Technology Committee Minutes

Curriculum/Technology Committee Minutes

Technology Meeting (Subcommittee of Curriculum/Technology Committee)

May 6, 2009 @ 10am

Sandra Flint, Mike Klun, Brenda Swanson, Tracy Quarnstrom, Kelly Legg, Ken Orwoll

Please note that this committee only meets a few times per year. If you know of hardware or software updates needed for next year we need to know about those requests now.

Yellow items are summer work items for Mike and Ken for Wolf Creek

Hardware purchases needed for 2009-2010

· New server is needed at a cost of approximately $4000-$5000 for the server and conversion. The committee instructed Mike Klun to get quotes and we will move ahead after board approval.

· The outlook calendar for all staff was discussed and that function should be no problem for Wolf Creek staff for the fall of 2009.

· Laptops for student use will need to be purchased or leased for the fall of 2009. What we have now is old and does not work. We have 5 staff laptops that Mike Klun will convert to student laptops this summer. In addition we will need to lease 10 more machines and Brenda will look into costs and bring back to the school board. If we use the dial up or use wireless card was not discussed but needs to be discussed soon. Tracy Quarnstrom has asked Liberty Lane Ventures for wireless cards for the 2009-2010 school year and she will follow up on that option with them.

o Tracy Quarnstrom suggested that the check in and out and tech support of student laptops needs to be an additional duty for a staff member and will be discussed in the additional duties committee this summer.

· Stereo system will be installed at Wolf Creek in the Learning Suites at a cost of approximately $200.

· Replacement of 4 last small phones so that all phones get the paging system for security is needed this summer. Cost is $350 per phone.

· Elluminate usage was discussed and Tracy will run a session with Mike and Ken in the coming weeks for a demo.

FOR ALL WOLF CREEK STAFF
If you machine is having issues please let Brenda know.

It appears that LJ is having some shutting down issues and will get Mike K to take a look.

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March 3, 2009

5-7pm

Tom Plocher, Tracy Quarnstrom, Lindsay Jarombek, Sandra Flint, Kelly Legg

Absent Brenda Swanson, Visitor Emily Stull

The committee met to discuss curriculum options currently being used at Wolf Creek.
Each committee member showed various curriculum options to the group and their functionality.

· Jarombek-Odyssey Ware and Gizmos

· Legg-Elluminate, Moodle, and Bubble Guru

· Flint-Gizmos and NovaNET options

The group discussed the pros and cons of the current curriculum options and discussed a few new options including; College in the High School, Elluminate, and Odyssey Ware for future exploration.

The group discussed other policy issues surrounding curriculum that will need to come to the board such as creating some synchronous options at Wolf Creek and the amount of credit awarded for OTIS in the future.

The committee did note from the last meeting as well that it was discovered that the technology committee at an online high school would have to investigate curriculum as all the curriculum uses technology so we are asking for the name of the committee to be changed to the technology/curriculum committee.

The committee is currently working on a written proposal document for the April board meeting that will define for the budget what expenses might be allocated in the budget section on curriculum. In addition some future suggestions surrounding a variety of curriculum policies will be suggested.

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February 10, 2009 at 5:30pm

Yellow indicates needed information from current Wolf Creek staff members in order to proceed.

Lindsay Jarombek, Kelly Legg, Tom Plocher, Sandra Flint, Tracy Quarnstrom

It was stated by members of the group that technology and curriculum in an online high school are often the same products and that this committee would be looking at both.

What we current purchase----

The group discussed current technology/curriculum options we pay for or have available at Wolf Creek. We also noted prices where available. All amounts are for yearly subscriptions unless otherwise noted.

· ASL online ( $95 per half credit enrollment)

· Gizmos ( $600)

· Enotes ()

· Bubble Guru ( $75 for one person to use software)

· Moodle ($3,000)

· Lodestar (license good for any versions starting with 5. – maybe a year, maybe 2?)

· Website based classes using free websites

· NovaNET ( $25,000)

· Texting-gmail ( current Lm may turn in for a tech stipend) Note that gmail is free

It should also be noted that the personnel policies committee is investigating the tech stipend and amounts for 2009-2010 so this committee will not be working on that issue.

