Notes from ISTE Regional Meeting
October 27-28, 2006
In attendance:
ISTE
ACTEM
CECA
MassCUE
NHSTE
RIEMA
RISTE
VITA-LEARN
Unable to attend:
MassCUE
RISTE
Friday evening, October 28, 2006
Dinner and sharing of each affiliate’s history and current initiatives.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
ISTE – Lynne
1) Membership – district/institutional membership coming
2) Refresh
· NETS-S by NECC 07
· NETS-T by NECC 08
· NETS-A by NECC 09
· Looking for regional input . . . none yet
· Adobe is a Level 1 refresh
· Breeze/Connect online meeting space software by Adobe (10 groups meeting at the same time) Anuja Dharkar
3) Regional Centers
Groups want to feel more connected, once a year is not enough.
The regional centers may be a solution.
Early Vision:
6 national centers and 1 international, around the world with specific focus
Each center would be a ISTE rep, ISTE 100, K-12, IHE partner
The vendor would help support and run
Phase 1: Initially PD and then more on-going support
Phase 2: Each center should pick an area of expertise (virtual learning, assessment)
4) Transformation & Innovation
5) Let Lynne know if we need anything @ NECC – may want to conduct our NECC session at the affiliates meeting.
6) ASCD is interested in partnering, w/ ISTE, see the need to move forward more in the area of technology. How to foster the relationship nationally and locally.
7) ISTE 100s – HP big partner, grants, Intel – leadership development
Intel – 2-hour orientation to leadership, ISTE looking to link their leadership effort with Intel (Leadership Development for Innovation)
8) Data driven decision making – ISTE is creating materials (book) for current ISTE training. Materials development for admins, centers, teachers
A regional institute would be an option . . . has not been done to date, so we would need to work out the details . . ISTE brings the content and the local partner deals with the logistics, develop local trainers by shadowing the ISTE presenters.
ISTE would love to help us write a grant proposal
This year strong links to the classroom and assessment
Size 10/15 teams (4/5 people per team) – mentors are online after the event
9) Online communities – have them available to respond to ISTE inquiries
10) ISTE looking to develop a PD portal (Apple has ALI, and others exist) United Streaming is a great model to review for PD portal!!!
11) Kids online – doing some work with them
12) Google has officially entered the education market – some of their tools, joined ISTE 100, 2 weeks ago, education page where they keep tools that are available. ISTE and WestEd, CUE in CA are conducting a day long training. Will be creating videos for PD.
13) MicroSoft Assessment – business model development – kit called ICT Skills Resource kit, free to ISTE affiliates, train-the-trainer model, 1) using MS office to integrate and address ICT literacy, 2) leadership component, and 3) deploying student tech support system: Lynne will send us this (they are still figuring this out
14) Team with Innovative Technologies Task Force (Kathy Schrock, Ferdi Serim, Lynn Nolan) a matrix of these new technologies and a matrix of where/how to jump in based upon where you district is at. Lynne can send this to us for feedback. Will be officially released at NECC 2007.
15) Schools of Innovation – global perspective
16) Forward to the Future – initiatives for preparing people for tomorrow – today, based primarily based on futurist models/projections – more to come!!!
17) TICAL Tech __http://www.portical.org/__ – great website on how to reach adminstrators, Micheal Tinkins in CA runs it, can probably add this to your website . . .even a place to download cartoons to put in your presentations, attorney
Discussion w/ Lynne:
What is the status of the regional center planning, what would next steps be? No one has begin the serious dialog yet. Some interest in Virginia, but still not a reality yet. Would determine on how quickly we are ready to mobilize! NE could be a model, but can grow and move as slowly and/or as quickly as we can tolerate structurally. Explore together . . .
Role of ISTE 100 in PD and conference events. They are very hooked into “leadership events”. They like teachers, but really like admins! Leverage the ISTE partnership with MS.
