Conference Agenda for Monday, March 10, 2008

Monday, March 10, 2008 (Continued)

M201: Winners’ Forum (Spotlight Session)
Essential Skills: Leadership and Vision

What are "The Rules" you should follow to become an award-winning TEAM? You don't have to be an international spy to gather this information. Tips will be revealed to you when you attend this presentation. CoSN conference badge will be your security clearance. No fingerprinting necessary. Come help recognize and celebrate this year’s COSN TEAM award winning school district, Bryan Independent School District.

• Jennifer Bergland, Chief Technology Officer, Technology Services, Bryan Independent School District, TX
• Frances McArthur, PhD, Assistant. Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, Bryan Independent School District, TX
• Betty Sanders, PhD, Director of Instructional Technology, Bryan Independent School District, TX
  

Students live in a 24/7 media world that is evolving at a dizzying pace, and educators play an important role in making sense of this ever-changing landscape. Young people's media experiences, especially their participation on social networking sites, influence the way they make decisions, learn, and socialize. In this session, examine ways in which educators can achieve a better integration of technology systems while meaningfully addressing safety and ethical issues. Participants will also discuss cyber safety and ethics education issues and possible solutions that address the void in preservice teacher-education programs; motives of teachers who are reluctant to fully integrate programs; and subject-matter relevance to cyber safety and ethics education and global educational implications. Hear new poll data on parents' attitudes about media and technology. Lastly, hear practical suggestions on how to address parental anxieties and help parents raise a generation of kids who are safe, smart and ethical media consumers and creators.

[View Presentation]

• Linda Sharp, Project Director, Consortium for School Networking (Moderator)
• Erin Brockette Reilly, Co-Founder, Platform Shoes Forum
• Rebecca Randall, Director of Outreach, Common Sense Media
• Carolyn Walpole, Director of Education and Curriculum Development, i-SAFE Inc.

M203: Special Ed and IT Partnerships for Raising Student Achievement
Essential Skills: Planning and Budgeting, Team Building and Staffing, Education and Training, Information Management

Two leading-edge projects will inform the way your district deploys technology for special education. The Center for Implementing Technology in Education (CITEd), a national learning community, will present its Tech Matrix, a tool to provide just-in-time tools to support instruction for diverse learners. CITEd will then provide an overview of the EdTech Locator, a valuable resource for cross-departmental planning in technology integration. The Folsom Cordova (CA) Unified School District will show practical application of lofty principles. Come learn about their large scale, special education IT project in gathering and using data on a consistent basis for program monitoring and planning—student by student, grade by grade, and school by school.

• Arjan Khalsa, CoSN Board Member & Senior Vice President, Cambium Learning Technologies (Moderator)
• Tracy Gray, PhD, Managing Director and Managing Research Scientist, Center for Implementing Technology in Education, American Institutes for Research
  [View Presentation]
• Kelly Calhoun, EdD, Director, Educational Technology and Information Systems, Folsom Cordova Unified School District, CA
  [View Presentation]
• Maureen O'Leary Burness, Assistant Superintendent of Student Support Services, Folsom Cordova Unified School District, CA

M204: Universal Design for Assessment: Technology's Role
Essential Skills: Systems Management, Ethics and Policies

Universal design for learning is a critical issue in education and is poised to be an integral element in the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind. Over the past decade, a variety of technology-based tools have been developed to make curricular materials more accessible to all students in the classroom. Substantially less progress, however, has been made in the area of assessment. This session will examine how research and collaboration with experts in special needs, accessibility, and assessment have guided the development of a Universal Assessment System. To demonstrate the powerful role technology plays in Universal Design for Assessment (UDA), this session will present research findings for several computer-based tools that increase accessibility to assessments for students with visual, aural, attention, and language needs.

• Michael Russell, PhD, Director, Technology and Assessment Study Collaborative, Boston College
  [View Presentation]
• Thomas Hoffmann, Director of Development, Nimble Assessment Systems

M205: Remix & Reuse: What Educators Need to Know about Creative Commons, Copyright, Fair Use, and Intellectual Property
Essential Skills: Essential Skills: Ethics and Policy

Educators and students all need to understand not only the basics of U.S. copyright law as they relate to the creation and publication of media products, but also the opportunities presented for legal remixing and reuse of media materials licensed through Creative Commons. This session presents practical suggestions for schools, educators and students to avoid intellectual property liability problems and to empower learners to legally create and share a wide variety of media and knowledge products on the global stage.

• Marianne Pack, Director, California Technology Assistance Project, Delta Sierra Region 6 (CTAP 6), Stanislaus County Office of Education (Moderator)
• Wesley Fryer, Director of Education Advocacy, AT&T Oklahoma
• TBD

M206: Global Use of Virtual Education and Web 2.0 in Education
Essential Skills: Leadership & Vison, Education & Training

How are other countries using virtual education and Web2.0 tools in their educational systems? Hear examples from the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Canada, including the latest in research and usage of blended learning, distance education, and other new collaborative tools in education.

