Tech+Bd+Mtg+June+4

=Minutes to District Tech Meeting held on June 4, 2009 – 3:30-5:00pm=

In attendance were:
M Brady, D Garvin, D Driggs, M Voorhies, S Griffin, L Cheung, V Jew, J Compton, J Adams, J Monach, M Rhodin, C White, B Flores, and R Ludmer, E Reed

=Welcome / check-in=

David Driggs to assist more with PHS tech needs as Dan Garvin will be retiring and working in a different capacity. Michael also thanks tech crew for their ongoing efforts to support the district.
 * Michael Brady** – David Roth to transition in Michael’s place to direct district tech crew; with emphasis on curriculum integration in the writing of the next district tech plan.

=Maureen Rhodin – New Student Information System= As of July 2010, SASI will no longer be supported by Pearson; we are evaluating to decide on its replacement.

__Points of consideration for the new system include:__ Being browser based, GUI (graphical user interface) and SQL based for handling infinite data. Also system should be CSIS (California Student Information System) capable.

The choice has been narrowed to Pearson’s Power School or Infinite Campus. There will be demos/presentations of both for end-users Monday June 8th and Tuesday June 9th respectively.

__After the demonstrations, the next steps are:__ Collect info, review feedback from all participants, Board workshop and presentation, design implementation timeline, determine policies and securities, eg. Parent portal? Develop training, migration and clean up procedure. At present, the plan is to test 1 – 2 sites, most likely an elementary site since the SIS data is more simplistic, then bring all schools on board. Will this be a test situation, or will it be live and used by users. If live how will aggregate data be gathered from two systems? SG

__Questions still that need to be answered:__ While the above is being done, do we still renew support with SASI? That’s because if the 2008-09 rollover; fall CAL PADS submission, Pre-ID for CELDT, STAR and CAHSEE, the 09/10 mid-year rollover for PMS and PHS, online registration and enrollment that still needs to be covered.

__Working data teams for the transition:__ Data entry team – admin assts Tech team – district and site techs and consultants Admin team – board, superintendent, asst superintendent and principals Certificated and Misc. groups must be made aware – that there will be no more scanner and bubbling in the new system; all data entry will be done on the computer. This group includes all teachers, counselors, librarians and personnel.

=Dan Garvin PHS= Biggest innovation at PHS is the use of one computer running 4 workstations, eg in Special Ed., in the whole lab one computer can run 20 workstations and all is working as Dan puts it, pretty well. This system does not run well with high end software like Adobe licenses, but it is very effective and economical for internet and word processing. It is also green, because it saves parts. PHS acquired 6-8 new document cameras and it’s also the first year with the new library server running a web-based catalog. The elementary sites also joined the new system called Destiny.

=Mike Voorhies PMS= PMS is stretching the budget with thin clients, and being green by using old computers to accomplish this. The system does not work well with Comic Life, but overall has been very cost effective. Older workstations have been maintained by doubling their RAM. PMS also has a new website with teacher pages that can be updated via WordPress. Mike did the staff development for WordPress. PMS also has a one year MS Office online training license purchased for $900 and that is working out very well for Professional Development. PMS library is also online and works better internally as well. There is a focus on all new hardware that as been acquired and how to make the student learning experience more interactive. Eg wikis, book talks using smart boards and document cameras to name a few.

=Louisa Cheung Wildwood= Wildwood continues its program with projects that include: websites, powerpoint presentations using Keynote and iMovies in 4th and 5th grade. Comic Life is a popular application that is being used in grades 2 through 5 as a great way of illustrating student research with graphics. All eMacs on site had their RAM doubled to improve their performance. A new lab license was purchased for the school called Animation-ish which is a fun way for students in grades 2 through 5 to demonstrate in a animation lifecycles, science events like the movement of planets or the phases of the moon or body systems and how they function. Wildwood will also be upgrading their computer lab, but with budget in mind the new lab will consist of 23 Apple minis with non-Apple components to complete each workstation. Installation of the lab will take place in August 09. Fall 09 – Wildwood hopes to update their school website with Carol as the first user of the WordPress teacher pages.


