Calling All Readers

Here is a special invitation for those who love to read to contribute to our VoiceThread Book Review project. Thanks to Katharine Klette for providing us with the idea and an example! I would like to build one and watch it grow.

Here are the rules and a quick form:

• Students must use an avatar and pen name.
• Only personal, not private information may be revealed
• Reviewers are encouraged to check back and comment on other book reviews.

Submit a book review

ICE Conference

The 25th annual Illinois Computing Educators Conference will be held at Pheasant Run in St. Charles on February 22nd-25th this year. For those of you who have never gone, you might want to consider attending this popular conference. You can choose to attend a full-day workshop, 1/2 day workshop, or attend the general conference filled with continuous 45 minute breakout sessions throughout the day. The format of the conference has changed a bit from year's past so please make a note of this if you would like to go. Learn more by visiting the ICE Conference website. Registration is now open.

If you are interested in attending, my advice is to first ask your principal to send you, based on the fact that you are a building Digital Leader. You might want to suggest a way you will share your learning with the staff at your school upon your return. If that doesn't work and you would still like to go, don't be discouraged. I will ask if there is any money available for this in the curriculum and/or tech budget.

Wiki Work: Ready for PrimeTime

It's time to get our wiki ready for prime time. Please make sure you visit The SandBox to view a list of things for presenters to think about, including using resources wisely, thinking about a backup plan, and using a Google Form to collect session feedback. The SandBox will close on Monday, 11/22 at midnight.


Please note: When the official Publishing Safety Checklist form is approved and available, it will need to be popped into your wiki page if your session involves publishing.  Stay tuned for that link.

Need Assistance?
If you are in need of resources, or if you need help building your wiki page, please let me know.

Final Hands-On Wiki Work Session: 

• Monday, 11/22
• Starts at 3:15
• Location: Longfellow, Cat Clarke's room
• Please let me know asap if you want to attend

Institute Day Update

The 21st Century Learning sessions are quite popular, and most are full. In light of this, it's time to consider whether or not you want to offer your session twice, in lieu of attending another session. The deadline to decide is Sunday night at midnight, so please think about it and let me know. If you have you heart set on attending another session, feel free to decline. Many thanks to the quick responses to the time-sensitive message sent this afternoon!

Here are the sessions we are offering twice so far: 
Class sizes will be smaller, due to lack of available of assistants.

Using a wiki to bring learning to life! Oxnevad
Absolutely ready for prime time blog, Clarke and Hutchinson
Digital storytelling in grades K-4 classroom, Vartanian
Making your blog work for you, Court
Bagging a grade, knowledge and the web, Kannan
SmartTools for everyone, Reynolds
Podcasting across the curriculum, Applebey
Glog on! Gallo
Using GoogleDocs for Collaboration, Frick
Using Digital Storytelling in grades 4-8

Registration is Going Live

Institute Day registration is expected to go live on Wednesday morning.

Presenters:
Please take a look at the list of scheduled sessions to see when you will be teaching before you complete your own registration. You should register for a session during the time you are not teaching.

Assistants:
Please remember to register for the session you signed up to assist with. If you don't remember, you can find that information on the list of sessions and descriptions.

View Sessions and descriptions

A few more openings

No time to present?
Please consider providing assistance during one of these Institute Day sessions.

Digital Leaders needed on Institute Day

Conceptua Math, Kevin and Cindy Anderson

Using Google Docs for Collaboration, Phyllis Frick

Working with a Wiki, Susan Oxnevad

Help Wanted

Digital Leaders needed on Institute Day

Glogs, Filled by Jean and Katie

              Blogs

   SmartTools Filled by Natalie

             Google Docs

                        Anyone interested?

11/9: Institute Day Check In

Presenters
Please complete the form at your earliest convenience. It's time for me to put together the registration form. Check in

Thinking about presenting?
Please contact me.

Want to help and learn a bit more along the way?
Keep your eye on the list of sessions as presenters fill them in. See something you like, give us a head's up.
View growing list of sessions, in progress

Find me in your building
Mann: Wednesday
Beye: Wednesday
Irving: Thursday
Julian: Thursday
Lincoln: Friday

Institute Day Update: Wiki Launched

18 members have successfully joined the wiki! What's in the wiki?

• Time Line
• Institute Day Overview
• The Sandbox  - Our workspace. A place for collaboration and developing ideas.
• Sessions pages
• Index of sessions
• Links to session workspace for collaborating and a template for building session resources
• Discussion options on every page
• Help Wanted - Plenty of quick and easy jobs
• Speak Out - A place for discussions and suggestions
• Common Resources - A collection of handouts

Why not join the wiki?