Discussion of co-marketing agreement
Regional Affiliate Board
Representation to this group (how and who)
Seems to be a no brainer to keep this group meeting
Reviewed roles of those here, very diverse, even our groups are structured differently, so there needs to be flexibility in our regional structure
we suggest 2 voting members per state, members appoints/accepts, the two representatives as meets their bylaws
each state needs to see who is and is not an ISTE affiliate
what is a good meeting schedule? Likely at least 2x per year, once regionally and once at NECC
communication strategies – regional wiki, email, MassCUE.org/regional – get domain name NEIA NE ITST Affiliates. www.neia.org or www.neiste.org - who can do this, Neil is tentatively volunteering to do this, need to run this by his sponsor and they may offer us free hosting – who funds the registration of the site
funding – what is a reasonable startup fund $250; Denise will handle monies through CECA
Address for mailing checks:
CECA
P.O. Box 31
Bethlehem, CT 06751-0031
Make checks payable to CECA, but reference NE Affiliates, Attn: Rick Wood
Chair – Walter McKenzie
Treasurer – Denise Moynihan
Technical Contact – Neil Manders
Regional Affiliate Website
See notes above regarding website
Have a separate site, with own URL and link here from each of our organization sites
Do we need a website subgroup?
Regional Affiliate Conference/Event
No state would eliminate their state conference
Make it different from existing state conferences
What is the value add of a regional event?
Need to tie this regional event to local efforts . . . have a “regional” theme and have the locals follow-up with local events playing off this theme
This is likely to be a two/three year planning effort
The result of the themed could be showcased, could be on the web, and an awards type evening, follow-through PD piece
Broker the ability to have on-going workshops
Themes – Leadership (ISTE Institutes as a regional event), Data, Student tech support
NETS refresh
Do we need an event subgroup?
The result to this meeting is three sets of goals:
Short term regional effort: (next 6 months)
setup up web site
funding
recognition by ISTE
share advocacy best practices (maybe via website)
Medium term regional effort (6-18 months)
Leadership event
OS Academy – Summer 08
NETS Refresh (student wrapping up, teachers next)
Long term regional effort: (18-36 months)
Regional Affiliate Event (ISTE Leadership Institute)
Other possible Ideas:
preservice – who/when
ASCD partnership
RI has young technology educator award
Help desk notion
What is the value add of a regional approach?
Ability to leverage the of the ISTE 100 content and support
Collaboration among affiliates across all six states
Divide man hours and costs of initiatives
Selection Criteria:
Not repeating what we are already doing
Evenly distribute manpower that any one affiliate would need to pursue an initiative
Evenly distribute cost that any one affiliate would pay to pursue an initiative
Benefit affiliate members across region
PD events – what is coming up this summer?
REMA nothing currently planned
RISDE nothing currently planned
ME nothing currently planned
NH Linux workshops
CT nothing currently planned
MA Tech Boot Camps: Last Summer - MS Sharepoint (1 day free), InfoPath/SurveyMonkey ( 1 day free), Linux (-days $125/pp to attend) – all carryovers from March leadership symposium – Walter could offer again and open registrations to all ISTE affiliate members
Ideas:
Summer 07 OS Academy: Linux, OS X and Windows Sharepoint)
SIS
Security issues – NH workshop, MS supported, but a consultant did the actual PD
Walter voiced preference to have educators offer affiliate-sponsored PD instead of vendors
Tech leadership – start with the ISTE Institute
Intel Institute/ISTE - Short duration (2 hour) local events (3/4) for leadership as a hook for the longer summer event in one central location. (ISTE Institute) Maybe roll into an existing event in some states (ME).
Do we need an event subgroup?
MS ITC Skills Student Resource Kit – where to we get this?
Support issues:
RI in one district the use of non-union techs is not allowed. Her district was brought to task for using students and college students. Cannot increase their intern staff, must stay at status quo.
Lesson learned – keep your eyes on negotiations for restrictions that might hinder the use of student trouble shooting.
