September+1st

September 01, 2008 Meeting Notes: Attendance: Andy, Simon May, Amanda, Mike, Pat, Don, Tom, Jeff Technology Plan Development: Suggesting moving rational for 1:1 to a different section. Perhaps the section on 1:1 instead. Missions Statement: Didn’t like the word “enhance.” Beliefs: Would like cell phones used in the school and mentioned in the tech plan. Need to include more about pedagogy. Changing the way teachers teach. Equity: Hand me downs to elementary is not equitable. If one section has certain tools, than all sections would have it: Amanda PD: Time or lack thereof is the big issue. Time needs to be a priority. Remote connection to the school’s servers needs to be put in place. Other priorities seem to be more important for the building admin staff than technology. Amanda mentioned that we exploit Wednesdays more for tech PD Jeff mentioned a stipend for teachers who do PD. Tom mentioned that last year it was felt there wasn’t enough incentive for teachers to do PD. Jeff mentioned the possibility of a certification program for teachers with technology. Tech plan should include more on creativity. Bloom should be updated. Standards based learning and backwards by design needs to be included.
 * Jeff Dungan: Sections A-E**

General Intro/Goals of the plan Should combine sections 2D & 2E. Should include daunting issues in one section. Amanda suggests taking section F out. Tom suggests including a history of how we got to where we are. Simon suggests we include what other schools have and are doing and let others compare it to what we have. When you always go to the same restaurant, you don’t know where other good restaurants are. Simon says we further d explaining what “technology learning opportunities are”.
 * Simon: F-G**

Level appropriate technology. When do we analyze this? Should have 1, 2 & 3 year tech descriptors. Online PD opportunities are fine for tech savvy people but not everyone. Perhaps more group instructions. Review of the replacement policy. Andy said this was included to demonstrate a financial understanding of the program. Getting the word out. Suggestions included PTSA, Parent coffees, ParentTalk onine. Liked suggestions about inventories and someone in charge of maintaining them. Making sure people understand where inventories are and where the lists are held. Library and tech integrators need to be more of a single group. Pat mentioned a feeling of lack of ownership of technology and thus no one taking personal responsibility. Should include all technology in the classroom in the end of year sign out sheet. Simon suggests setting up three AV departments for each school. Orion talked about a shortage of staff for checking in and out of fixed equipment.
 * Mike: H1 – H4**

**Amanda: H5- I2** Staff Proficiency Tech needs to be current. Need to better recognize when teachers are successfully using ALL technology. Reword to say roles and responsibilities Should delineate the ISTE standards more. All three ISTEs need to be included. Should take out “As determined by teachers” about using technology in section H6-3 Should include more than just secondary schools. Take out comment on just secondary schools. Include preparation for career planning in this section.

Discussion on the role tech integration in the school. What do we do in the MS? Tom wanted an integrative model, Simon wanted an integrated model but course offerings in the HS for those skills that can’t be integrated. Don voted for electives in MS (like Pudong) and more course offerings in the HS like Intro to Programming, Robotics and Networking. Jeff voted for full integration and thus work ourselves out of jobs. **Tom: I3 – 7** Include the newly written standards. Facilities and equipment: Should include plans for to 1:1 learning environment. Software: Should include cross-campus alignment. Andy: Dennis would like to see descriptors in each section. “What does this look like?” Andy thought we should thoroughly explain the standard classroom. Tom: Need to get test laptops so that we can test configuration options. Funding: Andy didn’t think it should be included in the plan. Change Funding section to Resourcing.

Pat suggested an approach to buying into the SAS Edu Portal. Jeff mentioned that the hope in Puxi ES was to get the admin team and the teachers to use blogs for communication instead of email. Pat had questions on usefulness of Office 2007. Jeff suggested we combine sections 9 & 10. Add AUP as an addendum to the tech plan. Had a discussion on job titles and their importance. Discussion on how we compile this into a single document. Don said he would write up a larger section on the pedagogical background for the laptop program. Andy mentioned the need to do a baseline survey for the laptop program. A general discussion ensued about how to do surveys for technology. Professional Development: Short-term: Simon suggests Gmail accounts for teachers as a priority. Amanda suggested Moodle. Orion brought up in-servicing Office 2007. Amanda brought up the problems teachers are having not only with knowing how to use it but also how slow it is. This is causing a great deal of grief with some teachers. General discussion on Atomic Learning in relation to how it can be used with the classified staff. Andy introduced a 5-year plan for implementing a new initiative. This was brought up as a model to use with all of our technology initiatives with a shorter time frame. This would be adapted to our apps like blogs, Moodle, wikis etc. A general discussion about teachers choosing a strand in technology use like “blogging” and teachers need to complete such strands.
 * Patrick: I8 – I12**
 * End of section on Tech Plan **

Assignments for creating a one school year timeframe to implementation plan for tech strands. Each group would begin to write a implementation plan and begin creating screencasts to support it.

Moodle, Blogs, Portal, Google Apps, Moodle: Pat & Don Blogs: Tom & Amanda Portal: Mike & Kris Google Apps: Simon & Simon Timeline: We spend at least an hour at our next meeting and then decide on a timeline.

Andy asked integrationists to look at a member from each level who can serve on the Technology advisory Committee.  
 * Updates on Gmail accounts. Grade 6 Puxi by Sept 12th. HS Puxi Sept. 12th.
 * AUP for students: Got an update on where we are with students turning them in.
 * AUP for Teachers: Amanda suggested we hand it out with the contract for next year and also give it to incoming teachers at the fair.
 * Andy gave an update for locations for the new LCDs. The decision was to promote a standard set up and to work through tech integration specialists.
 * Amanda gave a presentation on how to introduce students to blogs and how to quickly set them up.
 * A general discussion on how the SAS community can quickly access student and teacher blogs. It was announced that we will be posting admin blogs on the main SAS web page.
 * Don will check on the Gmail themes and widgets.
 * Don will change the top of Moodle and shorten the top of the portal. Don will check with issues with the online calendar.