NPS TAC

Adding to the list of cloud possibilities

matt_anderson — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 07:47:05 -0700

I hope this post finds its targets...

At the last TAC? meeting we spoke at length about online computing/cloud computing/Software as Service options, such as Stoneware, MS Live Office, GoogleDocs...

Add one more to the list to investigate. http://www.icloud.com/en/ It sounds like they're just getting their cloud somewhat off the ground (pun intended). I haven't signed up for it, but it certainly sounds interesting, if they can pull off what they propose.

Matt

NPS TAC

Windows XP graphing calculator

cbf — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:57:09 -0800

In the technology demonstrations at Oak Hill last night, one of the teachersat the Smartboard demo

indicated that she could really use a graphing calculator that they could display
on the Smartboard. Microsoft has a very nice, simple graphing calculator,
as part of the Windows XP "PowerToys" available as a free download
from here.

(Unfortunately, it doesn't install on Vista, which probably menas it won't install on Windows 7 either, although it works fine if you can get it installed. There's a simple workaround here.)

NPS TAC

Course Management Committee Update 2.24.09

Missy_Costello — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:34:46 -0800

The attached document is an update of the discussion topics of the CM committee so far this year. It also includes information on the current infrastructure and a listing of the classes that have been created at both the high school and middle school levels.

Course Management

Newton North directory

janetsville — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:19:16 -0800

We have an excellent first pass of a data download from the Ed Center. Arnold Sodder is working to organize the data so that we can contact families to verify data, gather email information, and create a better database structure going forward.

The www.NorthPTSO.org site is running in Drupal?. We are working to better organize the site. The new Newton North site seems to have a direct feed for North PTSO news.

The collaboration between the NPS? and PTSO has been developing. Teachers have identified two students who are interested in working with the PTSO for database development and Drupal models. PTSO is exploring the legal ramifications for supporting work study positions.

Erik Britt-Webb and Arnold Sodder are helping to provide guidance moving forward with the Drupal content management system?. Arnold keeps reminding me, "baby steps." This seems like sound advice.

NPS TAC

TAC meeting at Ed Center

Shelley_Chamberlain — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 11:22:05 -0800

Start: 02/24/2009 - 4:30pm

End: 02/24/2009 - 6:00pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-5

Reminder: TAC? meeting at Ed Center,100 Walnut St. room 318

NPS TAC

Dell Mini-Note Project-March 2009: Update 1

Shelley_Chamberlain — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 15:30:04 -0800

The Dell Mini-note laptop project is an extension of the TAC 1-1 learning project team during the 2007-2008 school year. Last April, the 1-1 learning project studied the effects of having one laptop per child in two out of three science 8th grade classrooms at Brown Middle School. Two vendors (Apple and HP) graciously loaned enough laptops for each child to use during science class for 7 weeks. One classroom used MacBooks and the other used HP tablets. The student outcomes of this pilot were very positive. Students benefited in the following ways:

Improved student performance
Differentiated instruction
Improved student focus
Higher level of student understanding and motivation
Enhanced student-teacher communication
Improving technology skills

(See attachment for full report to NPS? School Committee)

The third 8th grade science classroom had hoped to try out one of the ultraportables, but the TAC? project team could not find a vendor to land the laptops. However, this fall NPS got a commitment from Dell Computer to loan us 33 Dell Mini-Notes to finish our pilot from last spring. These "net ware" computers will be used to support the same astonomy unit as last spring. We plan to do another assessment of the efficacy of using these "net ware" computers. We will be working with Dell and a company called Stoneware that will help us set up a Web OS environment called cloud computing.

Stay tuned for further updates.

1-1 Learning

PTO Communications & Directories - Update for North PTSO Board

Erik — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:50:33 -0800

Today, Janet and I made a small presentation to the PTSO Board at Newton North. Our purpose was to update them specifically on what's happening with respect to the North PTSO website and directory. Our talk covered that and also the NPS? TAC? more generally. Here are the highlights.

NPS TAC 2008-2009 Projects

Learning (Lead: Shelley Chamberlain)
Learning Management (Lead: Missy Costello)
PTO Communications & Directory (Lead: Erik Britt-Webb)
Overall Communications (Lead: TBD)

PTO/PTSO Communications & Directory – Primary Goals

Improve information access and collaboration within each PTO through the use of common/shared infrastructure
Dramatically streamline and improve the sharing of calendar events and news items across the district by enabling district-wide (and multi-school) events/news to be shared in a structured way down to local school PTO websites (via content syndication) and vice-a-versa
Dramatically streamline and improve how PTO contact directory information is gathered, validated, published and maintained
- For each PTO
- Across PTOs for families with children in multiple schools
Make it easy and secure for appropriate school constituents to interact across a range of Newton school and PTO websites, using a single identity and authentication credentials (rather than having to maintain different ones for NorthPTSO.org, WardPTO.org, NPSTAC.org, etc.)

Pilot Projects

Being conducted simultaneously at www.NorthPTSO.org, www.WardPTO.org and www.NSPTAC.org.
Implemented local calendars that are slowly getting populated
On WardPTO.org, provide an archive of email blasts (coming soon to NorthPTSO)
Working feverishly on short-term online directory gathering process/tools, while long-term solution is ironed out
In the next couple of months, looking to tackle the challenge of receiving, editing and organizing content for the NorthPTSO and WardPTO email blasts

Help Needed

Graphic designer to improve look & feel of these websites
Technically-minded person who can help configure modules being used to power the functionality of these sites (using the Drupal?.org system, but little to no programming required)

PTO Communications & Directories

Technology Purchase Standards for PTOs

Shelley_Chamberlain — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:41:39 -0800

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

NPS TAC

Survey on NPS system-wide security policies

Erik — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:56:41 -0700

The following message is being distributed through NPS? PTO newsletters. If you have a chance, I recommend that you take the survey too.

To: Newton PTOs

The School Committee has appointed a subcommittee to review system-wide security policies and to make recommendations to the School Committee on how to deal broadly with security issues. That subcommittee has prepared a draft policy and had discussions about how specific security measures then might be implemented. The School Committee is scheduled to vote on the policy in November. This survey is designed to seek community input on some of the areas under discussion. We hope to get a lot of survey responses from PTO members.

Click here to take the survey.

Marc Laredo is the security sub-committee chairman.

Thanks for your help!

NPS TAC

Advertising revenue for PTO Newsletters

Erik — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 09:17:05 -0700

Following on the topic of Online Payment Options, I was in another conversation about how to handle the large volume of requests to include community service advertisements in the PTO newsletters. It would be nice if there was a non-intrusive way for community service providers to advertise their services to families through the PTO newsletters AND at the same time, for the PTOs to make a little advertising revenue.

As I was documenting some findings for Online Payment Options, I also discovered the Paypal Node module. Module is designed specifically for taking online micro payments in order to post content to a website (which could then flow into the PTO newsletters). This sounds like a perfect solution for the allowing people to advertise in the school PTO newsletters, while the PTOs make a little coin off the advertisement.

On the "business side" of this equation, I think there are three major steps to be able to effectively accept and charge for advertising on their website and/or in their newsletter.

Speaking on behalf of the Ward PTO as an example:

First, we need to revamp the way we receive and organize those articles/advertisements via our website. This will dramatically reduce the administrative burden on the newsletter editor
Second, we have to change how they get published, both in terms of (a) being available as individual articles/ads on the website and (b) being included as a list of clickable titles in our newsletters
Third, with these in place and test-driven for a couple of newsletter editions to make sure it's working smoothly, then I would recommend that we introduce the concept of charging for advertising, including charges for one week or multiple-week ads.

It true that if we use Paypal, we pay $.30 per transaction plus 2.2% of the total, which could take a big bite out of a $1.5 charge for an ad (for instance). I'm sure there are other options we could pursue. My main goal, though, would be to ensure that whatever we "turn on" is easily scalable, in case (and hopefully when) we get a flood of worthy community service announcements and advertising revenue. :-)

NPS TAC

NPS TAC Meeting 11/25/08

Shelley_Chamberlain — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:09:44 -0700

Start: 11/25/2008 - 4:30pm

End: 11/25/2008 - 6:00pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-5

Technology Advisory Committee Project Teams: 2008-2009

On October 28, 2008 Newton’s Technology
Advisory Committee will be starting its third year of leveraging
community expertise to advise the Department of Information Technology
on the implementation of Newton’s Three-Year Technology Plan (http://www.newton.k12.ma.us/Technology/techplanning/index.html).

