SEMTEC Meeting Notes from Dec 21, 2012 (the "End of the World")

[Bryan Berg]

Agenda

Dec 21, 2012

 

9:30 - Moment of Silence to remember the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary that took place at 9:30am one week ago.

 

9:31 - Welcome!

 

9:35 - Updates

1. SEMNET
2. RAMSP
3. eRate
4. Legislative
5. TIES
6. Others?

 

10:00 - Discussion Topics

1. School Security Best Practices
2. TIES Info
3. Others?

 

11:00 - ActivTable Presentation

Deb Meyer, Teaching and Learning Consultant 
Direct: 612-374-8007 
EMail: [e-mail] 
Education Technology Specialists 

FirstTech 
2640 Hennepin Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55408 
Main: 612-374-8000 // Service: 612-374-8050 // Fax: [phone] // Web: firsttech.com

 

Noon - Windows 8 Presentation

 

Kevin Sardeson

Midwest Regional Sales Director

Connecting Point

[e-mail]

Office/Mobile: [phone]

 

Erin Yanke

Inside Sales Support

Connecting Point

[e-mail]

Office: [phone]

Fax: [phone]

 

1:30 - ActiveTable should be here by this time for us to look at.

 

1:45 - Continue Discussion Points

 

2:30 - Adjourn

Drive Safely - Happy Holidays!!!

 

 

[Bryan Berg]

Agenda

Dec 21, 2012

 

9:30 - Moment of Silence to remember the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary that took place at 9:30am one week ago.

 

9:31 - Welcome!

 

9:35 - Updates

1. SEMNET - SEMNET is meeting the same day as SEMTEC this year, so all SEMTEC dates match with SEMNET meeting dates (SEMNET will meet at 8:30am). Getting pricing options from area providers for eRate contract purposes regarding telecommunication costs/contracts. More on that coming soon, though we should hear by mid-January. Pricing is only going to be available for SEMNET member schools. SEMNET is also looking to help offer classes in conjuction with SSC and the SOLO project. Also had discussion about ebooks, withthought to set up collaborative staff development for ebooks, using something like CK-12's Flexbook. Metro area is doing collaborative work between districts in content area to create online book content. The idea is to save costs for textbooks with a solution that computers and mobile devices can access.
2. RAMSP - no new information...they are meeting. A new mobile science lab is coming out - contact Amy Grover for information. Teachers need to do training at Mayo in the summer to have access to the Mobile Labs, there are three of them, one for Genome and another that's available. They are awesome tools.
3. eRate - The Window is open! 470's can be posted right now. Tech Plans are not needed for erate unless you have priority 2 items that you qualify for 
4. Legislative - SSC hosting a Feb 2nd Forum (Saturday morning at about 9am) - presentations being given on different topics including Technology. ITV is a possibility. Broadband Task Force is looking at recommendations to increase funding. Session begins January 7th.  Also info from Legislative task Force (thanks, Jen!)
   Last week the Governor's Broadband Task Force released its report and recommendations to the 2013 Legislature.  One of the recommendations is to increase funding to public libraries and schools for computer stations and Internet access by $4 million in the next biennium.  Here is a link to the report:  http://www.mn.gov/commerce/images/2012_Broadband_Annual_Report.pdf   The recommendation is on page 33 of the report. 

    

   Elaine Keefe
   Capitol Hill Associates
   525 Park Street, Suite 310
   St. Paul, MN 55103
   office 651-293-0229
   fax [phone]
   cell 612-590-1244
   [e-mail]
   
5. TIES - a number of folks attended the TIES Conference in early December. Minnetonka had good information for 1:1. Jen talked about the Digital Learning Coach they have as a new position at Byron. She was happy with some of the discussion for pedagogy.Tony Wagner's 7 critical factors (Google Search that). Grant Voth was looking at 1:1 options with pilots starting next year, and also be careful with the "what" questions before deciding on the devices that are used. BYOD has started in some districts - Edina has started their program.Also discussions of creating an "internal grant" and figuring out what they want to do and THEN deciding on what device works for it. Marty called it "Life Changing". Funding a major issue with 1:1 for Roch Catholic - and they are looking to pilot BYOD. There is a blog that gives ratings for different devices - Doug Johnson might have that. Best Buy is giving Edina a portal for parents to choose devices at a minimum price, and then Geek Squad is providing suppor for their BYOD. BYOD still has issues with CIPA requirements if we require their use as learning devices?? Edina has some process for training and then getting a sticker to show the device is approved for use...then also requiring a registration process for devices to use the network in the school. Tiff took the Tech Committee from Kingsland to TIES as they were looking at info for 1:1. Some good, some not as good. Tiff showed some info from  the Free or nearly Free utilitities for Network Administrator presentation - also the Too Many Hats powerpoint (43mb...available online at TIES Wiki - go to TIES website - http://wiki.ties.k12.mn.us  - look for the TIES 2012 conference presentation materials, there is a wealth of information available. Also, use TIES Depot website - pricing for school employees at same pricing that schools receive from vendors. There is a TIES Conference in the Cities every December (that's the Education Technology Conference geared more for teachers). TIES also has a conference in St. Cloud in February every year more geared for Technology (Feb 14-15).
6. Brainstorm in Wisconsin Dells (Kalahari) March 11th.
7. iPAD Survey - Take it and see results:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&for...
8. Others?

