August 21, 2009

Not a lot to report on this front, except...the very exciting news, that after four months of asking nicely, Nancy and I were able to secure the donation of 5 (slightly used) smartboards from The School at Columbia to Quest to Learn. YAY!!!! As soon as I find out the exact models, Amy will work on drafting installation guidelines. I will work with Don Buckley (dir. of tech at columbia) on getting them picked up.

Also, the tech handbook is about done. Per Hsing and Robert's suggestions, we are going to roll parts of it into the student/parent handbook.

Teacher laptops should be arriving soon, and student tech orders went in this week.

August 14, 2009

A few significant updates to report:

1. The technology portion of studio q last week went very well. We introduced the technology philosophy, went over some expectations about the use of technology in meetings and school events, and Al gave a nice overview of google docs and some other interesting tools. Teachers began to work on domain websites, that work should continue over the next few weeks. Also, the tech integration portions of curriculum development this week were productive. As of now it looks like a variety of tools will be implemented during the first trimester, some of them are: screencasts, podcasts, imovie, google docs and sites.

2. Technology equipment and supplies were ordered yesterday by Lassina through Famis. Teacher laptops were ordered last week and should arrive soon.

3. All the teachers have been set up with email and communication with the teachers should now go through the q2l.org domain. The convention is first initiallast name@q2l.org.

4. I met with Amy yesterday to begin work on the customization of Oracle. We worked through curriculum, dimensions and competencies. There are some next steps associated with this. We will need to decide on the values associated with the levels of the rubric in order to create the "progress bar" we had discussed. This will need to be done in the next couple of weeks, perhaps when Robert is back from vacation we can add it to an agenda.

5. I am currently working on putting the Technology Handbook together and will send a draft out this week. I am also pulling bits of it for the technology portion of the website and should be able to send that out later today.

Next Steps:

1. Schedule a time to talk about numeric value of rubric levels (I will explain)
2. Schedule a call with Flat Toads to check in on progress.

Technology Update

Hi All -

There is a lot to report on the technology front, and I apologize for my lack of postings. Please read on for some updates:

1. Lassina - He started on July 15th. He's got a ton of energy and great ideas. Currently he is working out of the school and IoP. He has been assisting at Mobile Quest, and that seems to be going well. Coming up, he will be working with Leah on getting Email and GoogleApps set up for Quest, with Aaron to get ATS set up, and with Katie and Radhika on the website. He will be attending the retreat next week too.

2. Technology and Professional Development - We have set aside some time during the first week of PD to give some direct instruction on technology at Quest. Hopefully we will have the laptops for the teachers by then, but it is likely we will not, in which case we may consider moving this piece of PD until later on in August. New Visions has also offered PD services around technology and targeted needs.

3. Oracle Student Learning - Amy is working on populating our instance of Oracle with New York State Standards and Quest competencies. I will be working with her over the next two weeks to start to put our curricular framework in as well as our rubric systems. Flat toads has also worked up a contigency plan in case Oracle does not work out. The plan includes looking towards some open source student information systems and building some pieces from filemaker. Lassina will be working soon with Leah and Arielle to start to gather data that has been collected and create something meaningful that will plug into Oracle or anything else we use.

4. Ordering, etc. - Last Tuesday we had a long technology meeting attended by Katie, me, Amy, Aaron, Leah, Al and a NV rep and DOE rep. It was a very productive meeting and a bulk of the time was spent discussing technology equipment, what we want and how to get it. Some important decisions were made:

• We will be ordering Netbooks (1 to 1 ratio). For those unfamilar, they are smaller computers that are appx 400.00 each and provide easy web browsing and simple text edit.
• We will be ordering a cart of Macbooks for the heavier technology lifting.
• We will be looking into a special offer for smartboards - 2 for 1! and also looking into purchasing mimio's with projectors for meeting rooms and maybe a classroom.
• We will be ordering some widescreen tv's and katie is talking to some people about getting ps3's donated so we will be able to use little big planet.
• Amy is working on a list of peripherals including things such as headphones, carts, cameras, etc.
• Al provided a list of software for the image and Amy is cross checking with what the DOE provides.

Amy is putting the specs together and will send them to Aaron. Aaron would like to get ordering done ASAP.

5. We have begun discussing what the tech dept at quest will look like. Al and Lassina had some great ideas around using google apps to set up a help desk system. Al and Arana have started to put together the technology handbook and an acceptable use policy. Al will begin to think about a plan for laptop roll out.

