Minutes 8/10/2009

Iowa core and 21st Century Skills

1. Denise Krefting from the AEA shared with the group the impact that 21st century skills is having on the Iowa Core and school districts

Plan of action discussion

1 to 1 laptop for 9-12 students (24/7) program

• Why? What are our Driving ideas
• Options for learning - student engagement

• Options for assessment – teachers would be able to explore

  assessment options beyond the traditional
• Employability of students - economic flexibility when looking for jobs
• Equity – students 9‐12 would have equal access to the technology

Other technology enhancements for classrooms across the district

• What is our purpose? – all students should benefit
• How can we accomplish this purpose?
• Interactive visual types of things

• Need LCD Projectors
• Interactive Whiteboards
• Sound amplification systems

Other items that were discussed:

• Instructional support $$ ‐ Maximum amount would be about $260,000
• Classroom visits – committee would like to organize and visit other schools who have undertaken initiatives of this nature. Norwalk was mentioned as a potential site to visit
• What is the coverage of our area for internet access – high speed
• What options for rural folks are out there
• What is the cost to the parent in a 1 to 1? Will insurance cover them, or in cases of negligence is something else needed
• Review the Horizon Report

Next meeting September 21, 6:00 p.m. in the Library

7/7/09 Meeting Minutes

Vision Discussion
Updated Vision - To utilize and integrate relevant technology as a tool to augment student achievement, growth and preparedness within the classroom and beyond. The Group concurred that this statement captures what we are trying to accomplish

Technology Literacy to Earlham Schools
During the last meeting the group updated Tech Literacy Statement - Students that are technologically literate will responsibly use relevant technology to improve and support lifelong learning. Students will use available technologies to access, analyze and evaluate information in order to construct and communicate knowledge.
After a short discussion of the Tech Literacy Statement the group decided the following statement captured our thoughts -

• New Statement - Students that are technologically literate will responsibly use relevant technology to improve and support lifelong learning. Students will use available technologies to access, analyze and evaluate information in order to construct and communicate knowledge with 21st Century Skills.

ISL timeline discussion
September or February - The group discussed both scenarios and the pros and cons of each. The major detractor to a September vote was our truncated time schedule. While it is very possible that we could do the vote in September, there is quite a bit of work to be done to communicate a clear vision for all parties involved.

• Pros for September - Allows for specific planning for implementation in 10-11, Coincides with an already established election date (school board)
• Cons for September - Shortened timeline

• Pros for February - Time to build community support - Communication - More detailed planning can take place
• Cons for February - Cost of another election - Time for opposition to get mobilized

The opinion of the group - waiting until February for a vote will allow the committee to educate the community on costs, benefits, what the plan is and enable the Board/Tech Committee to clearly articulate what the district is proposing. The committee would like the board to take the steps to have an Instructional Support Levy for the term of 10 years.

A brief discussion of the plan possibilities followed. It was agreed that we need some assistance and Mr. Ridgely will contact AEA for support in this area.

Click here for a complete copy of the Minutes.

Minutes 6/15/09

Vision Discussion – discuss the vision of the Tech Committee and how it relates to the Earlham Schools

• Current Vision - To utilize and integrate technology as a tool to augment student achievement, growth and preparedness within the classroom and beyond.
  Review of the Vision for Technology statement(s). A discussion around an inclusion of the word “current” “state of the art” “currently relevant” “cutting edge” in the statement. The word “relevant” has been agreed to be added after the word integrate to update the Vision Statement.
• New Vision – To utilize and integrate relevant technology as a tool to augment student achievement, growth and preparedness within the classroom and beyond.

Technology Literacy to Earlham Schools - A student that is technologically literate will responsibly use appropriate technology to: access and integrate information; construct and communicate knowledge to improve learning; and support lifelong learning.

• Review of the Technology Literacy Statement. Revisions centered on how the communication of knowledge to improve learning should be stated.
• New Statement - Students that are technologically literate will responsibly use relevant technology to improve and support lifelong learning. Students will use available technologies to access, analyze and evaluate information in order to construct and communicate knowledge.

A description of the current state of technology - equipment and personnel was shared, and can be found in the complete minutes for this meeting posted here Earlham Website.

Next meeting will be held during the week of July 6 - 10. Make your meeting date choice here.

Next Meeting Date

The Earlham Technology Committee will meet again June 15 at 6:00 p.m. in the High School Library.

Tech Committee Notes

The first meeting of the 09-10 Tech Committee took place Tuesday Morning, 5/19 at 7:15. It was well attended by staff, administration, board members and community members. The agenda was brief:

Introduction and current purpose for the committee

1. Consistent funding streams are limited - current REAP funds are no longer available due to our increased enrollment
2. Technology is expensive and has a significant impact on the general fund if not supported in some manner
3. Technology is necessary in education to help our students be prepared to enter life after K-12 school and we have to provide accordingly
4. The Instructional support levy is a means of funding that would be consistent over the course of time and allow plans to be drawn up accordingly

Vision - discuss the vision of the Tech Committee and how it relates to the Earlham Schools

1. Current Vision - To utilize and integrate technology as a tool to augment student achievement, growth and preparedness within the classroom and beyond.
2. The group discussed what this meant to them and were in agreement that it basically captured what it is we want to do
3. Group was charged with thinking about the vision and doing some word smithing to share with the group next time.

Plan - begin to formulate (brainstorm) items we would like to include as part of a ten year technology plan

1. Elementary and MS/HS folks separated and discussed their ideas about potential items for the plan.
2. Some of the thoughts were:

• Possibilities for students with smart boards
• LCDs and Elmo's for classrooms (how can students use these instead of them becoming lecture tools for teachers)
• Availability of the computer lab
• Technology of elementary curriculum and what it should look like
• Professional development for teachers once the technology has been put into place
• Tech teacher for the elementary
• Spark devices for science
• Get an IT person in place before purchasing equipment
• Technology planning for a new building in the future
• Electronic Books - server storage upgrade
• 1 to 1 laptop initiative
• Larger drop down screen in the auditorium
• Digitize the Central Office
• Large LCD in commons to broadcast daily announcements, lunch menu, extracurricular results

We finished up the discussion with an emphasis that the tools should have a student focus as well as a staff focus. The next meeting will be held during the week of June 14.

Earlham Technology Committee to Meet

As part of our committment to improving our educational environment in the Earlham Community Schools the Technology Committee will meet Tuesday, May 19 at 7:15 a.m. Place to be determined - check back for more info. We will have a short agenda:

• Technology purpose statement review


• Discuss funding streams and the application of those streams - how will we spend the $$ - a technology expenditure plan)


• Set a next meeting date

Check back on this blog for more info.

Board Report 3-19-09

Scholastic Reading Counts

The Reading Counts system has been loaded with teacher and student information, now I am in the process of asking for some volunteers from the staff to work through some of the implementation steps. I have some volunteers (the 3rd grade team) we are just trying to get coordinated with a time to meet to implement things.

1 to 1 Initiative

Board members and Admin team spent the day in Omaha yesterday at a “Think Ahead” workshop hosted by Apple computers. Board members as well as Jan and Mike spent time working with the technology, while I spent time learning about the capabilities of an Apple system. Some things that are part of the system that would be additional expense in our current setup:

• Podcasting software and podcast production
• Wiki and blog hosting and posting controlled by our environment
• Management system software – “Big Brother”
• Imaging software

and the list goes on from there.

I am currently working on a visit to Newell‐Fonda a week from this Friday. I have not gotten
confirmation back from them that this works, but anticipate we will be able to go up for the day.