In order to expand upon the work of these
past two years, TAC? members will continue to serve on project teams. I
hope you are still willing to volunteer to be part of our effort.

The identified teams for FY’09 are:

1-1 Learning

Chair: Shelley Chamberlain
Jason Agress
Andy Liu
Steve Silverman
Bob Zuckernik

Contact Management

Chair: Erik Britt-Webb
Geoff Epstein
Charles Frankston
Janet Porcaro
Bob Rainville

Learning Management (Moodle?)

Chair: Missy Costello
Matt Anderson
Brian Hammel
Libba Ingram
Mark Lewis
Marc Richmond

If you would prefer to work on another
project team, please let me know. Also, I am open to forming other
teams if there is interest. For example, we are recruiting volunteers
to work on a Communications Project Team to improve and expand our
communication about the technology initiatives in the school.

I am asking the Instructional Technology
Specialists in each school to help with recruiting, but if you know any
parent or Newton resident interested in serving on one of these project
teams, please let me know.

Thanks, Shelley

Meeting dates for 2008-09:

Tuesdays, Ed Center room 318 and 316

4:30-6:00 pm

October 28, 2008
November 25, 2008
January 27, 2009
February 24, 2009
March 24, 2009
April 28, 2009
May 26, 2009
June 16, 2009

NPS TAC

NPS TAC Meeting 10/28/08

Shelley_Chamberlain — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:00:50 -0700

Start: 10/28/2008 - 4:30pm

End: 10/28/2008 - 6:00pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-5

Technology Advisory Committee Project Teams: 2008-2009

On October 28, 2008 Newton’s Technology Advisory Committee will be starting its third year of leveraging community expertise to advise the Department of Information Technology on the implementation of Newton’s Three-Year Technology Plan (http://www.newton.k12.ma.us/Technology/techplanning/index.html).

In order to expand upon the work of these past two years, TAC? members will continue to serve on project teams. I hope you are still willing to volunteer to be part of our effort.

The identified teams for FY’09 are:

1-1 Learning

Chair: Shelley Chamberlain
Jason Agress
Andy Liu
Steve Silverman
Bob Zuckernik

Contact Management

Chair: Erik Britt-Webb
Geoff Epstein
Charles Frankston
Janet Porcaro
Bob Rainville

Learning Management (Moodle?)

Chair: Missy Costello
Matt Anderson
Brian Hammel
Libba Ingram
Mark Lewis
Marc Richmond

If you would prefer to work on another project team, please let me know. Also, I am open to forming other teams if there is interest. For example, we are recruiting volunteers to work on a Communications Project Team to improve and expand our communication about the technology initiatives in the school.

I am asking the Instructional Technology Specialists in each school to help with recruiting, but if you know any parent or Newton resident interested in serving on one of these project teams, please let me know.

Thanks, Shelley

Meeting dates for 2008-09:

Tuesdays, Ed Center room 318 and 316

4:30-6:00 pm

October 28, 2008
November 25, 2008
January 27, 2009
February 24, 2009
March 24, 2009
April 28, 2009
May 26, 2009
June 16, 2009

NPS TAC

Online Payment Options

Erik — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 06:38:17 -0700

Recently, I've been talking with some fellow PTO technologists about "best practices" in enabling PTOs to accept online payments. Several PTOs have Paypal buttons on their sites that take the visitor to a Paypal page where s/he can make a donation.I'd like to see some better options.

Assuming a PTO website is based on the Drupal? system (as North and Ward now are) here are a few Drupal-based modules that could be useful in the future.

The Ubercart related modules is probably much more than we need at this point. It supports the whole product catalog, in addition to payments. Might be good if we’re selling school apparel and accessories, but too much right now.

The e-Commerce related modules may be better fit. Less focus on managing a product catalog.

The fee and donation modules operate on the Simple Paypal Framework module. This could be the simplest way to collect online payments that is at least a little bit integrated into our site.

NPS TAC

PTO Communication via Email Lists

Erik — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 09:39:00 -0700

Nearly every PTO communicates with their respective families via some kind of email lists. Several use Constant Contact, while others use Google Groups or other software/services.

Communication Goal: One of our goals as an NPS? TAC? is to provide a good set of tools that all PTOs can use, if they choose, to communicate with their families and teachers. The advantage to having multiple PTOs use the same tools/platform include: avoiding duplicate service fees and making it easy for parents to see the wide variety of school-related newsletters to which they could subscribe. This way, a family with kids at Ward, Bigelow and North could not only subscribe to their respective newsletters from one page, but also subscribe to the School Committee newsletter and others.

Long-Term Solution: We believe we can implement the CiviCRM set of modules on the Drupal? platform to provide a district-wide set of functionality, including maintain family information for PTO directories, making it easy for families to sign-up for mailing lists throughout the district and enabling list administrators to keep those lists secure and to communicate effective with their list members.

Short-Term Step: We have created a Constant Contact account that currently maintains email lists for the following organizations:

Ward Elementary School PTO (www.wardpto.org)
NPS Tech Advisory School (www.npstac.org)

Sign-up for these lists here.

If you think other organizations might be interested in consolidating their lists into this account, please contact Erik Britt-Webb at communication@npstac.org.

PTO Communications & Directories

Image Galleries for PTO sites

Erik — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 09:03:20 -0700

I’ve been working with the newsletter people at Ward PTO and North PTSO to setup PicasaWeb accounts for collecting images to use in their respective newsletters. I’ve been finding it difficult to USE the images one they’re in the albums. It’s just not as friendly as I had hoped.

So, I’ve been thinking about changing course and suggesting that they turn on the Image Gallery features native to their respective PTO websites. As an example, I have created a couple of image galleries on this site.

The pros of using the embedded image galleries is that it’s much easier to embed the images into other posts and you don’t have to hassle with another site/login account.

The cons are that you have to use the web form to upload each image (a little more cumbersome) and we lose the other bells and whistles on the PicasaWeb site.

What do others think?

NPS TAC

Announcing a New Book: Drupal in Education and E-Learning

Erik — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:05:53 -0700

I've interacted with the author of this book for the past year. I'm really excited to read the book when it comes out.You can see the post in the Education group on groups.drupal?.org at http://groups.drupal.org/node/14914.

Bill Fitzgerald, of FunnyMonkey, has written Drupal for Education and E-learning, due out from Packt Publishing in late October. Targeted for Drupal 6, this book covers how to set up community sites to support interactive teaching and learning. This book gives an overview of the functionality of Drupal core, and then gives precise instructions on using CCK, Views 2, Organic Groups, and a range of other contributed modules to extend the functionality of your site.

This book is written with the needs of educational users in mind, but the information in this book can be useful for site administrators, or for people looking to build a community/social networking site in Drupal. The instructions in this book are geared toward end users and site administrators, and do not require any knowledge of PHP. This book fits cleanly between the development and theming guides that have been published recently, and provides a resource for people looking to hone their site administration skills.

For people new to Drupal, the book includes details on:

Drupal terminology;
User creation;
Role based access control;
Installing modules and themes;
Backing up and upgrading your site;

For more experienced Drupallers, the book covers:

Using CCK to extend content types -- instructions cover sharing media, images, links, text, and files;
An overview of Views 2, including adding new views, using the new access control mechanisms of Views 2, configuring multiple displays from a single view, and cloning and modifying existing views;
An overview of Organic Groups, including instructions on how to use groups to support informal and formal learning;
Extending user profiles to support connections between users.

The book also covers theming basics, and how to use the menu and block system to create sites that are easy and intuitive to navigate.

This book could not have been written without the support and help of fellow primates Marc Poris and Jeff Graham -- their feedback on the in-progress text helped immeasurably. Also, Peter Wolanin and Michael Peacock, two of the technical editors, have provided great feedback that has helped drive the final revision process.

