Concurrent Sessions
Title:
A 21st Century Conversation about Teaching and Learning
Presenters:
Joanne McDonald, District Instructional Technology Specialist, Duxbury Public Schools
Susan Skeiber, Superintendent, Duxbury Public Schools
Gail Callahan, Director of Technology, Duxbury Public Schools
Description:
Educating students today requires a slight shift of our traditional methods of instruction. Hear and learn about our investigative journey to identify essential skills and positive examples; learn about our design to effect change. Participate by using 21st Century tools to develop an overview for your own school or district. Leave with a model to create a slight shift in your teaching and learning community along with links to 21st Century resources, how-to tutorials, and innovative ideas. Come join our conversation about education today.
(Please bring a laptop if possible)
Title:
The State of Federal Education Technology Policy
Presenters:
Keith R. Krueger, CEO of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN)
Jeff Mao, Learning Policy Technology Director, Maine Department of Education
Description:
Hear the latest developments on federal ed tech funding, ESEA reauthorization, the E-Rate, as well as the Race to the Top and i3 innovation programs. Learn about the draft National Education Technology Plan, the new National Broadband Plan, and the Obama Administration’s Blueprint for Reauthorization of the Elementary & Secondary Education Action.
Title:
Building on the Past—Building for the Future
Presenters:
Michael Purdy, Director of Technology, Hanover Public Schools
George R. Metzger, AIA, HMFH Architects
Description:
"The most interesting thing about a house is the people who live in it—I am designing for those people." This quote cuts through most of the issues that surround school building projects and gets to the essential question: How will the building help achieve the educational goals for the students who will inhabit the space?
In this workshop, we will outline the process that was employed in Hanover to bring the new high school building project to fruition (30% complete at this time). This process included:
- Developing an educational vision to inform design
- Creating on-line professional learning communities for development feedback - did we (you) do this? Yes—we used Moodle for feedback from stakeholders and also for Frank Locker to post materials
- Engaging stakeholders—community and school—to define the educational goals
- Designing to the vision
- Planning the infrastructure to accommodate technological change
- Preparing for the future
Title:
Private cloud computing: Secure remote browser access by teachers and students to their files, resources, and applications
Presenters:
W. Michael Minihane, Director of Technology, Notre Dame Academy, Hingham
Kimberly Weckbacher, Technology Support Specialist, Notre Dame Academy, Hingham
Description:
This session offers an introduction to a Web 2.0 solution which provides secure remote access to local network resources via a customized single sign on interface developed by Stoneware. Teachers and students use their network credentials to access their local network directories, shared directories, and resources. We will review our rationale for investigating this solution, demonstrate our pilot implementation, and offer opportunities for hands-on exploration using netbooks and laptops.
Title:
BYOT ~ Is your wireless network ready for Bring Your Own Technology?
Moderator:
Leisha Simon, Director of Technology and Accountability, Wayland Public Schools
Panelists:
Eric Bouvier, Director of Technology, Auburn Public Schools
Leo Brehm, Director of Technology, Sharon Public Schools
Shelley Chamberlain, Director of Information Technology, Newton Public Schools
Bill Milot, Director of Educational Technology, Diocese of Fall River
Description:
We are all struggling with students and staff wanting to bring in their own network devices – cell phones, laptops, iPads, netbooks, and more. How do we balance our desire to serve the educational community with the need for security and bandwidth issues?
At this session you will hear from a panel of four technology administrators and find out about their adoption of a new technology solution to provide differentiated access to their wireless networks. Find out about the challenges and benefits and be armed for your own BYOT moment.
Title:
What’s new in the Education Data Warehouse?
Presenters:
Jeff Comenitz, Education Data Warehouse Analyst, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Description:
Part One: Education Data Warehouse
Overview of current features, reports, and recent enhancements.
Optional files to upload including claiming, courses, and assessments
Part Two: Data Collections
Overview of new data collections for 2011
Overview of changes to existing data collections
Review of pilot process and vendor interaction
The Education Data Warehouse (EDW) is a collaborative effort of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and local school districts to centralize K-12 educational performance data into one state coordinated data repository hosted by the Department. The purposes of the data warehouse are to:
- Place the use of robust, timely performance data at the core of educational decision-making.
- Reduce district burden and streamline data practices.
- Improve district data capabilities by providing resources and technical assistance.
Provide data for planning, policy, and management at the state and local levels.