Join Our Wiki

Invitations have been sent. If you didn't receive one, please let me know and I will send again, or Request Permission to Join.

See you on the wiki.
D97 Institute Day

Institute Day Update

 News...

Stay tuned to your email for an invitation to join our Institute Day Wiki! We're moving there.

Upcoming work sessions:
Upcoming work sessions:

• 11/3: Wednesday, 2-3, Beye
• 11/4: Thursday, 3:30, CO
• 11/8: Monday TBD, if someone will host
• 11/9: Tuesday,CO, training lab
  

Things are shaping up nicely, wow!

Wiki: Institute Day Resources

At the planning meeting we decided it would be a great idea to create a wiki of Institute Day resources. I think this works on many levels:

1. A template would help guide the sessions to make sure clear and consistent messages are sent. (i.e. Internet Safety, publishing) 
2. It will provide us with a place to link to each other's resources and shared handouts.
3. It will provide a format for helping presenters include district initiatives within each session (RtI, Literacy...)
4. If done well, perhaps it could serve as a useful resources for follow up, review, and further learning.
5. All materials for each session would be put together and ready to use again.
6. Also, it will provide us with a work space, if we create a sandbox.

Want to build a wiki? Please comment below.

Institute Day Update: Great Meeting!

Next on the agenda:

• Sort through original working document, updated during the meeting
• Create a wiki for session resources (and also virtual wiki work in progress) 
• design template 
• include district initiatives/goals
• NETS
• Get NETS-T (2008)
• Get NETS-S (2007)
• RtI connections including Classroom Management
• Focus on the 1 computer classroom / 21st Century Learning
• Internet safety and following procedures:
• Compacting/crowded plate
• Rationale
• Literacy 

• Form virtual committees

Work sessions this week:

• Tuesday, 11/2: anytime after 3:30, Central Office
• Thursday, 11/4: anytime after 3:30, Central Office

Institute Day - Check In

Things to do:

1. Check the Institute Day doccument and update your status.
2. Complete the Institute Day Interest form, it's very brief.

Access to both documents can be found in the sidebar of this blog.
Thanks, your assistance is greatly appreciated!

U97 on Tuesday: DL Work Time Available

I have reserved the time and space for the first in a series of U97 workshops this Tuesday and Thursday of next week, but I am quite sure no one has signed up. In light of this, I would like to offer Digital Leader work time and credit for anyone who wants to work on putting together an Institute Day session.

Please submit a comment below if you would like to attend on either day to build and fine-tune your session. The workshop is from 4:00-7:00 in the training lab. The series continues throughout the month of November and December..

NETS for Teachers

Get NETS-T (2008) 

NETS for Students
Get NETS-S (2007)

Call for Presenters: Institute Day

Kevin Anderson has asked me to invite you to consider  presenting a tech session on Institute Day. There is a lot of expertise in this group and it would be great for you to share some of the things you are doing with the rest of the teaching staff. I am posting the request on his behalf because the blog seems like the most efficient way to get the word out. Here are the details...

Date: Nov. 24th
Session Length: 75 minutes
# Sessions: 1, can be repeated a second time
Compensation:: 2 hours paid planning time

Please consider presenting with another Digital Leader if the idea sounds better to you. A Google Doc has been linked below for collaboration, finding a co-teacher, asking questions, or declining. If you can't access the doc via the link, you will also find it in your list of Google Docs.

Institute Day Ideas

U97 Proposals Due on Friday, Oct. 8th

Just a reminder...

U97 course proposals are due on Friday October 8th. To receive a course proposal, please email Pat Williams.

There will be a couple of workshops about teaching a U97 class held at Brooks after school on Monday and Wednesday of next week. I will be going on Monday. Some Digital Leaders have expressed interest in collaborating to build some really great classes or workshops. There is a great deal of expertise in this group and I am excited by the possibilities!

If you are interested in collaborating, please let me know. In that case, there will be some work to do next week. I am happy to schedule a group  meeting any day after school, or I can also visit you during the school day. Here is what my schedule looks like.

This week in a building near you

The instructional tech staff will be offering Google calendar training this week. Here is the schedule.