About the author

Bill Fitzgerald worked in education for 16 years before starting FunnyMonkey with Marc Poris in 2004. Bill has been active in the Drupal community since early 2005. As part of FunnyMonkey, Bill has helped develop sites for a variety of different learning organizations ranging from Elementary schools to K12 schools to University-level programs to Adult and Continuing Education programs. Bill also started the Drupal in Education group on groups.drupal.org.

NPS TAC

An anthropological introduction to YouTube

Erik — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:21:13 -0700

I just discovered this fascinating 4:30 video, Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us by Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. Similar to the Shift Happens video that many of us have watched as part of NPS Strategic Planning, this one is important because of the enormous cultural/social (anthropological?) trends that it points out and the implications for how we learn and relate to one another - both in and out of the classroom.

If you have time and want more context on how the research for this video was conducted and how the video itself was made, I also recommend that you watch this 55 minute video of Professor Mesch's presentation to the Library of Congress, entitled An anthropological introduction to YouTube. This is amazing stuff!

In particular, there is a very striking set of insights starting around 45:15.

We're living in a den of thieves, where things we do are often illegal in some way

We can't kill the instinct that technology creates in kids.
We can only criminalize it.

We can't stop our kids' from pursuing those instincts
We can only drive them underground

We can't make our kids passive consumers again
We can only make them pirates

Is that good?

Kids are groing up knowing that they live life against (some of) the law(s).
This is Corrosive.
It's Corrupting.

In a democracy, we ought to do better

NPS TAC

Exploration Ubuntu

DPic — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:24:31 -0700

Start: 08/02/2008 - 10:00am

Timezone: Etc/GMT-5

"You'd be surprised at the number of folks who see Linux as the
operating system of choice now."
~ -Mel King, Director, South End Technical Center

Boston, Mass., July 17, 2008—The Ubuntu Massachusetts Local Community Team is a group of volunteers and activists organized around the open-source Ubuntu operating system, often called “Linux for human beings.” The team advocates digital rights and freedom, and promotes Ubuntu use to achieve this.

They have been working with the South End Technical Center since January 2008, installing Ubuntu on center and user machines and providing weekly training sessions for experienced and novice users alike. On August 2nd the group will be hosting their fourth free Exploration Ubuntu event to demonstrate what this easy-to-use Linux system has to offer.

What is Ubuntu?
For some Celtics fans, Ubuntu may just be a rallying cheer, but those in the know recognize it as a word from several African languages that roughly translates to "I am what I am because of who we all are." Ubuntu is about community. The Ubuntu operating system is a community-developed version of the Linux operating system; it exists because of, and is supported by, a global community.

Exploration Ubuntu provides the “u” in the community with the opportunity to see what this free operating system, and the local group supporting it, has to offer. Come see it in action and talk with people to find out if it's right for you. Curious but not ready to take the plunge? The Ubuntu Massachusetts Local Community Team offers free Live CDs that will let you try the system at home without installing it and without removing your current operating system. Ready to switch? Bring your desktop or laptop machine in and they'll get you up and running.

Ubuntu is great for older machines too. There are several versions available to suit most computers and users’ needs. Plus, it comes with a variety for free tools like Open Office (compatible with MS Office) and the Firefox web browser already installed.

Project-based Learning

Moodle eLearning Course Development

Erik — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:38:36 -0700

For those interested in learning much more about Moodle?, here are a few useful links I've recently come across.

Moodlers - A group on diigo.com for people who use moodle or are interested in using moodle. And here are a few bookmarks within this group

Moodle eLearning Course Development - A 252 page iPrint book on installing, configuring and getting the most out of Moodle
Moodle Style Guide
Moodle Course Resources - some good moodle handouts for 1.8

Moodlers - A group on the Ning Network

NPS TAC

NPS Strategic Planning Teams

Erik — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:34:05 -0700

I've recently been discussing the structure of the Newton Public Schools Strategic Planning Teams with others. The focus has been to understand how the teams are structured and what kinds of collaboration activities are needed? This way, the virtual/online collaboration environment can augment the face-to-face collaboration by providing a place to capture, organize and share the content and activities.

The graphic above depicts my rough sketch of how the strategic planning teams are organized. The Core Team has been in place since the fall of 2007. The Extended Team was created in the spring of 2008, when 80-90 people were called together to form three subteams:

Learning in the Global Age: How does NPS? prepare students for
success in a global environment? (e.g. What are the core competencies,
what will the curriculum look like, how will we individualize learning
and differentiate instruction?)
NPS as a Permeable Campus: How can NPS challenge itself
to think outside its current structures/realities/boundaries? (e.g.
What sorts of partnerships, real-life opportunities,
schedules/approaches will ensure future success?)
Workforce of Tomorrow: How will NPS establish itself as a leader in the education profession? (e.g. What innovative structures and practices will enable us to attract, retain and develop an exemplary and diverse workforce?)

The next question is, how do these team need to collaborate? Below is my initial thinking on the collaboration activities and functionality that these teams need at their fingertips

Discussion - conduct topic/reply discussion threads, that they can easily refer back to when needed
Individual/Shared calendar - Be able to maintain individual calendar for each subteam, but also be able to view an aggregate calendar of all related activities
Share documents and links - post, organize and share documents, articles and links to resources elsewhere on the Internet
Develop content - use wiki?-style functionality to jointly develop content "pages" and interlink those pages for ease of navigation
News/Announcements - Be able to share new & announcements with the internal teams, as well as with the public
Blog? - while this is a new concept to many involved in this strategic planning effort, it would be great if we could introduce and facilitate the act of blogging, which is where individuals share their perspective on subjects in a way that often lasts beyond a short-term, threaded conversation (just like I'm doing here and now)

The functionality I've described above is no different from what I have been trying to facilitate for the NPS Technology Advisory Committee (NPSTAC) since I created this site. Ever since last fall, I've been hoping and encouraging the SPT (Strategic Planning Team) and the NPSTAC to collaborate in their strategic planning efforts - by sharing best practices and potentially even sharing collaboration tools/spaces.

I still hope this is possible. Hopefully this perspective will be useful to others interested in capitalizing on the potential synergies.

NPS TAC

Does Anyone know about NECC & ISTE?

Erik — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:51:15 -0700

Recently learned about the NECC and the IST. Copied "about" blurbs below, taken from the NECC 2008 About Us page.

The next NECC event is this June 29 - July 2 in San Antonio, TX.

Here are some interesting sessions I found in this search:

About Us about NECC & ISTE

National Educational Computing Conference

For almost three decades, NECC has been the premier forum in which
to learn, exchange, and survey the field of educational technology.
This annual conference—presented by ISTE and keyed to the National
Educational Technology Standards (NETS)—features hands-on workshops,
lecture-format and interactive concurrent sessions, discussions with
key industry leaders, and the largest educational technology exhibit in
the nation.

About ISTE

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)
is the premier membership association for educators and education
leaders engaged in improving teaching and learning by advancing the
effective use of technology in PK-12 and teacher education. ISTE is the
trusted source in education technology for professional development,
knowledge generation, advocacy, and leadership for innovation. ISTE is
home to NECC, the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS), and
the Center for Applied Research in Educational Technology (CARET).

Visit www.iste.org to
learn more about ISTE and its new initiatives—including the next
generation of NETS for Students, Teachers, and Administrators.

ISTE® is the registered trademark of International Society for Technology in Education.

Course Management

New NNHS Library Website created with Joomla

kmcgrath — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:16:49 -0700

Start: 05/14/2008 - 4:08pm

End: 05/21/2008 - 4:08pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-5

Just wanted to share our new interactive library website (http://www.nnhs.net/library/). The new website is the result of months of work and was built with Joomla?, an open source? content-management system similar to Drupal?. We used an education template from www.joomlashack.com that includes nifty text-resizing buttons.

We were partly motivated by literacy studies that show teenagers, and particularly challenged readers, respond better to white space and 'non-cluttered' websites. The new site includes several univeral design features, blogs, polls, and many other Web 2.0? elements. Some highlights:

• Students (or anyone) can easily resize the text. This will be helpful for the visually challenged.
• Students and staff can register on the website. Registering allows access to private content, including passwords to our databases.
• Polls and a rating system for each webpage.
• Save, print or e-mail each page.

