Tech Cabinet 11/8/13 Minutes

11/7/13 Tech Cabinet Minutes

Carlsbad Unified School District Technology Cabinet

District Office, Conference Room, 8:00 - 10:00 am

Attendees: Bryan Brockett, Margie Giordani, Rick Lewis, Chad Lund, Cesar Morales, Aaron Nelson, Rob Nye, Sharon St. Clair, Maggie Stanchi, Richard Tubbs

Old Business

• Typing program used at Valley is Microtype 3 and is loaded on the school’s server.  Typingweb.com may be the way to go for the secondary schools. Richard Tubbs has used it at Hope and, while it does have ads, students can certainly still learn to type using the program.  Any secondary sites interested in using it can let Sharon St. Clair know.
• Google Apps for Education (GAFE) at AOM - AOM will be piloting the system for the district, with Ashley Crawford at the helm.  An AUA/BYOD policy has been completed and will be distributed to families beforehand. Approximately 12 teachers have indicated a strong interest in participation and Ashley will hold trainings after school on Mondays or Tuesdays. See GAFE for Jefferson below for more.
• SPMS - Sharon sent the login information to Tech Cabinet, but there is no feedback at this time.
• BYOD resources:
• http://ohlsd.org/portfolio/byod-developing-an-acceptable-use-policy/
• http://engage.intel.com/thread/11545 (a huge collection)
• Aeries Portal can be opened for elementary families - maybe shoot for 2nd semester.

New Business

• Type 2 Learn - The webinar was successful in that it was the first time every elementary teacher in the district received the exact same message at the exact same time.  Handouts would have been very helpful for the teachers to take notes on - keep in mind for future webexes or webinars.  All students Grades 5 and below and all elementary teachers have been loaded into the system. Teachers will have to create their own class groups though.
• GAFE for Jefferson as an elementary pilot
• A comprehensive system is needed to help Jefferson be in compliance with IB. The collaborative projects and digital portfolios components lend themselves well to GAFE.
• Sharon will talk with Ashley about rolling 4-5 grade Jefferson teachers and Sage Creek (about 4) into the system to broaden the pilot.
• Jeff Heil at SDCOE (Margie and Bryan suggestion) may be able to help with the deployment.
• iPads for the Smarter Balanced Assessments
• Purchase wired keyboards via Expenditure Committee?  Sites will have to decide if they want to apply for them.
• Rob will share the testing times and the link for the hardware requirements
• Rick Lewis will meet with each principal to determine site-level needs
• School Loop Parent Survey
• How parents are using it?
• Is it friendly?
• Enough info?
• What do parents want?
• TAC can assist with generating the questions
• Speak Up Survey
• Sharon will place a button to the survey on all School Loop homepages
• Sharon will generate language principals can use to advertise to parents and encourage teachers to take their students to the lab to complete the survey.
• New District Website
• Is it possible to keep current School Loop sites live while changing templates?  Sharon has confirmed that it is not possible to change the template while maintaining the original website. If a site is interested in experimenting, we do have a demo school and Sharon can give access to it.
• Ed Tech Site Visits
• Sharon St. Clair has been doing Ed Tech Site Visits at interested schools. The purpose to to provide direct support to teachers and staff with Ed Tech related issues.  She spends about 3 hours at the site either helping the staff or doing her other work on her laptop (She’s actually updating this from BV right now).  It has been pretty well received thus far. AOE, BV, Hope, Jefferson, Kelly, and Valley have all scheduled visits.  Interested principals should contact Sharon to schedule a time.
• Chromebooks
• This will be a district wide review to decide if these devices will work for our needs
• AOMS is pretty happy with theirs so far
• NOTE: Chromebooks require wi-fi printing
• Ads in homework
• Sharon will generate some language regarding ad blockers and share across the district.  This is a direct result of a parent complaining about an ad on an external website from which a teacher assigned reading.
• Prop P Update
• Board Action item to approve $600,000 for the computer labs next week
• If approved, installation will occur over Winter Break (hopefully)
• New servers will also be purchased
• Decent lab computers will be redistributed among sites.  They will be tagged by Julie and Saul.
• Upgrade of DO servers and communication systems to support school systems
• Still to come
• Refresh 1/3 of current computers
• Summer 2014 - install AP units in every classroom
• What does the wish list look like since William and Curt have meet with all principals?  Rick will speak with them to help prioritize the list.
• Aeries Parent Portal - can middle school do course selection this year?  When can we get the elementary parents set up? 

