• Observations - Somers Middle School Visit
     
    Monica Cohen, Educational Technologist
     
     
    • MS Showcase School puts you in connection with groups of schools. MS international heavy.
    • Productivity. Elephant ready
    • Were originally Google 5 iPads in each K-3 classroom
    • Touch screen all in one Pc labs K-8
    • Mobile learning carts (Mac/Pc)
    • Google domain
    • Grades 3-12 cloud-only file storage
    • Permit Personal devices on their domain supports accessibility
    • WiDi adapters wireless connectivity
    • Infinite Campus as their LMS and
    • 21st Century learning spaces --- rethinking classroom spaces
    • Took money that would have gone to existing computers.
    • 97% of parents and on-parents rate technology as very important
    • Picked software with a mind for BYOD
    • Big disparity in equity amount users
    • Use OneNote Class Notebook a lot. No handouts. Eliminate the hassle.
    • Cohort of 9th gr teachers to surface 3 – focused PD – produced video for 8th graders to watch.
    • History - Get a table for three years straight. Personalized Learning device
    • Do a refresh every 3 years.
    • Dell Latitude Device
    • They update and load software themselves.
    • Culture existed always of minimum filtering
    • High standard of trust on their students
    • Students have been very free
    • 2013 – Distribute tablets to student in grades 8-10
    • 2014 - Distri
    • Dell venue $427
    • First two years families bought warranties with extended warranty.
    • Now incorporate the extended warranty.
    • When decided to go 1:1 buy $500,000 each year on a 3 yr lease.
    • Lots of jumping around over a three year period
    • Critical assumptions – Assumed every kid would want a tablet. Every family would want, every teacher would want.
    • Do we buy paper texts or not – need to make decisions.
    • Push back from parents of 504 however, now they have everything in one place.
    • Resistance == older kids who wanted to bring only their own devices. Older kids wanted the paper handout.
    • Central Point where students can come to get help/support separate from Helpdesk for teachers. Called GearShack and is run
    • 3 computer aides middle; 2 computer aides at the middle; 1 at elementary 
    PD teachers
    • Surveyed teachers (via Clarity) parents, etc. They are not doing a great job. Had a school
    • Classroom, access, skills, environment.
    • Staff is not working on their own on their tech skills – work with LEA
    • Not enough PD for teachers. Teachers are not incentivized as they do not get credit.
    • Their PD model does not even exist. NOT Good.
    • Need a coaching model. Going to work with Educscape.
    • Going to outsourcing rather than in-house tech support. CorStar
    • Looking for wall mounted charging stations.
    • Athletics or Gym – charging.
    • Merachi $12 -13 does all platform devices. – GPS sends an email when outside the area. Computrace – Lojack $30 per
    • Teachers get them in June. Rolled out 850 tablets in December to students.
    • Deployment – Dell could not configure them properly
    • Online Assessment /excel
    • Mastery Manager – create bubble sheets
    • Renaissance learning for elementary
    • Glencoe Math
    • Raz kids
    • Greenbox learning
    • Aleks – McGraw hill personalized math. Learning resources. Challenges to move up a level and has robust reporting to teacher. Student recording and reporting of learning level.
    • Khan Academy more blended.
    • Security level with office 365 is enterprise level.
    • Media Specialists will give a digital passport to a student going into Grade 6 at the MS saying that they know how to behave as a Digital Citizen.
    • Whole Child Report – snapshot of where the student is as a whole. Analytics
    • Consumption vs. productivity – allow for student work being public and of high quality. With Office 365 gives the best resources for high quality Presentations.
    • I think we are doing a much better job of digital citizenship at Livingston than at Somers
    • Look for a really good protective cover.
    • Lo tech furniture pods etc.
    • Verb Classroom
    • Elem at least 5 devices to have a center. Kids float around it. K-5
    • Beta test in Gr 5 1:1 in 5th grade.
    • Project Red – envisioning education 1:1 environment
    • Engaging families – proactive when they gave out the tablets. A special email . We should have the blog.
    Website. Parent resources. Once a month a webinar for parents.
    • Give webinars for parents. Blogs for parents
    • Some families wanted to use additional filters at home or use more MS controls.
    • MS Store Parental /controls night.
    • Give more info to parents than they need. They will always say they did not get an email. Inundate with info. Multiple forums for info.
    • Collect through summer – licensing goes through Aug 15 to Aug 15
    • Build our own store with Windows apps
    • Use Dreambox (math) for elementary.
     
    Ronnie Konner
    		Jeff Wieboldt