We tried for a while to covert our old site with Drupal, but in the end we felt that Joomla offered more design flexibility, as we wanted to maintain some of the look and feel of the old site. We've only tapped the surface of Joomla's potential and we're looking forward to adding new interactive features as they are needed to the library program.

Kevin McGrath
NNHS Library
617-559-6290

NPS TAC

Org Structures behind Chancery SMS

Erik — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:38:44 -0700

In the process of writing a blog post in the Drupal in Education group, I did a little research to answer my own curiosity about what organizations structures are behind Chancery SMS. Here's what I found out. Please let me know if there are any errors.

Chancery SMS is the flagship product by Pearson School Systems, which also makes PowerSchool® Premier, PowerTeacher™, Pearson Inform™ and other products.

Pearson School Systems is the result of rolling up a number of companies into this division of Pearson Education, which is a subsidiary of Pearson (NYSE: PSO). Pearson is an "international media company", whose primary operations include, Pearson Education, the Financial Times Group and the Penguin Group.

That's more than anyone wanted to hear, but hopefully it's useful to
someone. (Writing it down actually answered a couple of my own
questions about the org. structures.)

School Portal

Global Education Collaborative, Moodle and Drupal groups on Diigo

Erik — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:42:56 -0700

In the process of exploring a the Diigo site that I just found, which provides link sharing and group discussions around specific subject areas, I found three groups of particular interest:

Global Education Collaborative - A group to support the work going on in the Global Education Collaborative (a Ning Network)
Moodlers - A group for people who use moodle? or are interested in using moodle
Drupal in education - Links / discussions about the interplay between drupal? and education. General technology links useful for education are also welcome as long as they are tagged correctly.

These communities could prove useful for both NPS? Strategic Planning and Technology Planning.

NPS TAC

School Portal Capabilities

Erik — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:28:43 -0700

In a previous post (NPS Portal Possibilities), I talked about the different kinds of portals that exist or may soon exist in the Newton Public Schools. And I gave a brief definition of what a portal is.

Now, I want to breakdown and further describe how we might segment the functionality of a school portal into a few, well-defined buckets. I've been thinking about it for Newton Public Schools, I put together the following three graphics to define four major components, in terms of their purpose, functionality and technology behind the scenes.

Figure 1: Four Major Functional Areas

As you see, Figure 1 depicts the four major functional areas: Learning Management, Content Management, Contact Management and Student Management.

Learning Management is just a specialized case of Content Management, focused on content and collaboration around the learning curriculum.

Contact Management is particularly compelling to me, because (a) it's such a labor-intensive and error-prone activity, (b) it could dramatically improve the family experience of managing their contact info and preferences, especially when they have students spread across multiple schools, and (c) it could greatly improve the sharing of information and events--not only within a school but across the district.

Student Management is the hardest nut to crack, both in terms of technical integration with our chosen School Management System (Chancery SMS), as well as protecting the highly sensitive student records.

In terms of priorities, the School Portal pilot has concluded that Learning Management is our highest priority right now. Fortunately, there's already been a pilot going at Bigelow, so we already have some momentum that we plan to extend with new pilots at several other schools next fall.

It seems that Content and Contact Management capabilities might be best piloted through some of our PTO organizations and their websites, where the benefits could be greatest in the near-term and the risks are lower, due to being outside the regulations of an official school entity.

Student Management is our lowest priority.

Figure 2: Examples of Primary Functionality

Figure 2 provides some examples of functionality that each major component enables.

Figure 3: Technologies Being Explored or Piloted

Figure 3 identifies some of the key technologies being explored or piloted for each of the functional areas.

These graphics, along with some other slides, are also available in the attached Powerpoint file NPS_Portal_Story_04-29-08.ppt.

School Portal

NPS Strategic Planning - Working Groups kicked off today

Erik — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:33:49 -0700

This evening I attended the first half of the kick-off meeting for the NPS? Strategic Planning Working Groups. It took place from 4-8 pm at the Oak Hill Library. At least 80 people attended--impressive turn out!

The purpose was to get members of the three working groups acquainted, grounded in some of a common vision, and to begin developing long-term goals, objectives and actions for each group.

Though I missed first few minutes, I think the meeting kicked off with introductory comments from Superintendent Jeff Young and others. Next we watched an insightful video of a presentation by Yong Zhao who directs the US-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence.

Next, we listened and interacted with a panel of six North and South HS students who shared their perspectives on the quality of education in Newton Schools, as well as their hopes and concerns for the future of NPS education.

At this point, we were half way through the evening, so we broke for social buffet dinner.

At this point, I had to bug out. But I believe those who stayed spent the last 60-90 minutes in each of the three working groups, getting down to business.

In case you're not up to speed on what the working groups are, here is a brief description of them below. You should also visit the NPS Strategic Planning website.

The three working group topics are:

1. Learning in the Global Age: How does NPS prepare students for success in a global environment? (e.g. What are the core competencies, what will the curriculum look like, how will we individualize learning and differentiate instruction?)

2. Workforce of Tomorrow: How will NPS establish itself as a leader in the education profession? (e.g. What innovative structures and practices will enable us to attract, retain and develop an exemplary and diverse workforce?)

3. NPS as a Permeable Campus: How can NPS challenge itself to think outside its current structures/realities/boundaries? (e.g. What sorts of partnerships, real-life opportunities, schedules/approaches will ensure future success?)

NPS TAC

1-1 Learning in action at Brown MS

Shelley_Chamberlain — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:57:00 -0700

Start: 05/06/2008 - 8:00am

End: 05/06/2008 - 2:30pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-5

You’re invited to witness 1-1 learning in action!

When: Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Where: Brown Middle School, Science Classroom 203
Teacher: Susan Lesser-Seltzer

The Technology Advisory Committee and Department of Information Technology would like to extend an invitation for you to visit Mrs. Lesser-Seltzer's 8th grade classroom on May 6, 2008 to see "first-hand" the impact of just-in-time learning using individual laptops. Through a generous six-week Apple Computer loan of student laptops, each student will have ready access to a wireless portable computer during science class.

Students will be using the new Pearson-Prentice Hall Science textbook with its online resources as well as a variety of websites and multimedia tools to demonstrate their understanding of astronomy.

Please email Susan Luchette at susan_luchette@newton.k12.ma.us with your preference of block time (b, c, e, or f).

b block- 8:30-9:30
c block- 9:25-10:15
e block - 12:46-1:36
f block - 1:40-2:30

Please do not hesitate to call or email Shelley Chamberlain with any questions.

NPS TAC

Asus EEE - Ultraportable computer

Erik — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:51:33 -0700

In yesterday's TAC? meeting, we were talking about the surprising success of the Asus EEE, which has really stimulated the market for Ultraportable computers.

Just saw the following promotion for it at TigerDirect.com. To see it, click here.

Asus Eee PC 2G Surf - Intel Mobile CPU, 802.11b/g Wireless, 512MB DDR2, 2GB SSD, 7" WVGA, Linux (Sky Blue)

The new Asus Eee PC 2G Surf brings portable computing to the next
level. At 7-inches and weighing only 2 pounds, you can take the Eee PC
anywhere. This amazing little notebook features rich network and
wireless connectivity, a graphic user interface for simplicity and ease
of use, and more than 40 built-in applications. With the Asus Eee PC,
bumps and shocks are no longer issues, because it features a dependable
solid-state 2GB storage drive that gives you unparalleled
shock-protection and reliability. Power-efficient design provides
longer operating time when you’re on the go. Perfect for the student,
the Asus Eee PC 2G Surf offers an excellent Internet experience and
makes it easy to learn, work, and play. Shop the World Wide Web without
attaching any lines or wires. Learn through the latest technology
without a technical manual. Connect with friends and family with just a
few clicks. You’re always connected with built-in WiFi 802.11 b/g that
automatically detects and connects to the Internet at any hotspot. The
Eee PC includes the documents and the e-mails software, and a suite of
other productivity software to help keep you on track. Upload photos
and videos and share them instantly on Flickr or YouTube without
waiting till you get home. Enjoy music and videos with extensive
support for a wide range of digital multimedia. Log on to Skype or
other networks, and you can connect with friends anywhere, anytime.
Best of all, the ultra-portable Asus Eee PC 2G Surf is incredibly
inexpensive – so you’d better place your order quickly before the word
gets out that this is the best deal anywhere for a super-light,
versatile notebook that makes even schoolwork tons of fun!