6. Arana has been working on draft of technology standards for teachers by the end of their third year (pasted below) at Quest. These will need to be broken down year by year to fit with the Studio Q plan.

Technology Standards for Teachers

(Adapted from The ISTE National Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers)

Effective teachers model and apply the following standards as they design, implement and assess learning experiences to engage students and improve learning at Quest to Learn.

Teachers promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness.

Teachers engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources.

Teachers promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes.

Teachers model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.

Teachers design relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.

Teachers develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress.

Teachers customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources.

Teachers demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations.

Teachers collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.

Teachers communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats.

Teachers model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning.

Teachers promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information.

Teachers advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources.

Teachers develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools.

Teachers address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies and providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources.

Teachers participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning

Teachers exhibit leadership by demonstrating a vision of technology infusion, participating in shared decision making and community building, and developing the leadership and technology skills of others

Teachers evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning

June 12, 2009

Amy, Lassina and Aaron went on the facilities walkthrough of the new space on Tuesday. Please see Aaron's notes on this - seems Amy thinks it looks good and will support our infrastructure, which is great.

As mentioned in the curriculum blog, one charge of the technology group next year will be to evaluate the use of SPACE and Oracle. Arana will lead this and hopes to enlist Al in the afterschool space.

We will need to meet soon to review the budget against what Flat Toads had specified, we will need to get stuff ordered soon.

Shawn has set up an asset management database. We will need to talk about what kind of assets we would like to track. Could be anything from books to straight technologies. I will train Lassina in the tool as soon as he officially comes on board.

May 29, 2009

Not too much new to report here.

Since we have an official site (yay!) flat toads will be able to get started with some more on the ground planning and development. There will be a walk through of the space on Tuesday and I will meet with Flat Toads before that to get specifics on what kind of information they need from an initial walk through.

Al has joined at smallab for the past two sessions. He spent most of the first observing, participated in the second and will help me lead the third. He's been great with the kids and is really interested in the smallab system.

May 22, 2009

This week we had a call with Arthur VanderVeen from the DOE. He has been managing the ed tech department within the DOE for about 8 weeks. The call was exploratory and thorough. Aaron gave Arthur an overview of Quest, it's mission and central ideas. Arthur seemed very interested in our model. The call was less about the nuts and bolts of technology which I actually found encouraging. He seemed to really understand the use of truly integrated technology and the way that its authentic integration can support learning. As Aaron mentioned in his update email, he is interested in getting us involved in his e-portfolio work and was particularly interested in Oracle. Amy has followed up with him, sending him information on the system. Arthur felt we had a strong team with clear visions and interesting partners. He said he would help to secure appropriate technology for us and would like us to stay in touch and keep him in hte loop.

On another note, Amy and I developed a due date of June 8th where we will be given an instance of Oracle to play with. Rebecca and I will be traveling to Chicago on June 10th to work on developing SPACE/DICE to meet our needs.

TO DO:

It will be necessary soon to set up a meeting with Flat Toads, Lassina and Al to discuss many things.....base image, software, budget for peripherals, etc.

Amy will need to be included on any walkthroughs of M047 so she can begin to build out our plan. It may be beneficial to invite Lassina to that as well.

May 15, 2009

I spoke with Flat Toads this week to update them on our assessment ideas. Amy seemed to think the idea for progress bars within the rubric was doable within Oracle and she is looking into that. Also, I have asked Shawn to set up a simple asset management tool for us to start to use. It occured to me when we were given technology from the DOE after the Cisco event that it might make sense for us to start to track technology assets belonging to the school. Once that is up and running, Amy will host it externally for us until we can move it over to the Quest.

Leah has set up email accounts for Rebecca and I so that we can test run q2l.org. We had some discussions about what email for the teachers will look like and we thought perhaps we can set up their doe accounts to forward to gmail so that we can all me in the google environment for file sharing, google docs, google talk etc.

Lassina has been hired and he is eager to begin to work on the tech buildout. He has experience with this and is willing to donate some time, so we can talk about how to use his expertise. Also, some of his responsibilities at RGA are around data management of DOE systems, so I'd like to find out what he is capable of as we continue to look at the positions and staffing. I think he may be able to help out.

Coming up, this Friday we are meeting with Arthur V. at the DOE to discuss our vision and Quest. I'll update that next week.