 

10:00 - Discussion Topics

1. School Security Best Practices -
   http://www.schoolsecurity.org/trends/school_shootings_Fall_2006.html - Best Practices for schools
    
   http://www.isecom.org/research/oprp.html (network security)
    
   http://www.dhs.gov/school-safety (Homeland Security page on School Security)
        includes link to National Infrastructure Protection Plan created in 2009
    
   http://www.oppaga.state.fl.us/reports/pdf/0157rpt.pdf (PDF)
        From November 2001
    
   http://fea.njpsa.org/documents/pdf/School%20Safety%20and%20Security... (PDF) 212 pages
        New Jersey State School Safety Plan - developed not long after the events of 9/11
    
   http://www.fldoe.org/EM/pdf/2012bpi.pdf (PDF) 32 pages
        School Security Self-Assessment Form - 2011-2012 Florida Dept of Education (fldoe)
2. MCA's - Voice Packs - is it better to install now, or still problematic - No one is installing it except for specific needs at this time
3. FitnessGram v9 - Shared Server hosted by ? (SSC?, a district that already has it?) -
4. TIES Info (see info above in Updates area)
5. CK-12 (http://www.ck12.org) - who is interested in getting together for collaboration for creaing online textbooks that meet MN standards using tools like ck12?
6. Tech Integrationist Meetings - perhaps organinze something like the "KIC" meetings (Key Instructional Contacts). Have to join the usergroup. They have video of their meetings, not [e-mail]
7. YouTube - is there a way to set security settings to have it "on" globally instead of locally? See Reply area below for updates to this question
8. SMARTBoard issues - v11 has caused some troubles...weird issues with multi-touch boards and strange image issues 
9. Others? - more on BYOD? See Reply area below for any updates to this

 

11:00 - ActivTable Presentation (Promethius)- There are YouTube demos available and a bunch of free apps. Approx price is $6000

Deb Meyer, Teaching and Learning Consultant 
Direct: 612-374-8007 
EMail: [e-mail] 
Education Technology Specialists 

FirstTech 
2640 Hennepin Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55408 
Main: 612-374-8000 // Service: 612-374-8050 // Fax: [phone] // Web: firsttech.com

 

Noon - Windows 8 Presentation - Kevin couldn't make it through the snow to meet with us today, He will join us Feb 1st instead - he still provided lunch! Thanks, Kevin!

 

We had some discussion ourselves about Win8 and some brought along equipment

 

Kevin Sardeson

Midwest Regional Sales Director

Connecting Point

[e-mail]

Office/Mobile: [phone]

 

Erin Yanke

Inside Sales Support

Connecting Point

[e-mail]

Office: [phone]

Fax: [phone]

 

1:30 - ActiveTable should be here by this time for us to look at.- had a great presentation. Board arrived at noon and we had hands-on time

 

1:45 - Continue Discussion Points - see Reply area below for any additional information from ongoing discussion.

1. Android Management similar to what Apple is doing with iPad management - there is Chromebook central management, but nothing Android related anyone has heard of at this point. There is 3rd-party options out there, however, that are specfic to some devices and not "global".
2. Win8 discussion - some problems....wireless access issues that sometimes requires use of the command-line. Does work fine with existing Active Directory or Domains. Windows 2012 Server functionality is more robust with win8 computers....Metro not as self-intuitive as Android....rumors of a 6-moth release cycle...possible Win9 release in the summer of 2013, with minor updates done every six months that Apple has been doing with OS X for a number of years....some are skipping Win8, TechRepublic reported 80% are skipping it. Touch screens may be key to Win8 usability, especially Metro....some things require switching between Metro interface and the classic interface...questions about what's lock-down-able. The interfaces can't be locked down right now...can't pick between one or the other. Some issues with not seeing some applications in the Remove Applications area...
3. Server 2012 - DHCP function has backup...VPN functionality...automaticly will keep one copy of a file anywhere on the server...copies made by multiple people are actually one copy (used to be possible before with 3rd party)...has the Metro interface option as well, just like Win8. All servers can be managed from one server

 

2:30 - Adjourn

Drive Safely - Happy Holidays!!!

[Bryan Berg]

Some TIES Links provided by Bob Teiffenbacher (Kingsland):

Note - if you have trouble with the links below, go to http://wiki.ties.k12.mn.us and you can find all the available resources, including the ones below, from the 2012 TIES Conference

Too Many Hats? Life in Educational Tech Support

http://wiki.ties.k12.mn.us/file/view/TIES2012_Hats.pdf/390698724/TI...

http://wiki.ties.k12.mn.us/TIES2012_Too+Many+Hats%3F+Life+in+Educat...

Free or Nearly Free Utilities for the Network Administrator

http://wiki.ties.k12.mn.us/TIES2012_Free+or+Nearly+Free+Utilities+f...

[Bryan Berg]

CoSN's CETL (Certified Education Technology Leader) program

Handbook: http://www.cosn.org/Portals/7/docs/Certification/Handbook.pdf

Website with resources and information about the Certification program (Including the handbook):

http://www.cosn.org/Certification/tabid/9022/Default.aspx

Contact: [e-mail]

[Bryan Berg]

Note - some of the links in the Meeting Minutes area are not quite what they should be - nothing bad, just that the way I pasted them ended up including "parts" that are requiring people to authenticate to my email.

I wanted to just edit the entries, but Ning wasn't letting me do that for some reason, so here's the "fixed" (I hope) links

For some, just copy and paste the link address to your web browser instead of clicking on the link itself. Others won't work that way because the whole address isn't showing, here's the correct links and addresses for those:

iPad survey link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&for...

New Jersey State School Safety Plan:
http://fea.njpsa.org/documents/pdf/School%20Safety%20and%20Security...