1-1 Learning

Shift Happens

Erik — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:48:08 -0700

Just came across this video, entitled Shift Happens. See it also on YouTube.

It paints a rather shocking picture of how dramatically the competitive global workplace and need for not-yet-even-defined education will change in the next 5-10 years. Makes it impossible to deny the need for equally dramatic changes in the way education is delivered.

Here are some statistics from the video

China has more honors kids than the US has kids.
More Chinese kids took AP English than American students.

According to former US Secretary of Education,

top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004
We are preparing students for jobs that do not yet exist...
using technologies that haven't even been invented...
in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet.

The U.S. ranks 20th in the world in broadband internet penetration...Luxembourg just passed us

In 2002 Nintendo invested more than $140 million in R&D... The US Federal Government spent less than half as much on R&D in Education.

Last year, a retired teacher from India became a real-life millionaire by trading virtual real-estate in Second Life.

We are living in exponential times

There are over 2.9 billion searches on Google every month
To whom were these questions addressed before Google?
Today there are about 540,000 words in the English language... 5x more than during Shakespeare's time
More than 3000 new books are published every day
It's estimated that a week's worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to encounter in a lifetime in the 18th century
It's estimated that 40 exabytes of unique new information will be generated worldwide this year... more than during the previous 5,000 years!
The amount of new technical info is doubling every two years -- For students starting a 4-year technical or college degree, this means that half of what they learning in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year.

1-1 Learning

Free Software Speeches and Documentaries

DPic — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:35:08 -0700

There aren't super-recent but they are seriously worth viewing.

Speeches:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1647626314188526128 - The Free Software Movement
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6390784544771380326 - The Danges of Software Patents

Documentaries:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3498228245415745977 - The Code Linux
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7707585592627775409 - Revolution OS

School Portal

Free Software for Schools: Success Stories

DPic — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:23:18 -0700

Please look into these stories:

http://www.sd73.bc.ca/district-operations.php/page/linux-in-education/

http://www.linux.com/articles/62285

http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid39_...

http://www.itinfusion.ca/linux/school-district-ditches-windows-for-linux...

Also look at entire public school systems, governments, and big businesses switching to Linux:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_adoption#Government

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_adoption#School_and_education

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_adoption#Business

And these stores keep showing up-- i'd like to see Newton in one soon!

1-1 Learning

Improving Content Search

Erik — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:44:34 -0700

I've talked with several TAC? members recently about ways to improve the ability to search for content on this site. I wanted to point out really cool Drupal? module I found recently called Faceted Search. There's a great example of it at the JEM - Joining Educational Mathematics Repository.

Essentially, the way it works is by allowing you to define multiple "facets" of "metadata", which means different ways of identifying content. For instance, a given post on this site can by identified by author, date created, content type (blog?, book page, event, etc.), tags/categories, and free text searching the content within the title or body. In the Repository example, they provide seven (7) different facets to apply in the Guided Search block. If you start by clicking on cmueller (22), the search will produce a result set with 22 postings. Note that now, there are fewer options in the other facets, not to mention that two of the facets have disappears completely. That's because those search facets are now based only on the 22 postings by cmueller.

If you now click on Software, tools and services (6), you'll get back only six articles, because the search is now based on two criteria, which you find listed in the Current Search block just above the Guided Search block.

Anyway, I just wanted to point this out as a potential tool that we could use for finding content as our site continues to grow.

School Portal

PTO Calendar Integration

Erik — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 21:10:49 -0700

I've had conversations with a number of people about how we can integrate PTO calendars together. Hopefully, the idea is pretty simple. For starters, let's imagine how the PTO Council and individual School PTOs might be connected together.

As I've illustrated in this graphic, the PTO Council would be the source of all district-wide events, while each School PTO would be the source of its respective school events. Each School PTO calendar would also subscribe to the PTO Council calendar, so that people reading the School PTO calendar would see events for that school and/or district-wide events.

Similarly, the PTO Council calendar would subscribe to all School PTO calendars, so that people reading the PTO Council calendar could selectively see events district-wide or for a specific school or for all of the above.

As a test example, I just created the Ward PTO Calendar, which is now the source for all Ward PTO events. In that calendar, the Ward events have a small yellow line along their top edge. In addition, you will also see a few events with a small red line along their top edge. Those are from the PTO Council Calendar.

In order for this to work effectively, all the Newton PTO Calendars need to adopt some common standards, though which we can conduct "Internet Calendar Sharing"--also known as ICS or iCal for short.

School Portal

NPS Email Lists

Erik — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:49:14 -0700

Below is a draft list of all NPS?-related email lists that I've tracked down so far, with related websites. Please update as appropriate.

You can use this to sign-up for their email lists.

This also demonstrates how many different lists there are, being hosted in different places, and how many times we're paying duplicate fees to Constant Contact, simply because we have not "crossed the bridge" on managing lists for multiple schools/organizations through a consolidated account.

Other NPS lists

NPS School Committee (ConstantContact)
NPS Tech Advisory Committee (ConstantContact with WardPTO, Sympa)
Newton Parents (Sympa)

Elementary School PTOs & Newsletters

Angier PTO ()
Bowen PTO ()
Burr PTO ()
Cabot PTO
Countryside PTO
Franklin PTO
Horace Mann PTO
Lincoln Eliot PTO (Google Group)
Mason-Rice PTO (JCommunity by Joobi)
Memorial Spaulding PTO
Peirce PTO
Underwood PTO
Ward PTO (ConstantContact shared with NPSTAC)
Williams PTO
Zervas PTO

Middle School PTOs & Newsletters

Day PTO (ConstantContact, was Mailman list)
Bigelow
Brown

High School PTOs & Newsletters

Newton North (ConstantContact)
Newton South (ConstantContact)

NPS TAC

Exploration Ubuntu

DPic — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 03:43:42 -0700

Start: 05/24/2008 - 10:00am

End: 05/24/2008 - 5:00pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-5

Where: Wiesner Building, E15 (in other terms, "the lower atrium of the Media Lab")
[map] Streetview

20 Ames Street
Cambridge, MA 02139

"The event will be open to the public for people to
see and try Ubuntu for themselves. Machines will be set up for
visitors to experience Ubuntu, volunteers will be there to assist,
and discs will be available to take home and try. In addition, people
are welcome to bring in their own computers to have Ubuntu installed
at the event. There will be demonstrations, installations, tours, and
a game session. Food, drinks, and a social environment make the
Exploration Ubuntu event fun and enjoyable for non-technical
individuals and technical people alike."

Please show up if you can make it!

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MassachusettsTeam/Events/InstallFests/2008-05-24

School Portal

Free & Open Source Software in K-12 Education

DPic — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 03:36:19 -0700

Start: 04/29/2008 - 4:00pm

End: 04/29/2008 - 6:30pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-5

On April 29th, 2008, Saint Stephen's Armenian Elementary School is
opening its doors to the community for a special event focusing on
"Free & Open Source? Software in K-12 Education." We are inviting
teachers, IT personnel, and school administrators from Boston and
nearby suburbs to come and see for themselves how FOSS can help them
to meet all of their educational computing needs. They will be able
to "test drive" Open Office.org and other apps in our 100% Linux
computer lab, and to learn from local experts how to introduce FOSS
in their own schools.

Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) is a unique approach to software
development. A typical FOSS project is a shared enterprise involving
unpaid volunteers as well as employees of IBM, Sun, Novell, and other
significant players in the commercial sector. FOSS applications are
not locked up as trade secrets, jealously guarded by their
inventors. Instead, the human-readable "source code" is out in the
open where it can be examined and improved upon by other programmers
anywhere in the world. This has resulted in frequent releases,
improved response to the needs of users, and the development of
specific solutions to problems that have not yet caught the attention
of the commercial software sector.