· Turnitin.com ( $900)

· Online Textbooks ( various amounts from $75-price of a physical textbook of $350)

· Write to Learn ()

If there is something on the above list that Wolf Creek staff members utilize and want to purchase for the 2009-2010 school year we would ask that staff member to attend a committee meeting to share that insight with us or to send an email to someone on the committee to share at the meetings. Please indicate how you use the product, satisfaction with the product, pricing for the 2009-2010 school year if available and other important information with the committee. If no one wants to keep an above product we may not add it to our budget for the 2009-2010 school year, so it is important to take the time to write us or attend a meeting if you want to keep a curriculum option.

Products we don’t currently own but may want to explore purchasing list was started.

· Odyssey Ware

· Elluminate

The committee is sure there are other products that people may want to explore. Again please attend a committee meeting or send a written request to the committee telling us what this new curriculum will do that nothing we already purchase can accomplish. Adding rationale for why the purchase will be used across content areas is also important. Pricing if available is also important.

When we look at new products the features we most need that don’t currently exist in our current curriculum offerings include:

One dashboard feature, Video capabilities, Adaptable curriculum for RtI and SpEd, Easy to make Accommodations for SpEd, Curriculum that can be used as supplementary for RtI and SpEd, More auditory options

Manipulatives

The Committee would appreciate input from other staff members on what to look for in new curriculum offerings to add to this list.

Some common themes that were discussed as we look at curriculum include:

Staff need to collaborate more to get full utilization out of what we are currently purchasing.

Deadlines and some synchronous activities may be necessary for full learning experience with curriculum offerings.

We need to investigate our dependence on online textbooks and look for other options also. This isn’t because online textbooks are a bad thing, rather to give a fuller experience to students and provide online learning that isn’t directly connected to a textbook.

Some committee members offered to work on projects and bring back progress

All committee members will take some time to investigate curriculum options available on the web and other places. We would encourage all Wolf Creek staff members to do the same. It is important as an online school to always know what is out there in the marketplace.

Although some products may have changed it is important for the use of everyone’s time to understand that curriculum investigation is always occurring at Wolf Creek. Here is a list of products already considered or even purchased in the past.

Historically we have purchased the following curriculum options-

Plato (used in 2005-2006 school year)

Class.com ( several students took supplemental math courses in 2006-2007 school year)

Powerglide for foreign languages was used from 2006-2008

Adventa (used several courses in 2007-2008 school year)

Apex (used in 2007-2008 school year for math and foreign language options)

A small committee has seen “2” demos of products from curriculum associates in the past few months.

Wolf Creek has talked to sales reps in the past few years and had demos of the following:

E20/20 (is used at Fairview school by Theresa Casey Wolf if anyone wants to see product)

ECollege (is used at Blue Sky Charter School)

OTHER ACTIONS FOR COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Lindsay J will begin to look at Odyssey Ware and set up a Webinar for Wolf Creek Staff. After the Webinar we will be given a free trial but we must first attend the Webinar.

Kelly L will get in touch with Cyber Village who currently uses Odyssey Ware to see the product used and to explore it’s options.

Tracy will contact other online schools about deadlines for assignments through MNOLA contacts.

Kelly L will contact Bob Bilyk for any support on one dashboard or other thoughts for future curriculum offerings. (Think one password with pass through that brings you into all programs without having to enter the password again – as a student).

Tracy will contact MNOLA rep for MN Virtual who uses Advanced Academics for information.

The next Technology Meeting is planned for March 3^rd at 5pm- Please RSVP to Tracy if you plan to attend as dinner will be served.

The agenda will include:

Updates from committee members on tasks assigned above.

Input from staff members written or in person.

We will look at curriculum options using the projector in the LS.

Making plans on how to proceed with recommendations for the April board meeting on the budget.

Deliverables from this committee.

This committee does plan to present to the board a written report on recommendations for curriculum options for the 2009-2010 school year and beyond to the board in the spring. This committee also plans to present recommendations for spending the Professional/technical line item in the budget now called the Curriculum/technology line item for the April budget meeting.