This free tool is available to all public school districts and provides every district and school with the ability to query and analyze their organization's state-maintained data (SIMS, MCAS, SCS, and EPIMS):
- It contains SIMS and MCAS data for every district in the state back to 2002.
- In 2011it will contain EPIMS and SCS data for every district in the state.
- The SIMS, MCAS, and Growth data move with the student from district to district.
- Over 50 reports exist to compare data from individual schools and districts to state totals.
- Districts can load local data into the EDW and trained report authors can customize reports.
Title:
Web 2.0 in Our Schools: Protect? Preserve? Progress?
Presenters:
Keith R. Krueger, CEO of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN)
Description:
Web 2.0 has brought an extensive - and ever growing - collection of applications that are widely used by children and adults. Are they a threat to schools; apps that just need to be integrated into the existing school program; or a basis for school transformation? This session will be based on the CoSN/MacArthur Foundation sponsored project dealing with Web 2.0 and will focus on the challenge and opportunities that Web 2.0 presents to school leaders. It will also give a “sneak preview” of a forthcoming CoSN toolkit called “Leading with Web 2.0.” The goal of this toolkit is to help school administrators to be effective technology leaders and advocates for using Web 2.0 applications in their districts.
Title:
The Future of IT Infrastructure: History Can Show Us the Way
Presenters:
Bob Moore, Senior Manager, Business Development, Global Education, Dell, Inc.
Description:
As an extension of the keynote “The Future of IT Infrastructure (and How it Fundamentally Will Change the Role of the CTO),” this breakout session will look at some of the historical changes in technology and how IT has evolved to the point is has. History is often the best teacher. Today’s CTO must learn from the missteps of past IT leaders to ensure that not only are those missteps not repeated, but that new technologies and new paradigms for managing IT assets are maximized, enabling IT to make a tangible, significant contribution to the success of the school district. The session will be highly interactive.
Title:
Structure Should Liberate, Not Confine
Presenters:
Jeff Mao, Learning Policy Technology Director, Maine Department of Education
Description:
Learn about the policies, processes, and implementation of the largest 1:1 laptop initiative in the United States. Jeff will cover the finer details of how Maine designed a system to "ensure no student goes without a device for more than 24 hours" and what it takes to maintain it.
Title:
Introducing Windows 7
Presenters:
Tom Barnes, Director of Technology, Palmer Public Schools
Description:
Windows 7 offers more features than any previous versions of Windows. In this workshop you will learn the basics of navigating the latest operating system with features built in to help increase productivity. You will see drastic improvements over the previous Vista platform. Demonstrations during the workshop will include a basic overview and comparisons to both Vista and XP that have been loaded in virtual machine. The new features of Windows 7 include: (as time allows)working with the desktop, the start menu, the taskbar, desktop gadgets, working with windows, using menus, buttons, bars and boxes, using programs, working with files and folders, getting started with printing, getting started with paint, understanding security and safe computing, setting up a wireless network, working with pictures, learn about windows games, getting help, the accessibility features of Windows 7 and a sneak peak at Office 2010 Beta. Within the virtual machine of Vista, Office 2007 is loaded, and within the virtual machine of XP, Office 2003 is loaded. We will also discuss the new free anti-virus / anti- malware product from Microsoft, Security Essentials as well as the Problem steps Recorder built in to report problems directly to Microsoft.
Title:
Making Assistive Technology Work to Support Student Learning
Presenters:
Bob Tucker, IT Program Director, MESPA
Description:
To make effective assistive technology decisions, who should be involved in the decision-making process and what information should be included? This 90 minute workshop will focus on the knowledge, skills, and strategies that school district technology leaders need to support a team-based approach to ensuring all students receive appropriate assistive technology supports. Participants will consider how information about the Student, the Environment, the Tasks, and the Tools must be gathered and thoughtfully considered, revised, and acted upon by a multidisciplinary team with full participation, if appropriate, from the student and his/her personal and professional supporters. The SETT Framework was developed to support this multidisciplinary approach. The SETT Framework considers, first, the Student, the Environment(s) and the Tasks required for active participation in the activities of the environment, and, finally, the system of Tools needed for the student to address the tasks. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of how they can facilitate successful use of this framework as well as receive support materials that outline how to implement this research-based approach to assistive technology.