RI is a NEA state, looking ways to get around it
Recycling computers for community would be “community service” not tech support
Strategies for students working for the summer for pay, not as much during the school year due to security issues
Regional Political Advocacy Group
Yes – NH, RI, CT
No – ME, RI, MA, VT
Ideas/discussion:
Is there a role?
Would we need to agree upon something?
Sharing role, CECA started in 1993 – link
CECA – initial goal was to demo to legislators to show how tech was being used, then grew from there with the kids being the highlight/focus, look a long time to get PR (easier at the local level) – now have passed on the PR to the local schools. 1 Wednesday in April - 30 schools each year, they have to apply. (not getting the urban areas) Governor initiated a NOC to each district and to town library to connect to CEN. Then each district was responsible for connecting all their schools. Worked well in some districts, not so well in others due to funding issues/discrepancies. Willing to post their brochure online.
Is there an ISTE advocacy day this year? COSN/ISTE – Could we have a regional advocacy event?
RISTE has always been involved in advocacy for funding, but it is not a formal position, do it more on an ad hoc basis.
MassCUE’s bylaws does not allow it to do heavy duty lobbying, 503 (c) – can say that you can support ed technology, but not a specific bill.
VT does not have much, only one person in the state. Low key
Is this a priority for a regional ISTE affiliates?
Is most advocacy $$$ related or topic related (ex NCLB)?
RI is not mostly a $$ issue, very little impact due to small amount. Most efforts have been focused on rallying state money.
Regional collaboration may not have much clout right now.
Perhaps first steps would be to share best practices and strategies.
Regional Buying Power
Maine Status – fulltime business manager for ACTEM - $25 annual district fee (MS, Apple, Adobe, FMP, Sunburst) does all the negotiating, shipping, ordering, . . . at the local level the PO goes to ACTEM, but do not need to go through RFP. Marvel database – for library/media resources (these databases came in as the 3rd leg of the 1-to-1 effort (resources) 1- hardware, 2- professional development.
NH – NHSTE not doing group purchase, many ed software packages, NHDOE has negotiated a few high level agreements (MS/Adobe)
CT – Adobe group purchase (need to have one person in district who has CECA membership and then the district can buy off the group purchase)
RI – collaborative bids, vendor does the management, generally the same vendor (MS, Symantec, Adobe – piggybacking on Providence agreement) about to bid small parts (mice, hard drives, cables), to make the RFP process less cumbersome mostly . . . did a consortium bids for ePortfolio, sis, 3 competing organizations share the bid processes. MS world is changing . . . looking to get more from MS, but remains be seen
REMA has group purchase if you belong to RILink – media group – bring in special prices, purchasing research/remote data bases (netTrekker type subscription services) – group looking a single catalog strategy.
VT – nothing via VITA learn, state buy only and not easy to do!
MA – Adobe license (one member rule), not much else
Ideas/discussion:
Is there a role for group purchasing at the regional level?
Could a person from VT join the Maine group to access some of the group purchase plans?
Is there another tier of pricing with respect to any of the core products that districts purchase regularly?
Would only make sense to so a regional effort if it looks like there savings to be realized at the regional level?
What finance issues and legal issues come up when we cross state boundaries?
Is there value to having a NE voice?
Would need to research the current levels/tiers and assess. Ideal area for ISTE support here.
General Discussion items:
Student email accounts:
Some districts have student “intranet” email accounts
Some have wide open email for grade ranges of students
Usually determined at the district level
Sharing of other print/organizational resources
Have a link to the NEIA site from each our local websites and then in reverse have links from the NEIA back to our sites.
Go back to boards to vote on offering one comp membership to each NE ISTE affiliate.
Sharing membership across organizations:
Is this desired?
What are the logistics?
Next meeting:
Where: Nashua, Portsmouth, Worcester, Marlboro, Sturbridge
When: March date – 23/24 (1st choice) or 30/31 (2nd choice)
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