The philosophy behind FOSS is one of openness and collaboration. It
encourages users to (1) ask lots of questions, (2) to find their own
answers to these questions, and (3) to collaborate with others to
find new solutions to old problems. FOSS is therefore an excellent
match for the kind of learning environment that many of us would like
to see in our schools--one that encourages and rewards open inquiry
and collaboration.

The agenda for the April 29th event will be as follows:

4:00 Doors open
Guests invited to "test drive" Ubuntu, Open Office,
Tux Paint, Tux Typing, Stellarium, etc.
Local Open Source experts & educators
available for informal discussion

4:30 Introduction - Michael Selva (St Stephen's)
I will introduce our invited guests & local experts,
and review our own experiences in
moving from Windows XP to Ubuntu Linux,
OpenOffice.org, and other FOSS applications

4:45 - Keynote address - Warren Luebkeman (RESARA)

5:15 - Question & Answer

5:30 - Guests continue to test drive, speak 1:1 with our keynote
speaker & other experts, and browse the literature table

6:00 - Concluding remarks by M Selva

Our Keynote presenter is Warren Luebkeman of RESARA, an open-source
solution provider from Keene, NH. He will be describing his
company's experience with implementing FOSS solutions in schools.

St. Stephen's is located in Watertown, 2 blocks from Mount Auburn
Street & close to the Cambridge/Watertown line. It is accessible by
public transit using #71 MBTA bus running between Harvard Square and
Watertown Center. Ample parking is available on the street and in a
private parking lot on Nichols Avenue. For a detailed map, please
visit http://tinyurl.com/278q42

If you plan to attend, please RSVP via email to ms@ssaes.org, or by
telephone at 617-605-7429.

****************************

Note: We held a similar event last October which featured Mark
Shuttleworth, the South African space traveller and the founder of
the Ubuntu Linux distribution. You can read all about it at

http://baronselva.edublogs.org/2007/10/31/technology-open-house/

==============================

===================
MICHAEL SELVA
Technology Specialist
Saint Stephen's Armenian Elementary School
47 Nichols Avenue, Watertown, MA
phone: 617-605-7429
email: ms@ssaes.org
blog?: http://baronselva.edublogs.org/
map: http://tinyurl.com/278q42
=================================================

1-1 Learning

Need a better web host!

Erik — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:35:32 -0700

In case you haven't noticed, this web site is dog slow these days. I have a cheap (=free) account with Dreamhost, and I'm getting what I'm paying for.

Does anyone have connections that can get us better performance? Preferrably at the same price (free to npstac)?

HELP please! Thanks.

NPS TAC

Open Source Webpage

Shelley_Chamberlain — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:44:31 -0700

I had the great opportunity to attend the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) conference in Washington, DC this week. (3/9/08-3/12/08). One of the better attended sessions was dedicated to open source? software in the K-12 environment. Some of you might be interested in checking out the CoSN website pages dedicated to open source (esp. the info about Moodle?)
http://k12opentech.org/k12ot/

NPS TAC

School Portal Communications

Erik — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:43:54 -0700

Communications is one of the most challenging aspects of any project. It is also one of the most important to get right. It is a cornerstone to understanding what customers experience, need and want and to managing their expectations throughout the lifecycle of a project.

This page will help us develop and execute our communications plan for the School Portal Project. It includes the four following sections:

Stakeholders - who are they, what do they experience, need, want, don't want?

Teachers - For this phase, especially those who have already expressed interest at NNHS, NSHS and Bigelow
Students - Especially NNHS, NSHS & Bigelow
Parents

Channels - what are the channels, or mechanisms, through which we can communicate with them?

Physical Meetings: NNHS Faculty, NSHS Faculty, Bigelow Faculty, NPSTAC
Online Meetings: NPSTAC hosted
Publications: NNHS Newtonite, NSHS Denebola, F. A. Day Middle Daytime, PTOCouncil Newsletter, NPSTAC Newsletter, Other newsletters?
Blogs: NPSTAC

Messages - what are the messages going through those channels, to and from our key stakeholders?

TBD: We'll have another page to outline the content we plan to publish

The Plan - Here is the plan for bringing all these pieces together and making communication happen effectively.

2008 Weeks	Web/Blogs	Publications	Online Meetings	Physical Meetings
1/20		Newtonite--Faculty might put their grades, assignments on line
2/10		Newtonite--Posting grades daily on line has benefits, drawbacks
3/7		Newtonite--Grades to stay offline
3/31	NPSTAC--School Portal Communications Plan
4/7
4/14
4/21
4/28

See the links below for related communications.

NPS TAC

Any input for meeting with Newton High School Principals

Erik — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 13:29:29 -0800

Hi fellow TAC?'ers and School Portalers,

On Monday night, I'm attending the NSF Fundraising Dinner: Today's Students - Tomorrow's Citizens, where NNHS & NSHS Principals Jennifer Price and Brian Salzer will be the featured speakers. As I've noted before, this is a great opportunity to get their valuable perspective on things that we're trying to do through TAC.

For instance, I expect to explore subjects like:

What is their perceived goal/need for students to be tech-savvy, adept at using technology to do research, solve problems, communicate and build relationships, etc.?
What is their perceived goal/need improved use of technology in school curriculum and in collaboration/communication between teachers, students and parents?
How do we address the apparent fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) related to changing NPS? education practice, particularly with things like the School Portal?

Are there other questions or suggestions that I should keep in mind during this dinner meeting?

Thanks, Erik

School Portal

TAC site navigation... how can it be improved?

matt_anderson — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 09:07:39 -0800

One of my frustrations with this site is the difficulty in finding things, and I've come up with a couple concrete suggestions for improvement. I'm not sure if they can be implemented, but I'm hoping we can improve the navigation.

One thing is that it is unclear WHAT is on the site, and how to find things.

One major thing is that the site layout doesn't follow a common model. By this I mean that people haven't seen things organized this way before, which makes it very hard to find stuff. Consider Windows Explorer and/or Mac Finder. They follow a common format. Top level choices are listed vertically. If if has a + sign (windows) or triangle (Mac), you know there are sub-folders. Everything in the computer is accessible from these few highest choices.

Having a model that people are generally familiar with makes using the site much easier. If users have to learn HOW to use a site before they can actually START using the site, you'll automatically reject a huge percent of users.

Definitions are also a challenge. There are links in the upper right hand corner, but unless you're already familiar with the site, one might not understand what they mean, and what they lead to. Part of the obstacle is vocabulary. The casual web user doesn't know the difference between a Book, Talk Page, and Blog?. If we're inviting the public to be part of the conversation, this is an obstacle.

Thoughts? Ideas? If you could reorganize things, what changes would you make? "I wish I could click .... and .... would happen" etc.

Matt

NPSTAC-org Support

Information about NPS Budget Override

Erik — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:25:54 -0800

I know the School Budget Override is one of the most politically and personally sensitive topics in our community, so I'm hesitatant to say anything about it. Chances are no matter what I say, it will be incomplete or even inaccurate, so let me state clearly that my intent with this post is NOT to lobby for or against the Override. Rather, I simply want to share a little of what I have heard through a couple of channels. Hopefully this will help others as they form their own opinions.

On February 27, I attended the Alderman's meeting on the Budget Override. I was there for most of the presentations (7-9pm), but couldn't stick around for the Q&A, which I hear went until midnight. If you haven't seen the material that Dr. Jeff Young (Superintendent) presented, you should take a look at the 2008 Override Information on the Newton PTO Council site. Using the School Department Budget Memorandum, Jeff did a great job of presenting the evolution of the NPS? budget from FY03 - FY09, with particular emphasis on comparing three versions of the 2009 budget:

FY09 Maintenance of Effort Budget - to provide the same level of service as in FY08
FY09 Override Budget - to address key improvements/restorations and ongoing initiatives
FY09 Allocation Budget - based on what the City of Newton has allocated to the schools for next year

If you do nothing else, get familiar with this fairly easy-to-read material. I think it goes a long ways to dispelling many of the misconceptions that I hear about the TRUE intentions behind this upcoming override.