Dell Training Questions

I know quite a few Digital Leaders have been asked by coworkers to provide them with personal Dell Training in leu of attending the standard sessions we will be holding at Central Office. If you were a trainer this summer, this idea may make sense; however, at this time it is not an option because the goal is for everyone to attend the same clear and consistent training session.

So, please let them know you would if you could, but also be sure to remind them that they do get paid for attending the formal training. Let me know if you need answers to other Dell Training questions that come your way.

FYI Retiring employees will be receiving training during the school day and specific information about logistics will be coming out soon.

Looking for the Dell Training Registration link?
It was announced via an email from Cao Mac titled "Professional Development".

Time to share

Since the start of the year, the role of a digital leader has been to model good technology use as we all get adjusted to changes in the district. I know the members of this group have probably done some amazing things already, so I am asking you to share. This is the fun part and a good reason to be a digital leader.

As the instructional staff camps out in buildings over the course of the next two weeks in an effort to train every single staff member to use Google Docs, we could use a really great document to share.

Please help me build it. An email inviting you to collaborate has been sent to you.

View published version here:
Digital Leaders at Work

Dell Train-the-Trainer

If you were a Dell Trainer this summer, your training was provided by the official Dell Trainer who came in to work specifically with our group.  If there is any question about whether or not you attended training, the roster is linked below for all to see. Feel free to send questions my way. I will be happy to confirm your attendance. And thanks for all you did to get our teachers up and running with their Dells. We couldn't have done it without you!

Dell Train-the-Trainer Participants

This week in a building near you

The instructional technology staff will be coming to your building for one full day next week. The primary purpose of this scheduling is to make sure that all staff members have the opportunity to learn to use Google Docs, but as long as we're in the buildings for extended hours on those days we hope to make good use of our time and work with as many people as possible. Maybe you would like to collaborate, or perhaps you can send some business our way. Here is our schedule:

• Beye - Monday, Susan 
• Brooks - Monday, Elise 
• Hatch - Monday, Lorrie
• Holmes - Monday, Erich
• Irving - Tuesday, Susan
• Julian - Thursday, Elise
• Lincoln - Tuesday, Erich
• Longfellow - Tuesday, Rachel
• Mann - Thursday, Rachel
• Whittier - Tuesday, Lorrie

Confused about our Roles?

Check out the chart in the sidebar.

Want to learn more about Google Docs in buildings this week?

More information can be found in the sidebar.

Kicking Off 21st Century Learning

The start of the school year brings with it a tremendous amount of excitement! As you probably know, the instructional technology team has grown by leaps and bounds and we are looking forward to working with teachers to integrate technology. Here is a look at what's coming...

1. A survey for all teaching staff will be going out to assess the needs of the teachers.
2. A graphic explaining the roles of the technology staff will be published, pending approval.
3. A big picture professional development plan is in progress and as soon as some of the bugs are worked out we hope to be able to collaborate with Digital Leaders and tap into your expertise to help make it a success. Stay tuned to this blog for more information.
4. In the meantime, the teacher leaders are eager to get out in the buildings to find out what's going on and hope to be able to chat with you to find out about great things you are doing and also learn how we can support you.

If you would like to schedule a time to chat with the teacher leaders, please send me a date and time and I will put it on our shared calendar. FYI...We will be at Brooks tomorrow afternoon.

New! Check out the updated list of Digital Leaders (and blogs) via a tab at the top of this blog. If your page is not linked, it needs to go through the Communications Department for an initial look. This is a new procedure.

Meet the Instructional Technology Crew

The Instructional Tech department has grown considerably and I believe you will all be thrilled to meet the entire group of excited and talented teachers whose job is dedicated to helping the folks in the buildings learn to use technology well. This means Digital Leaders should not have to spend any of your valuable planning time helping teachers; we can cover it. Instead, over the course of the next few days I hope you will model 21st Century Learning as you kick off the year and spread your enthusiasm throughout your building.

Also, when I am in the office this week, I will be working on giving you the credit you earned for participation in Digital Leaders. The deadline for lane change is September 15th. I will send you the course numbers for your records.

Enjoy these first few days!

New Teacher Tech Orientation; Aug. 19th

Welcome back everyone! I know you are all busy working in your classrooms at this point. Hopefully you are excited about kicking off our tech plan and commitment to 21st Century Learning too!

FYI... New Teacher Tech Orientation will be held on Thursday, August 19th, from 8:30-3:30. If you are a new digital leader and also a new teacher, I look forward to working with you during this day and I am also thrilled to have you on the team!

