December 5, 2008

Location:
Granite School District Administration Bldg. 

Welcome - Celia Powell

Granite's Enhanced Classrooms Installations - Brent Woffinden
Enhanced Classrooms have:

• Ceiling mounted projector
• 4 speakers mounted on the walls
• 6 or 8 foot screens
• Sound system

They have completed 56 Elementary schools in 55 weeks. They are now working on the 24 secondary schools. 1055 Rooms with a target finish date of 7/1/09.

Granite STSs in the Enhanced Classrooms Training - Sheila Walton and Dale Webb
The Student Technology Specialists go out every Monday to teach lessons on how to use the Enhanced Classroom tools.

• The Teacher Leaders created a comprehensive Enchanced Classroom Wiki as a way to share resources and teaching ideas.
  • Interactive Sites
  • Video Resource Sites
  • Photo Resource Sites
  • Teaching with Tunes
  • Copyright
  • Grades K-3
  • Grades 4-6
  • Lessons
  • Activities

Question regarding Computer Based Instruction - Cory Little
Cory wanted to know what Computer Based Instruction programs other districts were using. Here were some of the responses:

• e2020
• A+
• Plato
• Success Maker
• Compass
• Classwork
• Skills Tutor

Kindle Demonstration - Cindy Moyle 

• Amazon's Wireless Reading Device
  Granite SD purchased 150 Kindles for the STSs and Library Media Specialists to encourage them to read. The district purchases the books.
• Librarians have to review the book after reading it.
• It is possible to download classic literature for free from many places.
• Newspapers can be downloaded daily.
• One of the Jr. High schools has a student reading group and they purchased 6 Kindles for them.

Flip Camera - Shauna Jensen
http://www.theflip.com/

• Flip is an easy to use and inexpensive camcorder.
• Software is on the camera.
• USB connection
• Digital Zoom
• This is perfect for students because it is so simple.
• Some classrooms are using them for videocasts.

Livescribe Smartpen - Celia Powell
http://livescribe.com/smartpen/index.html
The Pulse smartpen records and links audio to what you write, so you never miss a word.

• Users can capture and synch audio recordings to notes handwritten on special paper and replay audio segments by tapping on what they wrote.
• The captured notes and audio in the smartpen can then be uploaded via docking station to a Mac or PC where they can be replayed, saved, searched or sent to others.

The 1 Gigabyte model sells for $149 and the 2 GB model is priced at $199. The 1 GB model holds about 100 hours of recorded audio, depending on audio quality.

eBooks on the iPod Touch - Robert Gordon

• Stanza: a Revolution in Reading
  http://www.lexcycle.com/
  Stanza on your iPhone or iPod lets you hold a lifetime’s worth of reading in your pocket or handbag. The built-in Lexcycle Online Catalog contains links to over 40,000 free books, from classics to contemporary works.

Wimba Usage by K-12 Educators - Pat Lambrose and Karen Krier
Karen shared that a Special Educator in Nebo has been using (or plans to use) Wimba in the following ways:

• with a homebound student can be involved with the classroom activities.
• it is a good way to prepare students for college courses who may use similar programs.
• IEP meetings for the following: parents who are homebound, parents who live in other states but don't have custody of child, other participants such as Vocational Rehab who cannot travel to each IEP.
• collaboration with other SPED departments in the district on collaboration day w/o having to travel.
• monthly parent meetings. Our parents of children with severe disabilities many times cannot attend these meetings due to not having childcare for their disabled child.
• using Wimba with a student who is Autistic. He is very bright and writes really well. He rarely speaks, but he could ask questions through Wimba.
• inviting a guest speakers into the class.

Pat shared:

• a 4th grade emints educator used WIMBA with his kids to teach about Utah regions-deserts, forests, and wetlands. All the kids were in his WIMBA room interacting with the chat, his Polling questions, maps and animal pictures. He liked how all his students were contributing instantly to the discussions.
  Here is an Wimba archive of that experience.
• Social Studies Lesson to 4th graders at Riley elementary: Archive 1 and Archive 2
• Pat shared that she would like to use Wimba to create tutorials like Tim Stack did:
  Post documents online using my.uen and Adobe Create PDF Online

UCET Updates

• UCET Conference is March 6-7, 2009 at Taylorsville High School in Granite School District
• Call for Conference Presenters - Deadline is December 15
• Registration is now open

UEN Updates

• Preschool Pioneer
• Adult Education web page has been updated. Please share with your District's Adult Education folks and contact Nate Southerland from UEN if you have questions.
• A new E-Rate policy requires districts to provide Internet Safety workshops to educators. You can contact Rick Cline from UEN to set up a NetSafeUtah workshop.
• The new UEN Professional Development December - May schedule has been posted.
• Sign up now for UEN's text messaging alerts. Simply text "UEN" to 29222 to receive our twice weekly text alerts. Spread the word!
• See UEN Professional Development tutorials on YouTube and TeacherTube

USOE Updates
Rick Gaisford has posted a lot of updates on his my.uen page: http://my.uen.org/39

• Doug Jones is looking for volunteers to take a turn hosting the weekly Wimba User Group meeting. Contact Doug if you are willing to help out.
• Qwest Mini-Grant Application are due on December 15, 2008.
• SpeakUp 2008 Survey is open until December 19 - http://www.netdayspeakup.org/

UTIPS Updates
Contact Julie Quinn if you have questions.

Future meeting dates:

• January 9, 2009 - Utah Education Network
• February 6, 2009 - Jordan School District
• April 3, 2009 - Nebo School District

          

For questions or comments contact us.