Local District 4 Instructional Technology News

Tech coordinator Meeting

We will have our last meeting of the year on May 15, 2008. We will meet from 3-5 pm at the Local District 4 office. Our meeting will cover the use of SmartBoards in Education. We will have an introductory PD on SmartBoards. This meeting will be open to anyone interested in learning about SmartBoards. Please register for this PD through the Learning Zone. Select Local District 4 Professional Development as the program for the PD. The course is listed as “SmartBoards in Education.”

News

Site Computer Inventory
Each school site is responsible for updating their site computer inventory as detailed in Memorandum 4170 (mem-4170). The memorandum outlines several ways this can be done. One of the options mentioned is to update the inventory at http://pc-inventory.lausd.net/ . This information was given to all principals several months ago. Please make sure that this has been completed.

CAMSP Science Leadership Institute
There are still a few spaces available for this summer’s week long wonderful professional development experience at the Thacher Academy in Ojai, CA. This is available for free to all 4-8 grade science teachers. Teachers will also be able to earn salary points. Join us for an incredible week of learning science for the classroom, using technology as a tool. Download the flyer for more information and registration details.

Great Opportunities

EdZone – from California’s K-12 High Speed Network
From their website: The California K-12 High Speed Network (K12HSN) is offering a comprehensive set of tools to support teaching and learning in California classrooms. This free suite of tools, edZone, currently includes blogging, videoconference scheduling and a file sharing system where educators can upload videos, podcasts, images and documents.
If you have been wondering about where to upload and share your videos and podcast episodes, this sounds like a great place to do so. They will be adding social networking, wikis, and instant messaging this summer. This is a fantastic offering by our California State Department of Education! Registration is free!

Customer Self Service

Please use the following link to connect to the new Customer Self Service application (CSS): http://techsupport.lausd.net/selfservice.htm Bookmark this page so that you can see the new items that are continually added to the Self-Service page. This will include outage announcements and a system status page.

If you have been using the 6.1.3 version of CSS with this same link, you will only see two difference:

1. You only have to login once with your SSO account
2. The categorization of your tickets is simpler now

Google Teacher Academy
Google is once again offering the Google Teacher Academy on June 25th in Mountain View, California. The application is due May 28th. For more information, please visit http://www.google.com/educators/gta.html I hope many of you decide to apply. This is a fantastic opportunity to work and collaborate with outstanding passionate educators with innovative tools.

LACOE’s Professional Development
Please take advantage of all LACOE has to offer. There are workshops, week-long institutes, and events that are outstanding. Visit their website at http://ito.lacoe.edu/ for all the great opportunities.

Grants and Funding

From LACOE’S Grants and Funding Page:

ASM International’s Living in a Material World
Amount: $500
Target: K-12 Teachers
Deadline: May 25th, 2008
ASM International Foundation’s mission is to excite young people worldwide in materials careers. To help teachers bring the “real world” of materials science into the classroom, the ASM International Foundation is awarding 10 grants of $500 each to teachers, K-12.

From E-School News

Save Our History Grants
Museums, historic sites, historical societies, preservation organizations, libraries, and archives are invited to partner with a local school or youth group and apply for funding to help preserve the history of their communities.
Amount: Up to $10,000.00
Deadline: June 6, 2008

Live Green Teacher Grants
From their site:
What’s your vision for inspiring the next generation of eco-smart, energy aware kids?…
Earn a $1,000 LIVE GREEN grant – 40 grants will be awarded to teachers for the most forward-thinking ideas. In addition, the 40 recipients will be treated to an exciting online professional development program designed to help them reach their school’s specific green initiatives, including a free digital camera to document and share the experience!
Deadline: June 15, 2008

There are a wealth of additional grants at http://www.eschoolnews.com/funding/funding-news/ Free registration required.

Grant Wrangler is another site that lists recent grants for K-12 educators.

Tech Tools

Read the Words
A service that will convert text to speech that can be listened to on the website, downloaded as an .mp3 for portable devices, or embedded on a website. This would be a great tool to use with learners with diverse needs, including English language learners.

MooURL
This great online application works like TinyURL to make long web addressess shorter, but you can also personalize them and make them permanent.

Using Google Docs in the Classroom
A great resource for teachers who want to learn to use this great tool.

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