If you are a new digital leader who fell one seat-time session short of the 5 required sessions, you may be planning to put in your 5th session on this day. If so, please contact me by email so I know you are planning to facilitate a small group session. I will share our working agenda with you. No worries, the agenda will have links to all the resources you will need to facilitate a small group session.

Enjoy the beautiful weather during the last days of summer as you anticipate the brand new school year!

Web 3.0

During one of our work sessions we explored the concept of Web 3.0 to try to develop our own working definition of what's coming next. We concluded that a good, basic definition would be to describe Web 3.0  as a personalized web experience based on semantic indexing.

When I finally had a chance to sit down at a computer to spruce up my own blog by searching for new Blogger Templates, I experienced a bit of Web 3.0 in the search result pictured below. You can see this is BETA, and it only made one connection through Gmail, but I can see where this is going.

My conclusion? I think it's a good time for a reminder about keeping a professional web presence. Google yourself!

Final Summer Session Today

At last! The goal today is to work on our wiki and move to a place where we can wrap up what we've done and also continue work virtually when we are ready to plan to return to school this fall.

Attending in person?
Please sign in and then jump to our wiki.

Attending virtually?
Please read the Announcements section. I would appreciate you publishing links to all of the great projects you've been sharing with me via email.  Please publish them in the wiki for preview and discussion.

Attention: New Digital Leaders

It's time to wrap up required seat time for New Digital Leaders. Completion of 5 seat time sessions is your ticket to being a Digital Leader. In addition, you will earn 1 hour of U97 credit for your hard work this summer. Please go to the tab at the top of this blog to check your seat time and email me at your earliest convenience to follow up.

Blogging Tip: Managing Pages

This summer many Digital Leaders have been fine-tuning blogs through the use of Pages. Did you know you can hide pages on your blog? This could be useful for many reasons.

1. Create a page and use it for an upcoming project during the school year.
2. Hide a page after you no longer need it, but save it for next year.
3. Create a page with links to all of your projects so you can find them when you need them.
4. Create a page with links to student work and use it when needed.
5. Create a draft of a page now, clean it up and use it later.

To hide a page, go to Design > Pages and look in the column on the left-hand side of the box that appears.

Gmail Signature: Create a Link

Many Digital Leaders have set up the Signature in Gmail with a link to their blog. Until now, you had to show the messy web address because you couldn't create a link or include formatting in a signature. That has changed. Now you can create a link, include bullets and more. Go to Settings > Signature and try it for yourself.

Final Summer Sessions at Central Office

There are two summer lab sessions left. Anyone wanting to put in some seat time can do so at Central Office from 8:30-11:30 on Monday and/or Tuesday of next week. (July 26th-27th) We have the 1st Floor Conference Room reserved and I think you will appreciate this workspace.

Reminder: New Digital Leaders agreed to attend 5, 3 hour seat sessions this summer in order to be named a Digital Leader. 19 sessions were offered in June and July. Please contact me by email before July 28th if you have not been able to fulfill this requirement.

Summer Collaboration & Work

If you are feeling a bit out of the loop this summer in terms of what you should be doing as a Digital Leader, that is understandable. After all, there are about 40 Digital Leaders now and I've provided you all with a variety of ways to participate, collaborate, contribute and learn. For the sake of clarification, here are some of the things you may be doing. 


Most Important:
Always check this blog first. It has all the lastest news and it is what I use to keep the Digital Leaders group going. Always start here.


Summer Lab Session: See schedule at the top of this page 

• 3 hour sessions continue to be held at Brooks this week and next week.  After that, they are over.
• New Digital Leaders can fulfill 15 hours of required seat time
• Original Digital Leaders can attend to collaborate and/or take care of business such as 
• completing your log of hours.
• asking questions about the log of hours and getting it done.
• discussing what Digital Leaders next year will mean for you
• putting in time for the Virtual Classroom class. (U97 credit available)

The Wiki: See link in the sidebar

• The wiki is open to all. Choose your level of participation.
• Learn about participation on the Digital Leaders Wiki itself. 

Questions...Comments...Concerns...

Email me or stop by to chat in person. Check summer lab schedule

WallWisher Follow Up

This is a quick message to those of you who found WallWisher in our Wiki and worked on it this morning during our work session. As a teacher, you do want to sign up for a free account. Please remember to use your newly adopted standard "teacher" password to ease the burden of logging in.

