5-2-13

=EASTCONN Tech Council Meeting= May 2, 2013

Tech Council Planning for 2013-14

 * 5 meetings a year
 * Thursdays are good but don't schedule on the third Thursday of the month (that's a conflict with Mansfield's internal Tech Council)
 * Possible topics for next year:
 * BYOD
 * SBAC and Other Online Assessments (for the 1st meeting of the 2013-14 school year)
 * Virtualizing Desktops/nComputing
 * Blended Learning
 * Content Management Systems and Content Delivery Systems, e.g., Odysseyware, Edgenuity, etc.

How is computer-based testing coming?

 * SBAC
 * Some EASTCONN districts are participating in the SBAC Pilot this spring
 * There is now an open portal that any district can use to see what the assessment looks like. Check it out at: []
 * A number of districts are using the NWEA MAP testing three times a year. This is aligned with the Common Core State Standards. They are affiliated with Edgenuity. Go to: http://www.nwea.org/ for more information.
 * Some districts are taking the CT Practice Assessment. They are getting some whole school data but it’s not tied to specific students.
 * Star Assessment - Mansfield has been looking into this and may be purchasing it.
 * Blue Ribbon - Mansfield is using this as a progress monitoring tool for their Title I and special needs students.

Burning Questions/Issues
Update on Killingly's 1-to-1: Chris attended the Apple Update today and learned about the Casper Suite from Jamf - it's a Mobile Device Management (MDM) system. The Casper Focus app allows the teacher to place their students single app mode. Chris will post on his personal blog when he has a chance to report on how to do 1-to-1 iPads. His blog is located at:

The group talked about advantages of using an iPad vs. a Chromebook. It appears that the lack of a keyboard on the iPad puts it at a disadvantage. Jane showed her iPad cover with the built-in bluetooth keyboard which cost about $59.

What about the newer model of the MS Surface? It also comes without an external keyboard. The group feels that MS is doing a lot of marketing but it's an untested device as yet.

Districts that are using 1-to-1 iPads:
 * Branford - Howard Gunther, Tech Coordinator, is the contact, hgunther@branfordschools.org
 * Brookfield - Sydnye Cohen, Library Media Specialist at the high school
 * Willington - Dave Harding, Superintendent

Is anyone using Google Apps? Some are looking at/thinking about moving to it but Mansfield was the only one at today's meeting is using it. Norwich is also a Google Apps district. Karen Urgitis, Norwich Tech Coordinator, is a good contact to find out about this. Her email address is kurgitis@norwichpublicschools.org and her work phone is 860-823-6284.

Jim talked about Mansfield using HAPARA which is a management tool for Google - the cost is about $4/student/year. For more info, contact Jim at griffithjg@mansfieldct.org.

Weston is using Windows Live with Skydrive. This gives them the light version of MS Office Productivity Suite which includes Web-based versions of: Microsoft is phasing this out and converting to Office 365.
 * Excel
 * PowerPoint
 * Word
 * Outlook

How is BYOD going? How is blended learning going?
 * Mansfield put in the Aruba wireless network system last summer and they haven't had any difficulties with BYOD devices. They are going to try some Chromebooks out.
 * Mike is presenting at a blended learning conference based on the research he's doing for his dissertation. Killingly is us Edmodo and are using some apps including: SAS Subtext on Edmodo which is great for doing collaborative reading assignments. Click here for a slide show of Mike's presentation-->[[file:KHS Blended Learning Pilot present to EASTCONN Tech Council.ppsx|KHS Blended Learning Pilot present to EASTCONN Tech Council.ppsx]]

PowerSchool Questions
How do I generate automatic alerts when a student is out for a certain number of days? Tom looked into something similar to that recently. It doesn't appear that PowerSchool has a lot of functionality to do that. He suggested that the easiest thing to do would be to generate a daily report that could be used to flag students who are in danger of reaching the maximum number of absences.

What are some good PowerSchool resources:
 * For Tom's You Tube channel and other resources, go to: http://about.me/thomasmason
 * For a number of great PowerSchool tutorials that Mansfield has created, go to: http://www.mansfieldct.gov/content/11150/11179/13637/default.aspx

Do you have an update on SIFs? Tom is just getting up to speed on that; he went to a Pearson update recently. Pearson is talking about training so it is not likely that it will be happening this summer. Jim Griffith reported that there is a New England PowerSchool User Group that meets in West Hartford. He has been finding it to be very helpful. They usually meet for a full day and often they organize the day into meetings with like-minded groups who are willing to share what they're doing. Go to the PowerSchool Web site at http://powerschoolsolutions.com/powerschool-user-groups/powerschool-user-groups/ for more info on their users groups. The next meeting is May 23rd from 9-3 at the Town Hall in West Hartford.

How would you compare Admin+ to PowerSchool? Killingly left Admin+ when it was a DOS-based version. There were some features that Mike liked better in Admin+. However, the product has improved a lot over the last several years.

What are districts doing for their Student Success Plans? Most are using Naviance. Tom said that EASTCONN has set up a "middle man" to upload PowerSchool data to Naviance. Contact Tom at tmason@eastconn.org or 860-455-1620 if you have questions.

Web 2.0 and Other Tech Tools
The group talked about some great Web 2.0 tools. They include:
 * Twitter - https://twitter.com/
 * Storify - Create a newsletter using Twitter feeds at https://storify.com/
 * Paper.dl - Create your online newsletter in minutes at http://paper.li/
 * Hootcourse - Do Twitter in the classroom, not out to the public
 * Mindcraft - Mansfield was using this in an after school club and the kids loved it but after the Sandy Hook tragedy they had to close the club.
 * Scratch - Scratch is being taught in Killingly's 8th grade STEM class. Mansfield is using it in an after school club. Brooklyn Middle School is using it.
 * iPad Apps
 * Verbally - Mansfield is using this with a student with cystic fibrosis and they are having amazing results.
 * App Writer - Mansfield is using this with the same student with cystic fibrosis and they are having amazing results.