10/3/13 Tech Cabinet Minutes

10/3/13 Tech Cabinet Minutes

Carlsbad Unified School District Technology Cabinet

District Office, Conference Room, 8:00 - 10:00 am

Attendees: Bryan Brockett, Margie Giordani, Kimberly Huesing, Rick Lewis, Chad Lund, Cesar Morales, Aaron Nelson, Rob Nye, Sharon St. Clair, Maggie Stanchi, Richard Tubbs

Questions asked at the September Meeting

    Rob Nye’s answers after the Sept meeting, additional discussion during the October meeting, new

questions/action items

• Feasibility of typing certification tests at middle school level?  We can look at type 2 learn and see if it expands to the middle school. Type 2 Learn has been approved for elementary schools.  Licenses for home use as well.  What does Valley use?

• 40 new computers/school? Yes...This is part of the facility master plan upgrades and we are using Prop P money to upgrade all existing computer labs. Down to 38 computers now (excluding CHS  and SCHS and one Valley lab). Reallocate existing labs to other locations in the school or to other sites as needed.  Hopefully this will be completed by January 1, 2014.  Installation is starting at Hope during Thanksgiving Week. Also replacing servers and the teacher computer.
• Purchasing Type 2 Learn 4 vs. using Typing Web.com for free? We wanted to get a consensus from elementary principals that they wanted us to go with the paid version or look at other options.  If everyone wants to go with type 2 learn that we will purchase a district-wide account. Type 2 Learn was approved by the CC Expenditures Committee on 10/2/13.  Kimberly Huesing is working to complete the purchase and then district wide implementation will be planned.
• What is the plan for outfitting all schools with technology for the Common Core Assessment?  Labs are being upgraded to a consistent level.  We are also going to look at devices with Common Core money but again that needs to be prioritized and vetted by a panel. This is an ongoing discussion.  Much will have to wait until we hear more about the Smarter Balanced pilot testing in ELA and Math in the Spring.
• What is the plan for lab techs at the elementary level?  What about the secondary schools?  This would need to be part of a larger discussion.  I think we would need to prioritize the money we are receiving from the state.  if this is an area that the panel feels is necessary then we could look at it. This was a topic at the CC Expenditure committee. Paying for salary positions with one-time money is difficult. The new tech at AOE/PR has been selcted.
• What is happening to Google Apps for Education?  I have been piloting but it has not gone smoothly...There are many issues that we need to continue to work through.  Next steps would be to have Matt turn on some administrators and teachers who would voluntarily want to make the switch.  I think we should invite Matt to the next meeting and he can discuss the challenges.  I think he has them all worked through however. AOM will possibly pilot this earlier.  A meeting will be set to discuss this further with Ashley Crawford, Aaron Nelson, Matt Taylor, Rob Nye, and Sharon St. Clair.
• Where are we with the secondary individual log on credentials for students?  Currently it is being used at SCHS.  If we get through September without any major issues we can look to roll that out to more schools.  Laptops have to be hardwired to authenticate the first time. Issue with iPads and forgetting the network must be resolved.  A temporary work around was to create four new student wi-fi accounts for use in each math teacher’s room and the library.
• What is being done to ensure AP/WiFi connectivity is equitable across the district?  That was also just approved in the facility master plan upgrades.  We will be looking at companies to go out to bid to complete that job.  I believe that all the wiring is pulled for the additional AP units.   I think Rick Lewis could answer this.  I will check on the timeline with him and William. Replacing AP units is a part of plan separate from the new computer labs. We must determine where all the units are first and if the wiring is already there  behind the ceiling tiles. Funded by Prop P.  Every classroom will have an AP. Coming Summer 2014
• Will any of the Common Core funds be used to assist with our tech needs, and can the Tech Cabinet be involved in those decisions?  We are creating a committee of teachers, site admin and district to create a needs list based on the three categories that the 2.1 million dollars of CC money that the district received.  That committee will have the ultimate oversight of how that money will be spent and it what areas.  The three general areas are professional development, instructional materials, and technology and infrastructure.  Proposal forms shared district wide.  Tech Cabinet can submit proposals as well.
• DataDirector vs. Illuminate for next year? Data Director for one more year.  In the meantime we can look at other item banks that are out there that may work well.
• What is happening with SPMS? We have not been really impressed with the item bank in SPMS….all multiple choice.  I would rather wait then have teachers trained on something we do not feel looks anything like smarter balanced at this time.  We would be happy to share our access codes to principals and see what they think.  They want us to identify teachers to train but we are hesitant that they will not use it based on the items in the bank.  There are some misconceptions by the teachers regarding what SPMS really is.  Unfortunately, the piloting done in Spring, 2013 left an inaccurate impression of what we now have access to. Send out SPMS log in information with the Tech Cabinet to get a feel for it.  