If you signup for a WallWisher account you can easily access all of your Walls and you will get some control over them.  I know many of you like the tool because it doesn't require a student login, but in general if you can get a free teacher account for anything appropriate for education, do so. It will make things a bit easier.

Work Sessions: July14th

Work sessions will be held at Brooks from 8:30-11:30 and again from 12:30-3:30. If you arrive at 8:30, I hope you don't mind helping me greet the Dell Training participants and getting them into their designated  rooms. A list of participants by room will be taped to the doors.

Also, I have published some topics for discussion on the Wiki (See sidebar for access) We will choose one and discuss it during the session. This is published on the Announcements page. Anyone can edit.

Work Sessions: July14th

Lab Session July 13th - 12:30

The next lab session will be held at Brooks, from 12:30-3:30, in the 1st floor B Wing.

Startup Tasks

1. Please sign in. The electronic signup is located in the sidebar.

We're moving to Brooks!

All Dell Training Sessions and Digital Leader work sessions have been moved to the Brooks Media Center for the entire month of July. This is a very good space for all of the work that needs to be done. Kevin Anderson and I are going over tomorrow to set up this learning space.

Attending a work session?
Please contact the tech department to pick up your Dell at your earliest possible convenience and plan to bring your new laptop to the work session with you.

Lab Session: July 8th

Two work sessions will be held at Central Office on Thursday.

• Times: 9:00-12:00 OR 12:30-3:30
• Location: 1st Floor Conference Room 
• What to bring? Your Dell if you've picked it up. If not, please make arrangements to pick it up at your earliest possible convenience.

Sign up for Summer Sessions above.

July Sign Up Available

Summer lab sessions are scheduled in order to provide new digital leaders with opportunities to put in the required 15 hours of seat time. They can also be used by the original digital leaders to work in a collaborative setting, touch base, or to complete Virtual Classroom coursework in person.

Sessions have been scheduled based on availability submitted and also availability of a meeting space. Please click on the tab above to sign up for Summer Sessions.

If we need to add additional dates, we will need to first secure a space. Please let me know if the dates listed aren't going to work for you.

Announcements:

1. If you are a new digital leader and you haven't checked in yet, please do so before July 7th. You can check in by joining the wiki, signing up for lab sessions, or sending me an email. 
2. I'm trying to go off the grid this weekend. Enjoy the holiday!

Virtual Session Sign In, wordled

Virtual Session Today

Good morning! For lack of a meeting space, the 1 hour lab session scheduled for today has been moved to our virtual classroom. If this idea sounds frustrating, you can come to Central Office and work on it in person between 10:30 - 11:30 on Wednesday. The work is meant to be seat time for New Digital Leaders.

Tasks for today 
Do what you can and remember to take it at a slower summertime pace.

1. Sign in. See sidebar.
2. Join the wiki. You need to create an account to join. Use your teacher username and password to avoid future login confusion. See sidebar to go to our wiki.
3. Begin to complete tasks found on home page to get started using the wiki. 
4. Go to Summer Signup at the top of this blog to sign up for seat time if you can work in person. More sessions are becoming available over the course of the next few days and then the schedule will be finalize.

Work Sessions This Week

This morning it was a scramble to find a room and I appreciate those of you who came and worked amidst oboe lessons and maintenance crews. Tomorrow's location will be equally as challenging, so I have decided to move this Meet and Greet session to our Wiki. Feel free to join us if you already set aside the time, or wait until Wednesday morning when we do have the 1st floor conference room at Central Office booked.

I will update this blog with directions for joining the Wiki after I work out a few bugs discovered during our work today. I appreciate the test pilots. I won't update until tomorrow morning, but it will be ready by 10:30.

Drop-In Schedule:

• Tuesday: Virtual meeting 10:30.
• Wednesday: Drop in 10:30-11:30, Central Office, 1st Floor Conference Room
• Can we setup an Original Digital Leaders Meeting at CO either before or immediately following the Dell Training planning session?

6/28 Drop in Session @ Julian

Sorry about the last minute scramble to find a workspace. No one is answering phones. :-)
I am at Julian now and will work here until 12:00. If you want to put in 1 hour, get going with the Wiki and have a chance to ask questions feel free to drop in.

I am working on drop-in locations for the remaining two days.

Thanks!

News: June 27th

Lab Sessions during the week of July 12th are open for sign up - See tab at the top 

• Topic: using our Wiki
• Several sessions available
• Sessions are scheduled based on results of submitted forms and they are still coming in. 