Title:
Google Apps and the 21st Century Learner: A District Perspective
Presenters:
Michael Purdy, Director of Technology, Hanover Public Schools
Lee McCanne, Director of Technology & Libraries, Weston Public Schools
Description:
For decades, we have been promoting the merits of project-based learning as the logical realization of a constructivist approach to education. While we understand this intuitively—an understanding that has been supported by research, we are frequently constrained by the limits of time and space in implementation. As we progress within the Web 2.0 digital environment, instances of significant PBL will become the norm not the anomaly. Through the integration of Google’s application suite, districts can harness the components of PBL—critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and constructivism—for the benefit of the 21st Century digital learner. During this workshop, our focus will be three-fold: 1) how to deploy Google applications at the institutional level for both teachers and students; 2) the rationale behind such a move; and 3) practical approaches for use in the classroom in support of the 4 Cs.
Come learn more about options provided by a GoogleApps Enterprise Education Account. There are benefits and drawbacks to these tools that you need to know before considering them and the alternatives. The Weston Public Schools used a third party to integrate GoogleApps with our network Single Sign On (SSO), a custom authentication portal, and Active Directory synchronization. The result has been incredibly low administrative overhead. We have been systematically teaching our students and staff to use this resource and have seen very high buy-in. As importantly, the collaboration and anywhere access to cloud storage makes GoogleApps an excellent preparation set for 1:1 initiatives.
Title:
Cyberbullying
Presenters:
Ellen Miller of the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office
Description:
This presentation will define bullying / harassment, and cyberbullying, as well as outline various applicable laws. There will be a discussion of real life scenarios, including a review of actual court case examples. This presentation will also include discussion of current trends in technology and how they are being used to target students. District Attorney Early’s Office also provides staff with tips on how to recognize and resolve these situations.
Title:
Reaching Out to Our Struggling Students in Reading and Math
Presenters:
Tom Plati, Director of Instructional Technology, Lexington Public Schools
Description:
Do your teachers have difficulty engaging all of your students in reading? Are poor reading skills holding students back from learning material in their core content areas? Are students in your classrooms having difficulty with concepts in pre-algebra mathematics? Are they struggling over the simple work of combining fractions or decimals? In this session, you will learn about new high-tech approaches that work with our struggling students in reading and mathematics. Through software that successfully deals with speech technology, students can be provided with a private reading tutor. And through an exposure of fifteen minutes to some special software tools, students can become comfortable with their manipulation of basic whole numbers and working with fractions and decimals. Learn how students in Hopedale and Lexington Public Schools in MA, are using software programs that improve reading and math skills and strengthen motivation.
Title:
Data Analysis: How to Track Your Students' Performance and Growth Over Time
Presenters:
Ms. Donna Boivin, Chief of Office Information, Technology and Accountability, Springfield Public Schools
Dr. Deborah Gendreau, Director of Technology, Springfield Public Schools
Ms. Denise Matuszczak, Administrator of Assessment, Research and Accountability, Springfield Public Schools
Description:
This session focuses on the SPS district’s use of data from the SPS Data Warehouse and the new Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (MADESE) Growth Model to match dropout early warning indicators to appropriate interventions. Principals, academic directors and teacher coaches have participated in professional development on accessing district, school, and classroom data through our local data warehouse, as well as on how to access and interpret student growth percentiles through the MADESE’s data warehouse. SPS district staff and appropriate school-based staff analyzed our dropout early warning indicators, our available research-based interventions, and the correlation between the two. The result of these sessions is the documentation of the mapping of early warning indicators and appropriate interventions for each. The technical team is creating secure role-based data dashboards. Finally, once the secure role-based data dashboards are developed, tested, and made available, school-based staff such as principals and guidance counselors will participate in hands-on interactive training on how to utilize the data and the interventions to prevent at-risk students from dropping out. Once fully implemented, the effectiveness of not only the dashboards but also an (initial) evaluation of the interventions will be carried out.
Objectives
- Examine one district’s fledgling approach to electronically connecting data and interventions.
- Apply the knowledge of your own district data to the possibilities uncovered by this program.
- Discuss in small group the successes and pitfalls of this approach.
Title:
Infrastructure Monitoring Using Intermapper
Presenters:
Lawrence W. Gray, Administrator of Educational Technology, Stoughton Public Schools
Description:
This workshop will describe the use of the Intermapper software tool to monitor district technology infrastructure. The workshop will illustrate the various features of Intermapper that can assist busy technology administrators in monitoring and proactively responding to technology infrastructure issues.
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