FYI...

November 10, 2008

Dear PTO presidents,

It is hard to believe that I am in my third year as Director of Information Technology.  I am pleased to report that we now have a comprehensive three-year technology plan in place.  (See http://www.newton.k12.ma.us/Technology/techplanning/index.html).  Although none of the technology budget initiatives planned for year one got funded due to the override failure last year, we are still implementing parts of the plan that can be done with available resources. Suffice it to say, we could not move forward with replacing old outdated hardware without PTO help and generosity.

I also understand that PTOs want to be certain that their money is spent wisely. As part of our three-year plan, we have outlined guidelines describing the number of computers and peripherals that should be available at the schools in order for students to have “hands-on experience” using technology on a regular basis. (See Appendix A of the three-year tech plan, pages 43-44)

In addition we have a business practice of maintaining equipment standards across the district.  To maintain these standards it’s important that all PTO purchases be coordinated with the Instructional Technology Specialist or Library Teacher assigned to your building along with the Coordinator of Instructional Technology, Steve Silverman.  This coordination will ensure that purchases are aligned with district and state recommendations.

You may be wondering why we adopted this standard policy.  The school system owns and maintains 4,500 computers.  Our department provides the training for both instructional and administrative staff in the use of these computers as well as the integration with the curriculum.  In choosing computer models to purchase, we use the "total cost of ownership" approach.  There's more to the cost of a computer and related equipment than the purchase price! It must be integrated into our existing network, server, and software infrastructure and be maintained and supported through its useful life.  Given our limited staffing levels and the budget realities, we need to choose equipment models and configurations that offer proven reliability and consistent internal components.  This greatly improves our support efficiency by maintaining a common hardware and software platform that applies to instructional or administrative computers throughout the district.

In summary, even though the price tag or configuration of a computer may be modestly higher than some “special of the month,” our instructional technology standards are part of a much larger strategy that has been developed with careful planning and research in order to offer the highest value over the life of the computer.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.  And again our heartfelt thanks for all the support you give us to replace and maintain our IT equipment.

Sincerely,

Shelley B. Chamberlain

As a quick summary of my 3 days spent at CoSN's 13th Annual K-12 School Networking Conference
Visionary Leadership: Scaffolding 21st Century Learning with Technology
(Sunday, March 9 - Tuesday, March 11, 2008).

I noticed the following trends:

• Assessment—data warehousing and bringing the data to the teacher desktop (unlocking the data) as well as online assessment
• Making the case that 21st century skills are crucial and can be supported using technology
• Laptop 1-1 initiative as part of an Intelligent Classroom (projector with whiteboards)
• Ultraportables—two years out???

One of five trends written in the CoSN newletter. This can only help the 1-1 learning initiative.

Consortium for School Networking (CoSN)
1025 Vermont Avenue NW, Suite 1010, Washington, DC 20005
ph 202.861.2676 fx 202.393.2011 email info@cosn.org web www.cosn.org

Evolution of the PC Perhaps spurred by the increasing focus on the environment, there are several predictions on 2008 being the year of the evolving PC. PCs are expected to get smaller, more affordable, and use less energy, although not necessarily all in the same product. Begun by Apple in January with announcement of the Macbook Air -- "the world's thinnest notebook" -- 2008 may be the year the ultraportable becomes popular. Going hand-in-hand with this development is a similar increase expected in the use of flash drives, with one source predicting that each of the major PC vendors will release at least one flash drive-equipped laptop this year. The push to make cheaper PCs, which began with the One Laptop Per Child initiative and the introduction of the Asus Eee PC, may also move into the mainstream, with predictions that Apple and Dell will develop similar, low-cost PCs in 2008.

Have you heard about Moofolio? It is a module (developed in NH) that goes with Moodle? to host electronic portfolios created by students. This is a very interesting concept that I think would be an excellent form of assessment.

Check out these sites:

http://www.k12opensource.org/spdc/moofolio/moofolio.html

http://orchard.spdc.org/moofolio/

I have found two interesting resources. Please share examples of powerful ways you have seen the Read/Write Web used to support teaching and learning.

1. Will Richardson's blog (Will is an educator turned consultant who writes books about how the Web 2.0? is changing the face of American education. His blog? is very popular with educators who want to move towards becoming a "digital native")

2. Three part series of Back to School with class of Web 2.0 (espec. part 3)

Marc Richmond saw a presentation at a tech conference by the Great Bay Learning Charter High in Exeter, NH.  They use the open source? course management with a module called Moofolio (no, I did not make up the name) as a way to store portfolios of student work.  Marc was not sure but he thinks parents can access the work.  Thought it might be worth someone exploring this.   Perhaps someone from PBL will take this on.  The URL is:

http://www.gbecs.org/

I am fortunate to be attending the CoSN  (Consortium for School Networking) conference in early March. I am sharing the schedule in case there is a sesson one of the TAC? members wants me to try and get more info about.  The schedule is at:   http://www.k12schoolnetworking.org/2008/program/index.cfm

I am really looking forward to hearing what others are doing across the country while attending some of these informaton-rich sessions.  (Look at Monday at 3 pm, for example...wish it could be in 5 places at once:  M301-305!)

Quick reminder that the four working teams of the TAC? will meet at the EdCenter (100 Walnut St.) in room 318 from 4:30 to 6:00 pm on Tuesday, January 29, 2008. Attached please find agenda.