Virtual Classroom VoiceThread
If you have an avatar and would like to contribute to our VoiceThread, it would be greatly appreciated. If you don't have an avatar and are just beginning, stay tuned. Our Wiki includes a lesson on Using Avatars for Internet Safety and this is where you will begin.

What Wiki? 
Wiki kickoff starts on Monday. View it in person if you drop in, or view it online. It will be available on this blog.

News: June 26th

Drop-in sessions:
On June 28th, 29th, and 30th there will be drop-in sessions. All Digital Leaders are invited to spend about an hour of your time meeting each other and discussing the program in person. If you are unable to attend, please email me and I will send you the Wiki with a little explanation.

Things to collaborate on:

• Introduce our Wiki 
• Schedule Lab Sessions / Seat Time
• Discuss participation for U97 credit
• Discuss your goals and ideas

Logistics: 

• Location: TBD (Brooks or Julian) Will post on this blog as early as possible on Monday morning.
• Time Frame: Anytime between 10:30 - 12:00

Note: Remaining Lab Sessions for the summer will be posted on this blog after the drop-in sessions end on Wednesday.

Dell Trainers Information:

New! Laptop Pickup - Important
For original Digital Leaders who are facilitating Dell Training only.

In order to participate in the first train-the-trainer session on June 28th, your laptop needs to be up and running before the start of the session so you can use it during the training.  As a special courtesy to trainers and to avoid crowds on the first available pickup date, the tech department has agreed to hold special pickup sessions for trainers on Wednesday or Thursday of this week. 

Please email Julie Mullen if you would like to pickup your laptop at CO between 1:00 and 4:00 on June 23rd or 24th and let her know what time you are available. The pickup should take about 15 minutes. Also, please included your originally scheduled date so she can take you off of that list.

Train-the-Trainer Workshop:

1. June 28th 1:00-5:00 pm, Workshop with Dell Trainer, U97 credit earned 
2. June 29th, 1:00-5:00 pm, Workshop with Dell Trainer, U97 credit earned 
3. June 30th, 1:00-3:00 pm. Collaborative planning to prepare for facilitating workshops in July, 2 hours paid 

Training Schedule: 

Published in a tab at the top of this blog

Changes to Training Schedule:

Trainers have an initial chance to be employed as paid trainers for two Dell Training Sessions. This means you and one other person will be facilitating the training. 

• If you need to cancel a training session you are scheduled for, please email me with the dates.
• If you are not scheduled for two sessions and would like to sign up, please email me with the dates.

Questions? Please email me

Welcome 2nd Generation Digital Leaders!

Our blog will be used as the primary source of communication for Digital Leaders work. It will serve as  the launcher for many other online communication tools and it is updated frequently. Please bookmark it and check your email regularly for blog update alerts.

Help Wanted: Teacher Leader for Instructional Technology

During the final rush of the school year, the Teacher Leader positions were advertised. The email attached to the posting was not clear. We are increasing the Instructional Technology team by 2 teachers, due to changes in positions of Harla Hutchinson and Amy Vogt.

If you are interested in taking on something completely new and exciting, please apply. The interview process will begin next week.

-Susan

Dell Training Schedule Published

The Dell Training Schedule of Trainers has been published. If you need to make a change, please email me.

View the Dell Trainer Schedule

Dell Training Information

Here is the latest news about Dell Training:

Train-the-Trainer Workshop:
After a tech group meeting, decisions have been made that change the time allotment for train-the-trainer. The first two days have been extended by one hour and will be dedicated to working with a Dell Trainer on an intro to using the Dell, Windows 7, etc. After that, our group will need a couple of hours to put together the 21st Century Learning part of the training and work out the details.

1. June 28-29th, 1:00-5:00 pm, Workshop with Dell Trainer, U97 credit earned 
2. June 30th, 1:00-3:00 pm. Collaborative planning to prepare for facilitating workshops in July, 2 hours paid 

Trainer Availability:

A spreadsheet has been shared with you. Please take a look at what you submitted and revise as needed. Trainers will be assigned next week, and once final decisions about 2nd Generation Digital Leaders are made, we will invite them to pick up the extra sessions.

View Trainer Availability

---------------------------------------
Note about the published form:

• Clicking the link below will only allow you to view this document.
• Clicking on edit this page at the bottom of the document will search for your regular gmail login, not op97.org. Since this document has been shared with your op97.org gmail, you will not be able to log in.
• If you choose request access to this document it will be automatically be shared with your personal gmail account and you can access it through the blog.
• If you do not want to share this document with your regular gmail account, you can access it directly through your list of Google Docs.

