CREC Technology Council

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

2008 - 09 Technology Council Meetings

Hi, everyone!

As promised, here are the locations (click for directions) and full registration links for our Technology Council meetings this year:

All meetings start at 9:00 and will run until 10:30 or 11:00, depending on our agenda. Our first meeting on September will feature Art Skerker of the SDE and the unveiling of the new district technology plan, so please join us for this important discussion!

Doug

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Survey Results

Regarding the last survey request: If I ask for information, I have to give something back, right?!

It occurred to me that the following survey results might prove useful as you look at existing practices and staffing levels within your district:

http://www.crec.org/technology/documents/2007_Statewide_Survey_Results.pdf

Results come from districts across the state, who responded in July through September of last year.

Best,

Doug

Survey for Collective Purchasing

Good afternoon, everyone.

Please take a few minutes to respond the the following survey that the RESC Alliance created regarding school technology:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=39Ww_2bJlULtO23oFmKcjpwQ_3d_3d

Our hope is to garner enough input to identify opportunities for collective purchasing deals on software used in districts. Also, we have a couple of additional questions regarding the use of successful practices as a gauge of proficiency. This should take you no more than five minutes to complete, and it may lead to software cost savings if we can identify areas of common usage among districts statewide.

Thanks!

Monday, June 2, 2008

Web 2.0 Use?

Hi, everyone.

Please respond to the following poll to help the Tech Council members gauge how many districts are using Web 2.0 use in classroom instruction. Once you submit your response, you will be able to see the results of the survey:

http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e2b24taffgzhehen/start

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Digital Media Survey

Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks to those who attended this morning's briefing with Gary Brochu from Shipman & Goodwin.

One of the drivers behind this discussion was a previous presentation by Sarah Edson of the CEN. She and members of the E-Learning & Content Advisory Council to the Connecticut Commission for Educational Technology (CET) are currently working to gather information on what digital content/e-learning subscriptions (e.g. online multimedia-on-demand) K-12 districts are paying for, as well as what digital content/e-learning services schools would like to subscribe to if their budgets allowed. As iCONN has successfully demonstrated, using state purchasing power to acquire and make available digital resources with broad utility can result in significant cost savings to schools.

For this particular survey, the information on "digital content" that the CET seeks does not pertain to the types of resources (full-text databases and online reference materials) that are currently available through iCONN. Rather, the commission members would like to learn about schools' usage of and interest in other digital content, such as streaming video or audio clips, Web-based simulations and animations, interactive learning activities, online assessments, and virtual tours.

If you did not already receive and complete this survey via the CT Association of School Librarians, please take a few moments to complete this brief survey to help the CET gather this important information on the usage of and demand for digital content/e-learning services in Connecticut schools. The commission members encourage district-wide responses whenever possible, so if there is a district-wide coordinator who can more easily provide this information, please refer this survey to that person and encourage his or her response. So that the commission members can aggregate the data for the CET, they kindly request that the survey be completed by Friday, May 23, 2008, if at all possible.

Click here to begin the survey:http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=tw2z2_2fuBuIGbCqfpu2NGtA_3d_3d

The commission members greatly appreciate your time and your input! Thank you!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Materials from Shipman & Goodwin

In response to your inquiries, Gary Brochu of Shipman & Goodwin provided me with the following useful documents and briefs:

Sample Electronic Retention Policy
Litigation Hold Form
Legal Issues in Technology Utilization
Guidelines on the Storage, Destruction, and Disclosure of Electronically Stored Information

To download the lot, click here or follow the link below:

http://www.crec.org/technology/documents/SG.zip

Feel free to bring these tomorrow for reference.

- Doug

Friday, May 9, 2008

Technology Council Meeting Reschedule Redux

Hi, everyone.

We are rescheduling -- for the final time -- our May meeting to Wednesday, May 21, at 8:30 at the Coltsville Conference Room. We had previously scheduled the meeting for May 20, which conflicts with many Council members' commitment to the CEN training.

To register for the meeting, visit the following page:

https://www.protraxx.com/scripts/ezcatalogny/ViewClass.aspx?ID=107942&CustomerID=128

Please note that those of you who have signed up for the 20th are still registered for the 21st.

Thanks, and have a great weekend!