BYOD? Find some BYOD policies to shore up the language first. Should be Internet only.

School Loop Translate - Sharon will contact SL to see if the translation feature can work after logged in.

Update on K-5 CC report cards provided by Kimberly Huesing.

Aeries Parent Portal at the elementary level - can we open it up to them? Can the teachers use the standards based gradebook for communication with parents?

Destiny - do iOS devices have scanning apps that will work with this program? E-Books? - still in process.

TAC - Technology Advisory Committee meets the Friday after Tech Cabinet

Tech Cabinet Minutes 6/6/13

6/6/13 Tech Cabinet Minutes

Carlsbad Unified School District Technology Cabinet

District Office, Conference Room, 8:00 - 10:00 am

Attendees: Bryan Brockett, Rick Lewis, Cesar Morales, Rob Nye, Sharon St. Clair, Maggie Stanchi, Richard Tubbs

• Holding a digital retreat in August after all principals come back
• Common Core focused
• Start with Vision - Ted Lai from Apple
• Michael Ecker
• Richard Tubbs
• Chad Lund
• Margie Giordani
• Cesar Morales
• Matt Steitz
• Rachel Newman
• Shane Little
• Jeff Simon
• CHS?
• Bryan Brockett
• Cabinet, Directors, Sharon St. Clair, board member
• Goals for 2013-2014 school year based on Board Success Indicators
• Sage Creek High School from 8-12 at 8/15/13
• Naviance for middle school
• Rob will investigate further
• Data Management decision
• Staying with DataDirector for at least this year
• Set up webinar for assessment building training preview
• iPad repair company
• Phone Phix
• Technology Advisory Committee
• Find a parent rep from each site to sit on the committee - start in September
• email principals - parents not already on PSAC

Tech Cabinet Minutes 5/2/13

Tech Cabinet Standing Items Update/Minutes

for the 5/2/13 meeting

Please add to this document as needed.  Be sure to include any information you have gleaned from all of your interactions around the district for the last month. Issues should be strongly highlighted so we can deal with them.  Please include your name so everyone knows who contributed that piece.

• Data Management -  A follow up meeting is scheduled with Illluminate on May 7th at Magnolia Elementary 3:15 PM with 15 "power users."
• Multimedia Integration - Dr. Nye and Rick are working with Cisco to address our hardware and software needs to bring in more multimedia.
• Standards-Based Software -  It is still a good idea to have a comprehensive standard across the district to save money.  Rob will talk with Sharon more about possible district purchases of common programs that help advance Common Core.
• School Loop - District site to launch next school year.
• Naviance -  Dropping middle school option as there aren't enough users to justify the cost.
• Destiny - Rob will follow up with Sharon and Lacy.  Still moving forward.
• Infrastructure Items -  Still on schedule for July 2013 upgrade
• MITI (Fiscal and HR system out of SDCOE) - Still in process.  All districts in the county will participate.  This is an 18 month process.
• Prop P Update (Sage Creek HS) - Getting closer to sign off on being done with vendors.
• Communication Items - Social media policy/guideline will be included at the beginning of next year in PD Place.  A report mechanism is needed to provide a list/report of staff members who need to complete required forms.
• Aeries/ABI Items -  Training on May 9 for trimester master scheduling building.
• School Messenger Items - Rick will continue to address administrative assistant needs for training.  No specifics have been provided to Rick from Amy Lawton.
• Common Core Exam Items - Computer laboratory usage requires specific scheduling to accommodation all the grades necessary to test.  This will be a priority for sites to determine.  
• Exemplary Technology Use Items -
• Matt Taylor registered the district with Google Apps.  The archiving fee is $8.50 per student account.  We do not recommend a gmail account for each student at this time as we cannot support the volume of students across the district.  SchoolLoop has the function already at a lower cost.  Dr. Nye and Rick Lewis met with Cisco to investigate the requirements to integrate Unity and Google mail.  Students would need a standard user name to follow them throughout their school career.   

Dr. Nye is reviewing online vendors for registration.  Newport-Mesa used the system and provided excellent feedback.  May 9th is the demonstration at 1 PM at the district office.

 Tech cabinet approves the recommended changes to the tech plan regarding the adjustment to the SchoolLoop expectations.  The team agrees the standards are different for primary teachers compared to secondary teachers.  The posting of homework is an important priority as well as 100% of teachers connected to SchoolLoop for parent and student communication.

Tech cabinet endores a repair contract for iPad/iPod devices to save money.  Team will based decision on the pricing points that Sharon determines from visiting iRepair in Solana Beach and A+ Electronics in Encinitas.   Rick Konesky could also research this if further pricing points are needed as he is in the purchasing department.