Not in the memo, of really captivating at the Alderman's meeting, was Jeff's opening remarks when he set out to bust three popular myths.

Myth 1. Last override money was used for salaries and not for their intended purposes.

Jeff used the FY03-FY09 budget comparison chart to refute this.

Myth 2. It doesn't take 6% increase yearly to maintain operations (excluding changes in student enrollment).

Jeff demonstrated how, in fact, it does. 4.5% for salaries and benefits--especially when compensating for advancements in teaching steps and degree changes. The other 1.5% for fixed and mandated costs--contracts, facilities, special education, etc.

Myth 3. Newton is unchanging. Whatever worked 20 years ago should work today.

Jeff highlighted how between last year (FY07: 2006-2007) and this year (FY08: 2007-2008), we've seen a 20% increase in ELL (English Language Learning)services for students for whom English is NOT their primary language. He also explained how the number of students who have severe learning needs has increased 76% in the last five years. His point: it's not so much the number of students that is affecting educational costs, but the extent of their special needs. And Newton is not unique in this, many neighboring school districts are experiencing the same thing.

Hopefully this is helpful to those who read it. I'll close with this note that I just received on how/where to find more relevant information.

Note from Sue Flicop, PTO Council Co-President

We have a great new resource for parents (and all members of the Newton community) regarding the override on the PTO Council website! Lisa Mirabile has pulled together links to all the documents we can find regarding the upcoming override and put them on the PTO Council website. You can access them by clicking here: Newton PTO Council or by going to www.newtonptocouncil.org and clicking on "2008 Override."

This is entirely accessible by the public and will be an easy way to direct people to all sorts of information. Many, many thanks to Lisa Mirabile and to all those who passed along the links!

--Sue Flicop

NPS TAC

Grading Neighborhood Schools

Erik — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:23:57 -0800

Copied from
THE MOSSBERG SOLUTION

Grading Neighborhood Schools

Web Sites Compare A Variety of Data, Looking Beyond Scores
February 20, 2008; Page D6

Education -- an issue that affects everyone in some
way or another -- is an ideal candidate for discussions on the Web.
There, parents, students and teachers can ask questions under the cloak
of Internet anonymity, which enables conversations about personal
topics such as learning disabilities and teacher conflicts.

But the vastness of the Internet can leave many people
wondering where to begin, especially when asking sensitive questions
about education. And, even in a sea of discussions and forums on
education, parents are often hungry for one piece of information above
all else: data that helps them select a school for their children.

Education.com's
SchoolFinder (top right) enhances an already rich Web site (top left),
while GreatSchools.net (above) works education-related content into
school search results.

So this week I tried three education-related Web sites
that dedicate some or all of their resources toward providing free
school comparisons, including demographics, test results,
teacher-to-student ratios, and percentages of students eating free and
reduced-price lunches.

I performed various school queries using Education.com Inc., GreatSchools Inc.'s GreatSchools.net and SchoolMatters.com
by typing in a ZIP Code, city, district or school name. Overall,
GreatSchools and Education.com offered the most content-packed
environments, loading their sites with related articles and offering
community feedback on education-related issues by way of blog? posts or
surveys. And though GreatSchools is 10 years older than Education.com,
which made its debut in June, the latter has a broader variety of
content and considers its SchoolFinder feature -- newly available as of
today -- just a small part of the site.

Both Education.com and GreatSchools.net base a good
portion of their data on information gathered by the Department of
Education and the National Center for Education Statistics, the
government entity that collects and analyzes data related to education.

SchoolMatters.com, a service of Standard & Poor's,
is more bare-bones, containing quick statistical comparisons of
schools. (S&P is a unit of McGraw-Hill
Cos.) This site gets its content from various sources, including state
departments of education, private research firms, the Census and
National Public Education Finance Survey. This is evidenced by lists,
charts and pie graphs that would make Ross Perot proud. I learned about
where my alma mater high school got its district revenue in 2005: 83%
was local, 15% was state and 2% was federal. But I couldn't find
district financial information for more recent years on the site.

All three sites base at least some school-evaluation
results on test scores, a point that some of their users critique.
Parents and teachers, alike, point out that testing doesn't always
paint an accurate picture of a school and can be skewed by various
unacknowledged factors, such as the number of students with
disabilities.

Education.com's SchoolFinder feature is starting with
roughly 47,000 schools in 10 states: California, Texas, New York,
Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey and
Georgia. In about two months, the site hopes to have data for all
states, totaling about 60,000 public and charter schools. I was granted
early access to SchoolFinder, but only Michigan was totally finished
during my testing.

SchoolFinder lets you narrow your results by type
(public or charter), student-to-teacher ratio, school size or Adequate
Yearly Progress (AYP), a measurement used to determine each school's
annual progress. Search results showed specific details on teachers
that I didn't see on the other sites, such as how many teachers were
fully credentialed in a particular school and the average years of
experience held by a school's teachers.

The rest of the Education.com site contains over 4,000
articles written by well-known education sources like the New York
University Child Study Center, Reading is Fundamental and the Autism
Society of America. It also contains a Web magazine and a rather
involved discussion-board community where members can ask questions of
like-minded parents and the site's experts, who respond with advice and
suggestions of articles that might be helpful.

Private schools aren't required to release test
scores, student or teacher statistics, so none of the sites had as much
data on private schools. However, GreatSchools.net at least offered
basic results for most private-school queries that I performed, such as
a search for Salesianum School in Delaware (where a friend of mine
attended) that returned the school's address, a list of the Advanced
Placement exams it offered from 2006 to 2007 and six rave reviews from
parents and former students.

GreatSchools.net makes it easy to compare schools,
even without knowing specific names. After finding a school, I was able
to easily compare that school with others in the geographic area or
school district -- using a chart with numerous results on one screen.
After entering my email address, I saved schools to My School List for
later reference.

I couldn't find each school's AYP listed on GreatSchools.net, though these data were on Education.com and SchoolMatters.com.

SchoolMatters.com doesn't provide articles, online
magazines or community forums. Instead, it spits out data -- and lots
of it. A search for "Philadelphia" returned 324 schools in a neat
comparison chart that could, with one click, be sorted by grade level,
reading test scores, math test scores or students per teacher. (The
Julia R. Masterman Secondary School had the best reading and math test
scores in Philadelphia, according to the site.)

SchoolMatters.com didn't have nearly as much user
feedback as Education.com or GreatSchools.net. But stats like a
school's student demographics, household income distribution and the
district's population age distribution were accessible thanks to
colorful pie charts.

These three sites provide a good overall idea of what
certain schools can offer, though GreatSchools.net seems to have the
richest content in its school comparison section. Education.com excels
as a general education site and will be a comfort to parents in search
of reliable advice. Its newly added SchoolFinder, while it's in early
stages now, will only improve this resource for parents and students.

--Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

NPS TAC

Technology in Education Resources

Erik — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:00:28 -0800

This book is intended to gather various resources, case studies, links, etc. that may be helpful in carrying out the mission of the NPS? TAC?.

NPS TAC

Joint Meeting of Board of Alderman's Program, Services, and Finance Committees

janetsville — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 11:48:34 -0800

Start: 02/27/2008 - 7:25pm

End: 02/27/2008 - 10:45pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-5

The joint meeting of the Aldermen's Programs & Services and Finance Committees will be held on FEBRUARY 27 at 7:45 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. For the first time, the aldermen will consider the override budget. This is a critical opportunity for voters to be involved with the override process.

Wednesday, Feb. 27
7:45-10:45 p.m.
Aldermanic Chamber, 2nd floor of City Hall

1-1 Learning

Ubuntu MA InstallFest

DPic — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 22:18:10 -0800

Start: 02/23/2008 - 10:00am

End: 02/23/2008 - 5:00pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-5

I would like to invite everyone here to the Ubuntu Massachusetts Local Community Team's upcoming Installation Festival.

Who are we?

We are a group of volunteers and activists organized around the Ubuntu
operating system. We advocate digital freedom and promote Ubuntu as a
means of achieving this.

What's an InstallFest?