Reminder: Please sign up for Dell Training

As you know, registration for Dell Training for certified teaching staff opened today. Many teachers have signed up already and I expect more tomorrow. In order for me to organize the classes and send the bulk of the initial confirmations by June 11th, I will need to make sure we have enough trainers. Please sign up to be a trainer at your earliest convenience, or no later than first thing Tuesday morning.

The training session for the folks doing the Dell Training Sessions for teachers will be held on June 28th and 29th.

If you aren't available to train at all, please let me know. Thanks!

Sign up to be a trainer
Dell Training Form

Google Forms Alert

It appears as though Google has been putzing again and making some changes which is causing them to temporarily misbehave. The new form templates are very nice, and of course I was eager to try them, but unfortunately I haven't found any that are flawless.

Thanks to those of you who tested the Dell Training Form this morning. The test yielded interesting results. The first testers, (in order) Amy, Ashley, Colleen and Harla, found nothing wrong.

The later group, Sheri and Lucy, both reported bad behavior.

John gets the proofreading award!  He checked in much later, but found an error that no one else reported.

Registration for Dell Training for Teaching Staff will open any moment. It is being handled through the Tech Registration Board.

Dell Training: Please Sign-Up

I have created a form to collect initial information and availability from Digital Leaders.  Please pull out your calendars and take a few minutes to sign up for dates you are available as a trainer, OR let me know you are not available.

Stay tuned.

Dell Training Form

2nd Generation Digital Leaders Info.

Anyone interested in the 2nd Generation Digital Leaders can find more information on my website. There is a link to the Digital Leaders page. At the bottom of that page is a link to sign up to submit interest.

I will be contacting everyone who submits a form and then sharing the list with Digital Leaders and principals.

Web
http://www.op97.org/oxnevad

Digital Leader Incentives

Your assistance in helping to identify incentives for  Digital Leaders is needed and greatly appreciated. Do think outside the box and try to include all available resources.  Thanks for sharing your brainpower and creativey!

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Dell Day

Live notes from Dell Day

File Backup Information

As you probably know, information about backing up files prior to summer has been sent to all district staff. This has become standard procedure, but you should be aware of the elimination of SITES folders.

SITES folders are a built-in Apple network feature. Documents stored inside these live folders are immediately published on the web. Once upon a time, we encouraged teachers to publish syllabi and pdf documents via these folders. As you all know, the emergence of Web 2.0 tools opened up a world of publishing options that require less skill and maintenance than working with a SITES folder and the goal has been to move our teaching staff in this direction.

Throughout the past year, we having been encouraging teachers to abandon using SITES folders and make the transition to publishing via Blogger and Google Docs instead.  Although we have made a lot of progress, there is more work to do.  We assume only a handful of teachers are still using SITES folders to publish websites, and we know there are more using them to publish pdf files.

Amy and I will be providing support on a variety of levels, but it's a good idea for you be kept in the loop as well, in case questions should arise. Anyone using the SITES folder should complete the survey linked below so we can help them make the transition to Web 2.0.

For complete information, visit my home page and jump to the BackUp Files page.

• SITES folder survey
• Handout: Use Google Documents to Link Handouts to a Blog or Website

Oxnevad Web

May 17th Meeting: Rescheduled

Since we will be spending the day together during Dell Day, we've decided to cancel our regularly scheduled monthly meeting and meet briefly at the end of the day on Wednesday to debrief.

Meeting: May 17th

The end of year rush is here! Our next meeting will be held on Monday, May 17th, location TBD

A meeting agenda is on it's way.  Before the meeting, please consider adding a link to something interesting to share with the group. Sharing at the last meeting was amazing! In the meantime, here are some things to note:

• Dell Training
• tentatively scheduled for July 6th - June 29th
• sessions held over a period of 2 days
• look for opportunity to sign up as a paid trainer
• Essential Train-the-Trainer (on a Dell) class held during the week of June 28th, one full day class
• Information from Dell Day at Central Office will be used to determine the specifics of the sessions. Good to see so many of you are attending!
• 21st Century Summer Learning
• Levels of classes
• New group of Digital Leaders to begin
• Digital Leaders Virtual Classroom for Collaboration offered Online with plenty of opportunities to work in person.
• All staff email and sign up opportunity coming as soon as all the paperwork comes in.

