Local District 4 Instructional Technology News

Thank you for taking the time to attend our Tech Coordinator meetings. This is the second newsletter for Educational Technology Leaders in Local District 4. If you have any comments or need any information on the topics being discussed, feel free to e-mail me or post a comment on this blog site. Just click on the Comments link above.

Table of Contents

1. Updates
2. Digital Pathways
3. TechSets

Updates

CTAP Technology
There have been some changes made to the Technology Academies being offered through LACOE. Two of the academies have been cancelled due to low enrollment.

1. Nov. 27-Dec. 1 at King Middle School (cancelled)
2. March 19-23 at King Middle School (cancelled)

There has also been an additional week added to the schedule due to an influx of participants signing up during their winter break. We have scheduled an academy at the Local District 4 office for the week of Dec. 18-22. Please make sure you select the correct location when signing up for this session. The Local District 4 location is on a PC platform whereas the Delta Center at Loreto ES is a Mac platform.

Please encourage your teachers to sign up for an academy. Remember that they must be off track in order to attend. There is no sub coverage available for on track teachers. Teachers who participate in these five day academies will receive the materials needed, a USB thumb drive, and $400. Visit http://ctap.lacoe.edu/content/Tech_Academies for details, locations, and to enroll.

If you have any questions, contact me or one of the LACOE consultants.

Cathy Rodriguez Rodriguez_cathy@lacoe.edu 562-922-8779

Jeff Williams Williams_jeff@lacoe.edu 562-401-5382

Teach The Teachers Collaborative
Registration is now available for teachers to sign up for the 2007 Teach the Teachers Collaborative in Ojai, CA. The dates are July 8-13, 2007. Participants will examine best practices, state framework, standards-based instruction, Fitness Gram testing procedures, Physical Best training, Physical Best philosophy applied to physical education classes, curriculum, unit planning, lesson plans, job alike practices and more.

To sign up, log in to the Learning Zone. Click on the Courses tab and then click on the Course Catalog link. In the catalog, change the Program Name to Physical Education and click Search. This will bring up the TTTC courses. They will have the 2006 date on them, but if you click on the Class Schedule link, it will show you the 2007 class.

InfoTech
InfoTech 2007 will take place on April 21, 2007 from 8 to 1 PM at the Los Angeles Convention Center. This is all about student and teacher creativity, teamwork, and achievement. Students can participate with Student Showcase projects, Student Team Competition, and the Student Scavenger Hunt. For all, see vendor displays, participate in Round Table Discussions, and join hands-on demonstrations.

We are seeking at least 10 Student Teams for the Student Showcases from each Local District. About four Competition teams from each Local District are encouraged to join. Last year we had about 800 participants. This year we are expecting around 1500 participants. Bussing and morning refreshments will be provided.

Event details will be available through the InfoTech website that is being developed.

Thumbstacks
Thumstacks is an online version of Power Point. This program is free to use. It is an Alpha version, which means it is still being developed. If you don’t have MS Office on your computers, but would like to have your students create multimedia presentations, then Thumbstacks may be an inexpensive solution. You must create an account before using it. Go to www.thumbstacks.com for more info.

Some of the benefits from using Thumbstacks;
• Easy to use
• Share your work through a web link
• Demonstrate your presentation to others
• It’s FREE!!!

Digital Pathway

Michael Sabin, our Local District 4 Social Studies Expert, was gracious enough to showcase the online component of the newly adopted Scott Foresman Social Studies Series for Elementary. This is the online portion of the social studies book. It is interactive, fun, and engaging. It gives teachers and students access to the curriculum from anywhere they can access the Internet.

Information packets containing login instructions will arrive to the Local District Office on Friday, November 17, 2006. These packets will either be picked up, sent by school mail, or distributed at the SAA meeting at the end of this month depending on your schools’ preference.

TechSETS

Are you responsible for troubleshooting technical problems at your school? Are you inundated with paperwork requesting assistance? Do you need a better way of managing your time and trouble calls? If so, then you should take a look at TechSETS. This site has a feature called My Tech Desk which is an online system that allows you to monitor who needs your assistance, what the nature of the problem is, etc. This site helps create a ticket for each trouble call you get from staff members. It keeps track of every ticket created and allows you to generate reports as to how many calls you receive, the type of trouble calls you get, and much more.

Normally this type of service would probably cost an arm and a leg, but because you work at a school, it’s FREE!! You do need to create an account. It takes about two to three days for TechSETS to verify that you work at a school before they give you your username and password. It is a nice resource to help manage your time and reduce paperwork.

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