An InstallFest, or Installation Festival, is an event held for people to
see, try, and get Ubuntu for themselves. Anyone is free to bring in
their own computer to have Ubuntu installed on it, or to just come
and see Ubuntu on other machines and get a chance to experience it
for themselves.

When: 10:00 am to 5:00 pm EST
Where: Wiesner Building, E15 (in other terms, "the lower atrium of the Media Lab")
20 Ames Street
Cambridge, MA 02139

We would love to have you come and learn about Ubuntu as it is a great solution for schools.

1-1 Learning

School Portal Use Cases

Erik — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:39:44 -0800

One of the key goals of blogging is to share real information with a group of readers in a way that is more rapid than formally polished reports and marketing brochures. It makes the flow of information more personal and more fluid.

With that in mind, I plan to share excerpts of the findings and recommendations of the School Portal team's report which is currently being drafted. We're using the "collaborative book" feature of this Drupal?-based site and collecting all of our content in the book entitled School Portal Evaluation.

This post describes typical scenarios in which the school portal would be used --also called “used cases”. It’s done from the view point of several personas: Teacher, Student, Parent and System Administrator. The Use Case Summary lists them all in a table format. Then the narrative
section(s) describe them in narrative form for each persona. Note: the parenthetical references in the narratives map to the use cases listed in the Use Case Summary table.

These use cases were developed by Matt Anderson, Geoff Epstein and Erik Britt-Webb. This is NOT a complete list. It's a work in progress, which includes what we've completed so far as of 2/18/08.

We encourage and welcome your comments and questions.

Use Case Summary

Persona	Category?	Description	Priority
Teacher	Calendar	T01. View and print consolidated calendar and task list for an individual teacher
Teacher	Calendar	T04. Text/email notification of time-critical alerts (e.g., meeting changed or canceled)
Teacher, Student	Discussion	T02. Q&A between Teacher and Student specific to class, assignment or other content
Teacher	Resources	T03. Reserve resources and equipment for class use
Teacher	Courses	T05. Teacher posts and reviews syllabus and related materials for all of his/her courses. This includes both raw web (html) content, as well as file attachments.
Student	Courses	S01. Student reviews courses, their availability and registers for desired ones
Student	Courses	S02. Student takes an online course. She is able pace her self by completing chunks of it at a time, saving her progress and returning to continue the course another day.
Student, Teacher	Courses	S04. Student prints homework assignments, or teacher prints and gives to students who don’t have online/portal access.
Teacher	Courses	T08. Teacher can create, administer and auto-grade electronic quizzes and homework assignments – generally using T/F or multiple choice questions for which answers are already specified. Results of those assignments are automatically updated into student grades.
Teacher	Courses	T09. Teacher requests classroom resources which require purchasing approval and procurement. Workflow routes them through the necessary steps to receive approval, be procured and then added into the Teachers’ available resource list
Teacher	Grades & Attendance	T06. Teacher takes attendance
Teacher	Grades & Attendance	T07. Teacher records homework submissions and grades
Student, Parent	Grades & Attendance	S03. Student (and parent) receives alerts for missing homework assignments
Student, Parent	Grades & Attendance	P01. Parent receives alerts for class absence (or tardiness)
Admin	Courses	A01. System/Class Administrator uses course registration information to automatically create new class groups at the beginning of each term. Access privileges are included.
Admin	Grades & Attendance	A02. System/Class Administrator uploads class grades in the middle and at the end of each term.
Admin	Grades & Attendance	A03. System/Class Administrator uploads important notices (e.g., mid-term warning)

Typical Teacher Day

Start of the day. Bill gets up, logs in on his laptop and
checks on his schedule for the day, including:

Classes he is teaching
Field trips on for the day
Clubs he is involved with
Meetings he has to attend
Parent-teacher conferences
Professional development

Also visible in the interface is a list of tasks/ reminders which Bill has set up to help him keep track of things he has to do. Then he prints a convenient schedule and task summary to refer to during the day. (T01)

He checks on last minute questions students have posted relating to the homework last night and answers the short ones. (T02) Then he notices that some materials he had requested from the library are ready for pickup and the equipment he needs for some labs and class are all set for pickup too from the equipment room (T03):

LCD projector
iBook cart
…

Breakfast and off to Newton North. Approaching the school in his car, he gets texted a message updating him that a morning meeting first thing has been cancelled (T04). He parks and heads to the library to pickup the materials, then on to the equipment room to gather up that stuff and complete his setup in the lab.

During setup for the lab, he realizes that he needs another piece of equipment, so checks on availability in the equipment room and reserves it for later pickup (T03).

In the time freed up by the cancelled meeting, he reviews the online courses and other digital content he has made available to his students (T05) and checks on the online courses he is taking and signs up for another one (S01). He spends 20 minutes progressing through one of his own
professional development courses and then pauses instruction to switch to his first class (S02).

At his first class, Bill logs in and takes attendance electronically (T06), also checking off who have turned in homework and who have not (T07). Those actions automatically set alerts for students with missing homework and their parents (S03). If students are missing from class, alerts are also set for their parents and based on preferences which parents set they may also be automatically notified by email, text message or phone message (P01).

The class proceeds and at the end of class, Bill sets the homework by entering it in his laptop interface (T05), printing it also for those students who cannot retrieve their homework from the portal (S04). In addition to the basic homework description, he uploads some PDF files and spreadsheets required for the homework (T05). Copies of those are also printed out for students who are digitally cut-off at home.

The students move on to another class and in Bill’s next class he deals with attendance and homework and than administers a student test. It’s an online test in multiple choice format and when students submit their completed test, it is automatically graded and added to the interface
information available to students and parents, plus of course Bill’s interface
(T08).

And so the day unfolds.

At the end of the day, since it is a Friday, he posts the results of all tests and projects which were not digital so students and parents can be kept up to date (T07). He also carries out his other daily routine of updating club, field trip and other similar information. He also places requests for various classroom items which are routed to the administration for prioritization and purchase (T09).

Finally, he sends an email to all parents and students for one of his classes, giving them an update on progress including links to the curriculum and supporting online content.

NPS TAC

Web 2.0 and Schools

Shelley_Chamberlain — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 08:53:04 -0800

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)

NPS TAC

NPSTAC.org Real-Time Learning

Erik — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:46:25 -0800

If you're reading this blog? post, then you've found your way to the NPSTAC.org website. You might even know a little something about the NPS? TAC?. For those who don't, I'd like to provide this brief introduction to what the NPS TAC is and, more important to this article, the purpose of the NPSTAC.org web site.

About NPSTAC: As you can read on the About page, the Newton Public Schools Technology Advisory Committee (NPS TAC) was formed in November 2006 with the goal to provide a vehicle for community input and expertise into the development and implementation of an updated three-year technology plan for the schools (see plan
here). Learn more about Year One and Year Two objectives.

About NPSTAC.org: In the January 2008, during the year two of the NPS TAC, a few volunteers launched this web site. The primary objectives of this site are:

Facilitate the strategic planning, project execution and communication
regarding the Instructional Technology Plan 2008-2011 developed in year one
Facilitate social networking (i.e., relationship building) between NPS teachers, staff, parents and others who are interested in supporting the use of technology for the betterment of public education in Newton, Mass.
Practice what we preach! Gain experience using Web 2.0 Technologies, so we better understand the implications of including them in our 2008-2011 plan and our vision for the future even beyond that.

NPSTAC.org Help: To learn lots more about how this site was built and how to use it, see the Help book. But in a nutshell, this site is build using Drupal, an open source? content management system? built using the LAMP? technologies. All of the functionality on this site is provided through a collection of Drupal modules.

NPS TAC

Need help improving npstac.org!

Erik — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 08:01:45 -0800

Hello fellow TACers,

I could really use some help improving the content orientation and performance of this npstac.org site. Is there anyone out there interested in helping?

For instance, right now the site seems more oriented towards function--WHAT you can do on the site, like create events, groups, FAQs, etc. I think it would be more useful if we could reorient it to focus on the important/hot content currently being developed on the site.

One person can't do this. It needs multiple perspectives. Please comment? if you're interested in helping.

Thanks, Erik

NPSTAC-org Support