• Bette Gray, EdD, Director, Stakeholder Technology, Alberta Education (Moderator) (Invited)
• Douglas Harre, Senior ICT Consultant, eLearning Unit, New Zealand Ministry of Education
• Guus Wijngaards, PhD, Professor, eLearning, INHOLLAND University for Professional Education, Netherlands
  [View Presentation]
  
  

M207: Ignorance of Data Retention Law is No Defense
Essential Skills: Leadership and Vision, Planning and Budgeting, Systems Management, Information Management, Ethics and Policies, Communication Systems

Recent changes to document retention laws across the nation have generated shock waves of confusion in the education community. Explore current federal and state rules regarding the retention of electronic communications and data, including recent changes to federal civil procedure rules, which may have a significant impact on school policies and practices. This discussion will provide answers to these questions: What are the changes? To whom do the rules pertain? Do they apply to all Email? What do schools need to do? What will it cost to comply? What will non-compliance potentially cost? Presenters will share their strategies for compliance with federal rules, and a new CoSN resource designed to help education technology leaders navigate this minefield will be introduced.

• Jon Bernstein, President, Bernstein Strategy Group
• Donna Boivin, Chief Information Officer, Information and Instructional Technology Solutions Department, Springfield Public Schools, MA
• Sue Derison, Director of Information Systems and Support, Forsyth County Schools, GA
• Jeff Patterson, President, Gaggle.Net, Inc.

M208: Next Generation Virtual Learning at the District Level: What's Hot
Essential Skills: Planning and Budgeting, Education and Training

Hear from the experts about the new trends in online learning at the district level. This panel discussion will include the latest findings from the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) and from frontline virtual-education leaders from key districts. Learn what's hot in online learning, and how school districts can leverage emerging online learning technologies to effect positive change in the classroom.

• William Thomas, Director, Educational Technology, Southern Regional Education Board (Moderator)
• Mike Johnson, Instructional Technology Facilitator, Baldwin County Public Schools, AL
• Mary Hewett, Executive Director of Instructional Technology, Plano Independent School District, TX
• Diane Mason, Technology Training Center Coordinator, Calcasieu Parish Schools, LA
• William Thomas, Director, Educational Technology, Southern Regional Education Board
  [View Presentation]
  

M209: Performance Management in K-12
Essential Skills: Leadership and Vision, Information Management

Spotlight Session Hosted by:

Improving performance requires deeper analysis and accountability at all levels, from superintendents to teachers. Additionally, improving performance depends on understanding complex relationships and variables impacting the educational process and student performance. It is becoming clear that traditional methods of gathering and reporting data from disparate systems make it nearly impossible to evaluate and measure performance at all levels of the school district. Therefore, the next level of data analysis requires tools that provide an integrated platform for tracking and analyzing performance. Many in K–12 are now deploying methods of data analysis that have long been the use by fortune 500 companies to impact performance and meet assessment needs beyond simply reporting test scores. They are moving to the next level of knowledge-based decision making into the realm of business intelligence and strategic performance management.

• John Alawneh, Executive Director of Technology Operations, Plano Independent School District, TX
  [View Presentation]

Student e-mail is being written into more and more state and national standards, and many districts are launching one-to-one laptop initiatives that require that students be given full access to online communication tools. Integrating technology into the classroom is all about using the same everyday tools that empower adults. Whether we like it or not, student online communication via e-mail is coming. At this demonstration, you will learn about the important network-security issues which districts have overcome using Gaggle, other products, and homegrown systems. We will cover the issues of spam as related to students, mail bombs, harassment, limiting student communication, access to district/school directories, virus control, attachment control, meeting CIPA requirements, and the monitoring of students. Other important topics include single log-in, integrating to the district's Web portal, SIF integration, and accessing district student accounts integrated with Active Directory and LDAP databases. Come learn how your IT department can overcome networking obstacles to integrate student e-mail in your district. This demonstration will also include a live demo of the Gaggle E-mail System.

Key Points/Objectives
1. Safe student e-mail solution;
2. Project and curriculum ideas; and
3. Network issues, safety, and security concerns.

IPhones in the classroom? Are you kidding? No, I'm not! Cell phones are often banned in the classroom or banned from schools entirely. Yet most cell phones today have more computing power than those that were available to NASA during the Apollo space program. In this presentation, we will explore ways that cell phones, including the iPhone but not just the iPhone, can be used to help learners access Web-based content, remix it, share it, collaborate with others, and to create media-rich deliverables for the classroom teacher as well as for a global audience. A specific focus on using cell phones as mobile recorders for digital storytelling projects, like the Library of Congress's Veteran Oral History Project, will also be included.

Key Points/Objectives
1. Cell phones are powerful technology tools, which many students have now and can use constructively for learning at school;
2. Cell phones can be used as mobile audio recorders for digital storytelling projects; and
3. It is critical that educators help students develop good decision-making skills to use with powerful digital technologies in ethical and constructive ways.

More than ever, a school district’s technology services and teaching and learning leadership need to work and plan collaboratively to insure that the instructional goals of a school system are realized and measured. A panel of chief technology and information officers and school leadership for curriculum and instruction will present and discuss the strategic role and relevance of key informational and instructional technologies that make up the core business of today’s schools. Participants will be engaged with the panel to share their experiences around this issue of strategic leadership and relationship building. Join us for a provocative discussion based on real-world experiences.

• Bailey Mitchell, Chief Technology and Information Officer, Forsyth County School District, GA
• Mark Johnston, PhD, Assistant Superintendent, Instruction, Arlington Public Schools, VA
• Gordon Dahlby, PhD, Director of Curriculum and Technology, West Des Moines Community School District, IA
• Lloyd Brown, Director of Technology, Henrico County Public Schools, VA
• Patricia Donahue, Supervisor of Instructional Technology, Prince William County Public Schools, VA