Breakout Sessions for Thursday, March 12, 2009

Thursday, March 12, 2009

TH301: The Sugar User-Interface Opportunity
ESSENTIAL SKILLS: Systems Management
SALON A

Sugar, the highly acclaimed open source “learn learning” software platform that was originally developed for the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) XO laptop, now runs on virtually any computing platform. Sugar is the first system specifically aimed at helping children to learn while supporting a rich variety of contributed applications. It is simple enough to be
used by pre-K children and yet powerful enough to keep secondary-school children engaged. In this presentation, the Sugar interface will be detailed: how it provides a fun, easy-to-use, social experience that promotes sharing and learning; as well as its rich intra-classroom collaboration model, a built-in portfolio assessment system, and a wealth
of multimedia tools that can be used in support of virtually any curricula or content needs. The presentation will also include a discussion of how Sugar can be deployed in classrooms, schools, and school-systems.

TH302: Using Data and Technology to Improve Student Achievement: Characteristics of Data-Driven Districts and What You Can Do
ESSENTIAL SKILLS: Information Management
SALON B

Districts throughout the nation are inundated with data: state test result data, attendance data, disciplinary data, and demographic data—just to name a few! Recent developments, such as the “No Child Left Behind Act,” have only increased the demand for data collection and reporting. Although collecting and reporting data is essential, knowing how to analyze and apply this information is just as important for meeting the end goal of improving student achievement. These data must be accessed, shared, and used throughout the system in order for district central-office employees, principals, teachers, parents, and community members to take action based on the analysis of these data.  This session will provide an overview of a benchmarking study conducted by the Data Quality Campaign and the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC), whose goals were to discover and disseminate best practices in the utilization of data by school districts that positively impact student achievement.

TH303: Building Collaborative Relationships: Technology Services and Curriculum & Instruction
ESSENTIAL SKILLS: Education & Training and Vision & Leadership
SALON D

In order to clarify the core work in Forsyth County Schools (GA), the Academics & Accountability and Technology Services Divisions have adopted an organizing structure which is known as the Engage Me model. Using an online learning management system, the project team collaborated on the development of, implementation for, and training on this system.  Ultimately the goal was to brand the teaching and learning work of the school district while modeling effective use of instructional technologies.  The leaders and teachers in Forsyth County Schools are committed to designing learning experiences that reflect high expectations which result in student engagement.  Standards-based classrooms are accomplished through purposeful design, quality teaching, balanced assessment, and collaboration with colleagues and students.  Engaged Leaders + Engaged Staff + Engaged Students = RESULTS The collaboration and partnership between the divisions on this project represents a model that can be replicated in other districts and on other projects.  Learn how a teaching and learning brand can lead to greater achievement; gather information on a standards-based learning management system, and identify factors that establish productive relationships between technology and other departments.

TH304: Collaborative Educational Gaming – The Guide’s By Your Side
ESSENTIAL SKILLS: Systems Management
SALON E

By implementing educational games it may be possible to increase the efficiency of education.  Multi-player games, in particular, allow us to change the ratio of teacher to student from 1 teacher and 20 students to 20 teachers and 1 student.  The collaboration implicit in multi-player educational games motivate students to ask each other questions, motivate students to help each other in team-based competitions, and motivate students to participate in class.  Such effects have led to higher levels of engagement and documented increases in achievement.  Based on research in other districts, New York City embarked on its own, district-wide pilot using educational games in mathematics.  Currently in the middle of its evaluation, this presentation offers some of the insights to date on the challenges and benefits of this unique and innovative technology.

TH305: Student voices - what do they say about learning with technologies?
ESSENTIAL SKILLS: Leadership & Vision
MR406

Participants will learn about students’ views of learning with technologies. In this workshop findings from new research concurrently conducted in Australia and The Netherlands, will be presented. This research set out to listen to and analyze the views and expectations of students in primary and secondary schools, in vocational education and training institutions, and pre-service and early career teachers, including international teacher education students in universities, about learning with technologies. The research has involved surveying and talking with students in these two countries. This workshop will ask what the findings of this research means for students in schools?

TH306: Public and Private Partnerships: Creating a Shared Network Strategy for Education, Government, and the Community
ESSENTIAL SKILLS: Business Leadership
MR408

As schools look to create classroom environments enriched with technology to better engage students, the importance of building and maintaining infrastructure with higher capacity, capability, and reliability increases.  Costs of operating these assets become critical and must be managed and contained to allow us to develop environments where reliable technology is the underpinning of the new, high-tech, teachable moment.  This session will review the partnership, created in Livingston County, Michigan between school systems, county government, law enforcement, traffic management, and emergency management services, that helps create new levels of networking resource capability. Tapping into existing assets and collaborating together to jointly build additional components, a countywide fiber based infrastructure is being developed with cost efficiencies previously believed unachievable.

TH307: The Gift that Keeps on Taking – Managing Technology
ESSENTIAL SKILLS: Systems Management
MR410

The recently released 2009 benchmark study on IT Staffing & Budgets reveals increasing evidence of hardware and software explosion in the typical school technology infrastructure, as well as a growing reliance on technology in school support services and curriculum.  However, these dynamics exist in an environment of budget constraints, changing technology and infrastructure demands, and staffing limitations.  This session will identify and quantify key variables, issues, and trends among K-12 IT leaders and explore strategies from IT professionals for combating these trends, such as well-designed processes and policies.

TH309: Opportunities and Challenges in IT Cost Reduction
ESSENTIAL SKILLS: Systems Management
MR400

With many IT organizations today facing the threat or reality of budget cuts, Info-Tech has enhanced its research focus on effective IT cost reduction strategies and tactics in order to provide timely and practical cost saving recommendations for our clients. In this presentation we will examine the key IT cost reduction areas, as identified through Info-Tech’s ongoing client research, and isolate common and effective opportunities for optimization in the education sector. Our recommendations stem from a series of in-depth client surveys and hundreds of consultations with IT leaders and cover near term and long term savings opportunities and challenges across infrastructure, applications, management and governance areas. Attendees will leave with a better understanding of which IT cost reduction opportunities they should investigate within their own environments and how they can begin to develop a course of action. Given the current economic climate, now is the time for IT leaders to proactively address the areas in which they can optimize their IT spend. 

TH310:  Open Education for a Smarter Planet 
ESSENTIAL SKILLS: Systems Management
MR404

Today's districts are faced with the challenge of balancing divergent goals - how to create an open teaching and learning environment that enables increased access and improved outcomes, while ensuring the affordability of secure, responsive support services and infrastructure.  IBM will share a framework for Open Education, as well as examples of the strategies and results from districts around the world.