 * Elementary Online Report Cards** – this year we were able to incorporate K into our timetable. In past Kindergarten actually had different terms of reporting. They are now synched with the rest of grades 1 to 5, and are using a new report card format that is similar to the rest of the grades. The report card wording has to be finalized, but it is hoped that they will be included in the online system next academic year.

=Valerie Jew and Jason Compton who do split teaching of tech at Havens= Havens has moved from desktop workstations to two laptop carts both containing 20 laptops each. This is in anticipation of the Wi-Fi lab that will used at the Emeryville site. They are currently preparing for the move and packing all necessary tech materials. Through Mike Voorhies’ WordPress training, Chad Hamilton will be testing the new teacher pages for Havens – which is an important communication tool for parents now that they will be farther away. Information such as fieldtrips, forms, etc will be readily made available on Haven’s site. Val has discovered that students as young as first graders are having no trouble adapting to the use of a touchpad. The lab’s focus is on curriculum integration and both Val and Jason are looking forward to the whole class lab instruction as the lab lessons will now take place in the classrooms/portables. 4th and 5th grade have projectors and laptops for all teachers; all of 4th has document cameras as well, and 5th grade will be the next group to acquire them. Jason will be spending a lot of time packing and moving and testing the network at the Emeryville site. They are testing the carts in small batches, eg Ms Costellos’s class has been using the cart in the classroom. Next week they will be testing the access points at Emeryville with Dan Garvin’s assistance. They will also be evaluating where and how to best put in drops for printers in the network at Emeryville.

=Stephanie Griffin Beach= Beach has been successfully using the wikis Stephanie set up for internal communication. She is also the lead person for establishing and maintaining wikis at the district level. She has spent time writing a variety of grants, and leading the implementation of the online library catalog for the elementary schools. For Cultures Week, she wrote a grant that provided all elementary sites with geography software that was used in 4th and 5th grades. She is the editor of the Tech Newsletter, which this year, has sent out 3 issues so far. The newsletter is a tool for tech professional development for the district. Beach continues doing Podcasting to tie curriculum with tech skills. They have also increased the use of their AlphaSmarts, which were purchased in 98/99. Stephanie hopes to update and replace the existing set. They still use their 10 laptop cart in the lab as well as classrooms. For animation Beach using the earlier version of Animation-ish, Flip Boom, to illustrate volcanic plate tectonics and plant growth. They are also using Google Earth and Google Sketch Up for geography and spatial learning.

=Stephanie Griffin Tri-School Ed. Foundation Grant= Stephanie wrote a grant that was approved by the Ed Foundation to outfit all elementary sites with ceiling mounted LCD projectors and document cameras on a cart. This grant consists of four phases of implementation; the first phase will take place this summer 09. Beach and Wildwood will install LCDs and document cameras in all classrooms that will not be affected by retrofitting/planned construction. Phase II will be to outfit all of Havens in the new school. Phase III and IV will be to outfit the remaining classrooms in Wildwood and Beach after their construction.

=Tech Staff Development and Other Notes= __Google Educators__ – Last fall, with the help of David Roth, Susan Stutzman arranged a full day of professional development from Google Educators for all site techs and librarians. The training was well received as the topics met with our training and professional development needs. __Via CSLA Web 2.0 Program__ – Carolyn White mentioned that the librarians will be getting together over the summer “to sample 23 things” as a good way of getting their feet wet with Web 2.0.

=David Driggs District Technology= David met with Bill Parsons and Xtra Team to reconfigure the network for Emeryville and PHS to Havens to decide what tech services and hardware will be needed to support these sites. Beach will run fiber to their new portables. New equipment and switches will be purchased for Havens, but for budgetary reasons, he will try to use as much as he can of the existing hardware. Recently the air conditioning unit broke down in the server room. As a result it was replaced with a new rack mountable A/C unit. The benefits are: all servers will now be on racks which makes them more secure and better protected in the event of an earthquake or ground flooding. In terms of green technology, David is investigating consolidating multiple servers through server virtualization. This is still in the demo stages of testing. The drawback include limited network storage and cost. ISP – David reported that Alameda County appears to be over subscribed, as a result our upgraded bandwidth is often at times not what we have paid for. He is looking into replacing Alameda County with AT&T as our ISP which may also be cost saving as well. Further research is required as the hurdle would be to move the network addresses that we are currently leasing from Alameda County.

Meeting is adjourned.