January 9, 2009

Location:
Utah Education Network – U of U Campus
Milton Bennion Hall – MBH 202 (Map)

Welcome - Victoria Rasmussen

eMedia Update - Laura Hunter

• Media items as of January 7, 2009
  • eMedia (K-12): 12,621
  • CollegeMedia (Higher ed): 9,434
  • MediaHub (General Public): 6,956
• Usage during the last 90 days
  • Logins: 22,470
  • Searches: 45,141
  • Downloads: 11,493
• Speed Dating Activity: participants were asked to find a video or video series in eMedia and prepare to share some information about that video in a "speed dating" fashion.

CultureGrams Update - Andy Bay from ProQuest

• Authentic primary source info from more than 210 countries
• There are audience specific editions (e.g. Kids) and topic specific editions (e.g. world, states and provinces)
• CultureGrams also has a built in comparison feature, photos and recipes.
• Andy shared how the country information was created:
  • CultureGRams contracts with a writer that lives in the country and gives them an enormous list of questions to answer. The writer cannot use other sources to answers those questions - only their own experience.
  • CultureGrams then hires 6 or 7 reviewers who provide feedback about the writer's draft.
  • The text is updated twice a year.
  • Every five years the CultureGrams hires new reviewers to make sure the text is still valid.

Video integration and digital story activity - Rob Bentley and Ross Rogers
Activity: create a multimedia fairy tale using a software program called Pixie 2. (Download a 30 day evaluation copy. ) This activity is part of a Multimedia Projects class UEN will be teaching in the future.

• First, Rob and Ross showed us the "Draw Me a Story. The Pied Piper of Hamelin" video from eMedia.
• Rob briefly showed us how Pixie 2 works.
• The C-Forum participants were divided into groups to work on their fairy tale. (3 Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood and Tortoise and the Hare.)
• Each group's video was shared with the group. (Those C-Forum folks are very, very creative!)

Screen Flow software - Tim Stack

• ScreenFlow is an application for creating screen recordings on your Mac. This screen capture system is powerful enough to capture the contents of your entire desktop at the same time as your video camera, microphone and computer's audio. http://www.telestream.net/screen-flow/overview.htm
  $99

Other features include:

Powerful editing tools
Highlight using 'Callouts'
Position video in 3D
Easy narration of presentations

iTouch and iPhone applications - Mitchell and Ross Rogers

• View a the list of apps in Google docs.

UEN Updates - UEN Staff

Budget cuts - Laura Hunter

UEN is preparing for budget cuts for the current year budget (on top of the budget reduction that was made a few months ago) and even greater cuts for 2010. The extent of the cuts have not been determined by the Utah Legislature at this time - but recommendations have ranged from 7.5% - 15%. Clearly reductions of this magnitude will have a significant impact on UEN services and personnel. We will know more after the 2009 General Legislative session.

NetSafe Utah update - Rick Cline
UEN is in the second year of the NetSafe Utah project. Rick has been attending conferences and holding workshops to promote Internet Safety and the resources available on the NetSafe Utah web site: www.netsafeutah.org.
Be sure to check out the six instructional videos that are available for download.

Professional Development - Victoria Rasmussen

The January - May course catalog is now available. Some classes are filling up, so encourage educators to sign up soon. The online courses seem to be quite popular these days.

Check out the videos the UEN Professional Development staff have posted on YouTube and TeacherTube.

USOE Updates - Rick Gaisford and Doug Jones

• USOE is dealing with budget cuts as well and districts should not expect Ed Tech funding from the state.
• Potentially there may some federal technology funding through Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT). This is funding for school technology from the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 used in classrooms to improve student academic achievement. Funds are distributed through formula and competitive grants.
• The ITC workshops will no longer be able to pay for substitutes or lunches.
• George Miller,
• Darren Draper from Jordan SD had the top viewed video on TeacherTube ... Pay Attention

UCET Updates - Margo Shirley

• Visit UCET.org for more details!
• Online Registration is available
• Nominate a Candidate for 2009 Technology Educator of the Year
• Nominate a Candidate for UCET 2009 Technology Leader of the Year
• New - Student Poster Sessions ... get the word out to students.

Future meeting dates:

• February 6, 2009 - Jordan School District
• April 3, 2009 - Nebo School District

          

For questions or comments contact us.