FYI.. Annual File Backup

As the end of the year approaches, many teachers are inquiring about whether or not we will be backing up our files to clean out our user folders before summer. The answer is yes. File backup has become a regular part of our end of year procedures and teachers should expect to do it every year.  This is the reason we distribute jump drives to all new teachers hired in our district.

The tech department will be sending out a message, I believe, but in the meantime you can answer the questions you are receiving with confidence.

Summer 21st Century Learning

We have put together a plan for summer  designed to introduce teachers to 21st Century Learning. Classes in June will use Macs and focus on Web 2.0 tools, rather than anything that is platform specific.

We will also begin a new round of Digital Leaders in order to develop people in every building who are dedicated to 21st Century Learning.  This new group will be launched through a course in July when the laptops arrive. (Hopefully early)

An opportunities for current Digital Leaders to continue their learning and participate in Train-the-Trainer will be available as well. I've proposed this to be a hybrid format, meaning it would be a combination of in person and virtual participation to allow for flexibility. Dell training for staff will most likely be being around July 8th.

The summer learning plan will be reviewed by the Tech group on Thursday, May 6th, and if all goes well we will post the classes and open them for enrollment right away.

The vote

The Board voted unanimously in favor of the first year of the tech plan. Let the wild rumpus begin!

View approved motion

Tuesday April 27th: Tech Plan Vote

This is it. The Board has agreed to vote on approval of the tech plan at the Tuesday night Board Meeting. This action item is listed under section 4.3 of the agenda, which is seemingly earlier than some of the other related tech plan items. It should be an action packed evening. If you would like to show up in support, the meeting starts at 7:00 at Central Office. I will be there.

View Board Packet

Snippets

I believe teachers in our district would like to see some real examples of 21st Century Learning and take a peek at what Digital Leaders are doing. I'm starting with Ashley Kannan's video and will be featuring more work from our group. Keep it coming please and thanks to all you are doing. You are amazing!

Meeting Resources

During our meeting there was a lot of great sharing. Here are links to the resources. Thanks to Phyllis for hosting the meeting in her room and showing us how wonderful it is to have a document camera!

Publishing Student Work and Ideas:

• Google Search Story published on YouTube by John
• Land & Water presentation: published on Veena's blog
• 100's Day VoiceThread: published on Sheila's blog
• Erica's Blog(s): Sharing classroom experiences and learning
• New Blogger Templates and Student Discovery Fair Projects glog, published on Sarah's blog 
• Pixie2 Essential: Activate Check as You Type, video tutorial created with ScreenToaster

Additional Resources:

• Twiddla, online interactive white board, good for Virtual Meetings
• NETS translated: from Phyllis
• Google Search Tools: Wonder Wheel and Timeline
• Look for Google > Show Options > Wonder Wheel OR Timeline

Meeting Resources

During our meeting there was a lot of great sharing. Here are links to the resources. Thanks to Phyllis for hosting the meeting in her room and showing us how wonderful it is to have a document camera!

Publishing Student Work and Ideas:

• Google Search Story published on YouTube by John
• Land & Water presentation: published on Veena's blog
• 100's Day VoiceThread: published on Sheila's blog
• Erica's Blog(s): Sharing classroom experiences and learning
• New Blogger Templates and Student Discovery Fair Projects glog, published on Sarah's blog 
• Pixie2 Essential: Activate Check as You Type, video tutorial created with ScreenToaster

Additional Resources:

• Twiddla, online interactive white board, good for Virtual Meetings
• NETS translated: from Phyllis
• Google Search Tools: Wonder Wheel and Timeline
• Look for Google > Show Options > Wonder Wheel OR Timeline

Next Meeting: April 19th

According to my calendar, our next Digital Leaders meeting is scheduled at the following time:

• April 19th
• 4:00 pm
• Brooks: Phyllis Frick's room, C302

On the table:

• Tech plan follow up
• Summer Train-the-Trainer and training opportunities and building-based training throughout the year
• Internet safety update
• Demos
• Online WhiteBoard(s)
• Elmo demo
• Your ideas here

Board Meeting Agenda: Tech Plan

Click on the link to view the Board Packet. The agenda is on the first page. The Tech plan and cost reductions can be found under section 5.5. Digital Leaders are mentioned in the write up about staff development.

View Board Book

If approved, Digital Leaders will be recognized on Institute Day. Stay tuned please.

Networked Student

I found this video along with many other amazing ideas on Mrs. Finn's Challenge Class blog.