Report for the School Board of District 92

National Educational Computing Conference (NECC)

June 15-19, 2002

Scott Laleman, Technology Coordinator

 

The National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) is an annual conference held in different cities each year for educators who use or want to use computers and other technology more effectively in their classrooms or schools. This was my second year at the conference, as it was held at McCormick Place in Chicago last year. This year’s conference was held at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas.

 

In the 2 days before the general conference started, I went to 2 paid sessions; one half-day and one full-day. On Saturday, June 15^th, I went to a session titled “Overhaul Your Technology Staff Development,” which was a great way to start off the conference. The group that presented was from the Dallas-Ft. Worth area and had some great ideas about how to make technology staff development more fun, more curriculum oriented and how to get more staff buy in.

 

One of the main themes throughout this session was using project based staff development and ‘just-in-time’ training. Project based staff development involves having staff use technology to create a product that they can take with them, for example, instead of telling teachers to come to an inservice on PowerPoint, advertise time for them to come make their Open House PowerPoint projects. This goes hand in hand with ‘just-in-time’ training. This is training that is given as teachers need it. Instead of swamping them with tons of technical jargon, handouts and notes, give teachers the training they need one-on-one or in small groups as it applies to them. A good example of this would be helping teachers to set up their electronic grade books at the beginning of the semester, but waiting until the end of the grading period to show them how to export grades.

 

On Sunday, June 16^th, I went to a session for Technology Coordinators which was a little disappointing because the original presenter had become ill and was unable to attend. However, the substitute presenters gave us time to talk to one another and share ideas and problems that we’re faced as tech coordinators. They also gave us some good online resources to help with the ‘techie’ side of things in schools.

 

Monday, June 17^th, I went to a half-day session on videoconferencing. It took place at the Region XX Service Center on the east side of San Antonio. We participated in a videoconference with people from all over the country, including some researchers at a man-made swamp ecosystem in California who had a remote camera ‘suit’ which they could take into the field, so students can see the swamp environment and be there as the scientist picks up bugs and plant life in the swamp.

 

The rest of the days at the conference, I attended general sessions on everything from extending your web server, to network planning, to technology leadership. I have included my notes from several of the sessions at the end of this report for you to look over. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me and I would be happy to go over them with you.

 

Extending your web server

 

www.lesliefisher.com

 

OS X--File-->print, click preview...will open Preview. In preview, you can also save as PDF.

 

In acrobat, you can File--> open web page

 

Acrobat--take a form, make it PDF, make it interactive--fillable PDF, but will not be able to save. (acrobat 5.0 handout on website--lesliefisher.com)

 

SnapzPro--screen shots, menu screen shots, window shots, movie option--will capture screen movie and voice (under $40)

 

Cleaner--will take any piece of video and will compress it. About $300 from discreet, also has cleaner EZ. www.discreet.com

 

Online forms--free or $50 yr (without ads) Response-O-Matic www.response-o-matic.com

 

Web Event--online calendaring system--uses users and groups-can attach users to calendars $25-$1500 100 calendars for $1500 www.webevent.com

 

FileMaker Pro--handout on leslie's web page

 

 

 

Planning network

•reasonable login time

•sharing of resources

 

max segment length on cables--100 m

 

Fiber--used if distances are too great

-use for backbone and power users

 

UTP (unshielded twisted pair)

www.blackbox.com/tech_docs/tech_overviews/ethernet.html

(explains standards, etc.)

 

Cat 5, Cat5e, Cat6

 

Cat5--on the way out

 

Cat5e--the latest TIA/EIA cabling standard, must be grounded

 

Cat6--choose this if you want the latest, lack of standards forces you to one vendor, prices are a little higher, must be grounded

 

Switches vs. hubs

 

Case: the burst of requests when all are loggin in a the beginning of a class.

Replace hubs with switches. This minimizes collisions--

 

Use fast ethernet whenever possible

Consider Gigabit Ethernet--from your server to your main switch and your fastest PCC's, tenfold increase over fast ethernet, solves bandwidth problems, primarily used on backbones, uses inexpensive UTP--must pass additional test, requres some equipment upgrades.

 

Long term cabling plan--cable library and labs first

 

CD server--required authentication along with login server...caused network to crawl. CD tower may serve better.

 

Power--www.apc.com/template/size/apc

 

think client--similar to netboot

 

web sites to study bandwidth--www.pcpitstop.com/internet/bandwidth_about.asp

http://download.com.com/3000-2155-7056390.html (c/net)

 

 

 

 

Slaying your District Technology Dragon

 

www.prosserschools.org (district website) link to NECC conference--handouts

 

www.smithclass.com

 

http://itech.fcps.net/trt5/test

 

teams of people at each building

 

Building tech resource trainer-->POD teachers-->Staff

 

Each pod teacher is responsible for a handfull of teachers

 

POD teachers--work with staff in pod to deveop curriculum, assist TRT with training, one on one teacher training, resource person for minor technology service, communicates repair request to TRT.

 

SWAT students--Students With an Aptitude for Technology--assist with trainings and tech repair.

 

Gaggle.net--free monitored email for students.

 

ticketing system--teacher has a problem, contact their POD teacher

 

 

 

The Teacher Leadership Project

 

provides teachers with equipment and training to integrate tech into their classroom

funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation

 

teachers turn in reflective journals

 

5-day institute--teachers are in the role of the learner

curriculum is designed to let teachers become familiar with software and hardware.

 

Follow up meetings--teachers bring in problems and successes with implementation--3 follow up (2 days each) sessions during the year--this is where they work with THEIR curriculum with the tech.

 

Technology is not always appropriate--teachers evaluate where technology would be appropriate.

 

curriculum framework--

ID desired results--local and state learning targets

Determine acceptable evidence

plan learning experiences and instruction.

 

design lessons to achieve specific targets