Sorry Robert.
 * __Jordan School District__ - Margo Shirley and Nancy Lagerberg
 * Margo first wanted to thank Granite SD for sharing their eMints and iPod projects information. It has helped a lot. Jordan SD probably won't lose teachers in the schools (as was threatened) - but personnel in the district office will be cut. They are still in a huge flux.
 * __Duchesne School District__ - Lynn Sorensen
 * The district has about 4,500 students and 14 schools. Lynn mainly does data stuff, but has had to pick up some tech support issues because they lost a person. They have tech specialists in each of the schools, but they are all full-time teachers, so their time spent is minimal. They also have a half-time traininer who spends her time mainly with eMints and EMED grant participants. They rely a lot on Robert Gordon, at NUES for their training. They are getting a new superintendent, so things may change next year.
 * __USOE__ - Kathy Webb
 * Electronic High School: One of Kathy's goals for EHS is to get on the mobile platform b/c that is what students are using. She is also working on getting the curriculum cleaned up. For the first time all of the 75 EHS educators gathered for two days of professional development. Kathy hopes to release all of the EHS curriculum under the Creative Commons. (Ultimately Kathy would like to see all of the districts redirect their huge textbook funds to professional development and curriculum development.)
 * Utah Instructional Media Consortium (UIMC): No big changes. Districts continue to pay the 77 cents per students - which is used to purchase instructional videos which are available in eMedia. Since Kelly at Salt Lake SD is leaving, USOE will take over the digitization of the UIMC videos.
 * Ed Tech: The elimination of the Title 2D funds (Enhancing Education Through Technology) will have a large impact on technology in the districts.
 * __Salt Lake School District__ - Pat Lambrose
 * They are finishing up training for some eMINTS and ETTC (modified eMINITS) groups. Salt Lake SD spent money on Netbooks - but didn't allocate any for training so many are using them for drill-and-kill. Salt Lake SD is one of the few districts that have Library Technology Teachers - one in each elementary and two in the high schools. Both Pat and Jeanene Prince are retiring - and at this point, Pat is not sure if they will be replaced.
 * __Canyons School District__ - Colleen Bliss, Susan Huff, Diane Miller, Camille Cole, PJ Giles
 * Currently there are 77 people in the Tech Department (that includes IT, trainers, media, phone etc...) The trainers often go into the classroom and model a lesson using technology and then supports the educator as they develop an deliver a lesson using technology. Susan and Diane responsible for training elementary library educators. Canyons SD only have part time library assistants in the elementary schools.
 * __Provo School District__ - Kim Broadbent
 * Provo SD eliminated elementary librarians and the educator stipends for school technology specialists. However, they have 6 hour a day tech assistants who are non-certified. Previously the district had 8 professional development days, but next year they will have only 1. Currently the tech director is also over Special Ed and Title One - which has actually resulted in more technology in the schools.
 * __USOE__ - Alan Griffin
 * Alan is currently responsible for several different things at USOE - including Instructional Materials and the textbook review process. He is discovering that there are a lot more digital resources now and there is no process currently for evaluating software. Alan is also responsible for the tech support for USOE's Curriculum group. He has created professional development videos using ScreenToaster for tasks that he gets a lot of questions about, such as using Outlook's Journal. Take a minute to watch the Dr. Dweeb Minute and you will see a new side to Alan! (UEN's Rob Bentley shared ScreenToaster at a recent Faculty Lounge. Watch the archive .... )


 * **Using a WIKI in U.S. History high school class**- Cory Little
 * Cory is teaching a U.S. History class at Payson HS in Nebo School District in a very constructivist way. Among other things - he has set up a WIKI for the class and for each student.
 * Class WIKI
 * Example Student WIKI
 * Another Example Student WIKI
 * Cory uses discussion boards as well.


 * **Audio Gadgets** - Jared Orton
 * There are several accessories available to help keep your earbuds untangled: travel cases, Smart Wraps, cord managers. A quick search on Amazon.com will show you quite a variety of options.
 * Belkin RockStar is a 5-Way Headphone Splitter (costs less than $10)
 * Chill Pill Microphone attaches to your iPod's headphone port and it works quite well


 * **USOE Update** - Rick Gaisford
 * They survived the legislative session.
 * LanSchool Offer - contact Rick
 * Need EMED Evaluators - sign up today
 * Top 10 Internet Resources Handout: [[file:TopTenInternetResources.pdf]]
 * UEN, Pioneer Online Library, Library of Congress, Thinkfinity, HippoCampus, eMINTS eThemes, California Learning Resource Network: Free Digital Textbook Initiative CK12.org FlexBooks, WIKIbooks, Larry Ferlazzo's Web site of the day, Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators


 * Photosynth - Pam and Jared
 * Photosynth takes your photos, mashes them together and recreates a 3D scene out of them that anyone can view and move around in.
 * Also check out GigaPan - Similar photo and panorama stitching service that works on both the PC and Intel Macs.
 * A great GigaPan example - Presidential Inauguration


 * **Writewith.me** roundtable - Pam Turley
 * List of resources on Diigo
 * typewith.me


 * **Thinkfinity Highlight**: Science NetLinks - Mitch Jorgensen
 * Tools (ex. Colour and Camouflage and Walking with Beasts)
 * Benchmarks
 * Lesson Plans
 * Resources Index - Reviewed web resources organized by benchmarks and grade levels.


 * **Lunch** - Can you believe it? Cory grilled hamburgers for us!!


 * **New Cool** - Cory and Pam
 * Smokescreen Game - Smokescreen is a game about life online. Quote from the web site: "We all use Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and MSN to keep up with our mates - and we've all heard the stories about parties on Facebook being mobbed, or people getting stalked on MSN. The question is, what would you do if it happened to you?"


 * The National Science Digital Library (NSDL.org) - Pam
 * An online science library with links to high quality science, technology, engineering, and math resources for K-12 teachers, faculty, librarians, students and informal learners.


 * **UCET Update** - Pam
 * The Little Theatre Spotlight Sessions - Over-The-Shoulder Sessions videos are online: @http://www.ucet.org/inUCETnew/conference/
 * UCET is arranging for a bus to go to the ISTE Conference in Denver .... only $30 round trip. Need 15 more people by April 30th. See details on UCET web site.


 * **UEN Update** - Karen and Lisa
 * Just a heads up: soon everyone registering for a UEN Professional Development courses will need a my.uen account.


 * May 18th Virtual Fieltrip for all - [[file:Bryce EFT Teacher Overviewut 2.23.10.pdf]]


 * **C-Forum Business** - Lynn
 * Future Meetings:
 * October 1, 2010 - Canyons
 * November 5, 2010 - Provo
 * December 3, 2010 - Granite
 * January 7, 2011 - UEN
 * February 4, 2011 - Jordan
 * March 25, 2011 - Nebo


 * **CForum "er" of the Year** - Rick Gaisford
 * Thanks for everything Rick. You are always there when we need you! You're the best!


 * **Organizing Committee**: Lynn Sorensen has to step down as the C-Forum leader. Cory Little agreed to take his place. Colleen Bliss from Canyons School District will join the Organizing Committee