Lightspeed:  Google Apps does not cover virus protection for desktops and power management.  Malware is still a big challenge as staff open emails that launch malware and infect their computers.  There are other products that provide protection we need and power management.  Lightspeed is not a very good product.   Matt Taylor and Rick Lewis will research additional products that meeting legal requirements and our contract obligations with SDG&E (power management system).

We do not have enough storage space to accommodate our growing digital storing needs district-wide.  Matt and Rick are researching storage systems that are more cost effective, such as Google.   Current email users total 1,350, which would cost $11,475 per year with Google's pricing guide.  An exchange server costs $5000-$10000 with 500 GB of storage.  We currently use about half of this storage.

Challenges:  Transitions need to be managed with easy beginning steps.  Word processing might be better on MS Word.  Training time to introduce new products with staff.

4/10/13 Tech Cabinet Minutes

4/10/13 Tech Cabinet Minutes

Carlsbad Unified School District Technology Cabinet

District Office, Resource Training Room, 8:00 - 9:50 am

Attendees: Bryan Brockett, Michael Ecker, Margie Giordani, Rick Lewis, Chad Lund, Cesar Morales, Rob Nye, Sharon St. Clair, Richard Tubbs

• Review/Adding to Standing Items (see complete list here)
• School Loop grading at elementary level - We will no longer be offering elementary teachers to choice to use the School Loop gradebook.  This will help us save a significant amount of money annually.  Instead, teachers are welcome to use the Aeries gradebook instead.  This is a standards-based gradebook and parents will have access to their students’ grades via the parent portal.
• Middle School Counselors recommendation regarding Naviance - it is not needed.  This committee agrees and recommends that the district no longer fund Naviance for 6-8 grade students.  Naviance was very unresponsive to our request to charge for only 8th grade students. We will look into other programs, like Bridges, to supplement the interest inventory piece from Naviance.
• Report on any decision regarding an existing library media tech as the main administrator for Destiny - this is still up for discussion at the Cabinet level.  The decision should be made soon.
• Tech Plan Subcommittee items - tabled until next meeting
• Review updated Year 1 Benchmarks
• School Loop goals revision? - Sharon will work with Rob to revise
• iSafe v. Jon Moffat
• K-5 will use iSafe. All teachers have been registered in iSafe and they have been notified of the procedures for accessing the lessons and certifying completion. Some K-5 principals have elected to hold assemblies and will do the certifying school wide, rather than have individual teachers do it.
• Secondary principals have iSafe accounts so they can certify the completion of the required instruction.  That initial instruction will be in the form of a Cyber Education’s presentation by Jon Moffat.  Make-ups can be done using the iSafe curriculum or by videotaping Jon’s presentation and showing it to the kids.
• Student Tech Standards assessments in DataDirector
• Grade 3 complete: 2012-2013 3rd Grade Tech Standards Assessment
• Grade 6 complete: 2012-2013 6th Grade Tech Standards Assessment
• Sharon met with Kelly Momeyer at AOM and shared the assessments.  Kelly will share with her grade level and get back to Sharon. Sharon met with Caitlin Coulter from Hope who will be piloting the 3rd grade standards.  Sharon requested that both AOM and Kelly get as far as they can with assessing the standards and then report their findings.  Was the assessment easy to use?  Were the skills appropriate?
• Revision of Social Media Guidelines
• Are there any necessary changes to these guidelines? Principals have seen it and it is recommended that it be put in PD Place (similar to AUA). Rob will take it to Rick Grove and Cabinet for final approval.
• Equity Subcommittee items
• Elementary Lab Aides
• Nick Covino - Hope, Poinsettia
• Patty Matteson - Kelly and Magnolia
• Sophia Garza - Jefferson and BV
• Laura Lewis - AOE and Pac Rim
• Monica Hills - CHE and CHM
• No decision has been made regarding districtwide BrainPop and Discovery Streaming accounts.
• Instruction and Engagement Subcommittee items - tabled
• New items
• From Michael Ecker - the purchase of hardware using grant or donation money. Are procedures in place for this?
• Create a checklist for sites to use when using foundation donations
• Needs Assessment at site level
• Take to Info Systems for approval/suggestions
• Create list of standards for peripherals/hardware/software/tablets
• From Michael Ecker - equity for access to Wifi
• From Chad Lund - Moodle for Teacher and Student use
• Laurel will look into it more to find out the costs and hosting specifications.
• Chromebooks demonstration by Ron Cordell from AOM
• Check on how School Messenger translator works - can it be edited after the fact?