Media and Technology Committee Meeting October 27, 2014

Members:

Gentry, Stephanie J sjgentry@wsfcs.k12.nc.us 
Mabry II, Eugene L <emabry@wsfcs.k12.nc.us> (p)
Harmon, Hannah M <hmharmon@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Santoro, Frankie J <fjsantoro@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Watson, John H <jhwatson@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Sigmon, John C <jsigmon2@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Stalter, Sarah K <skstalter@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Trace, Jane S <jtrace@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Dipiazza, Julia A <adipiazz@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Guffey, Lesley A <laguffey@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Suttles Jr, Ronald A <rasuttles@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (had meeting)
Daniels, Deborah T <dtdaniels@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Phillips, Patricia S <psphillips@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Kilgore, Rita <rkilgore@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Burch, Carrie L <clburch@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Crummel, George J gcrummel@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Turner, Elizabeth K <lturner@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)
Downs, John D jdowns@wsfcs.k12.nc.us (p)

Facilitators:  Downs/Turner

Role of MTAC members

• Members reviewed the district guidelines linked here
• Questions/concerns?
• Question about a parent member on the committee
• Suggestion was made to ask current parent volunteer in the main office
• It has been difficult to get parents on SIT considering the time of the day, etc. so we will start by asking Mrs. Isacsson.  if not, might mention to Gentry to bring up at her PTSA board meeting.  Downs spoke to Christine Isacsson who volunteers at the front desk, and she is going to think about it.  christine.isacsson@gmail.com

Media:

• VCR's
• Turner gave an update on the problems with tapes and the Bogen system
• The question arose would it be better to just get DVD players instead of combos?  What about getting DVD's to replace old VHS selections?
• It's possible but would be very time consuming and may end up costing as much as replacing the units.  Also combo units are not that much more than DVD units themselves.
• Lisa will run a report of the checked out VHS titles to see how prevalent their use is.
• What about phasing out and using the saved money for Discovery Streaming subscription next year?
• Lisa does have a quote from Larry Wall, the Bogen guy who can replace four units with combo VCR/DVD and fairly cheap labor (~$150-$200/unit plus labor of $125.00 to install)

• Book Challenges:
• committee members were informed by Turner of the process and what MTAC’s responsibility is to review and read a book if it is challenged by a parent.  There is a specific process in place and we will cross that bridge when it happens, but members need to be aware.
• Expanded to include discussion about SIR materials such as novels to request for the book room. 
• Book Room Titles and Lists:
• media is addressing the new county list of “recommended” SIR titles, the process is tedious and there is consultation taking place with vertical planning among ELA teachers.  This is also being applied to recommended SIR science and social studies titles.

Technology Hardware Issues/Money

·        Ongoing:  Replacements for TV fund --We are expecting at this point to have to replace a TV or two per year as well as possibly Document Cameras and we have to budget for this.

·        Next year and Technology Facilitator role--School system is proposing to combine the technology facilitator role into a half time testing coordinator/half time technology facilitator classified position with the curriculum coordinator position moving away from the testing.

• Since this could have implications for the future and technology here at SEMS. the committee was asked to consider this.
• Mr Mabry said we need to be vocal about their support for maintaining the full time technology facilitator position .  He mentioned in the past when Jeff Nichols taught Social Studies and tried to support technology--many things were neglected
• Also mentioned was the "volume of technology stuff" that needs supported and will be neglected if a person is not dedicated to supporting it.

Equipment Needs and Purchases:

·         612 lab/EC Case Manager and Band room-- projectors vs TV’s

• Mr Mabry spoke of the interactive projector and how his wife uses it at her school.  It is a close to wall mount and gives interactivity on the white board
• MS Stalter had used them and spoke positively of them
• Mr Downs suggested that if it gets installed that others might consider them as TV's die

·         Upgrade computers in 612?

• The question about the future of 612 and do we need to maintain a lab in there?  This arose as we consider replacing the projector that "blew" in the power outage.
• Most agreed that we still need a place like this for people to go and work with full desktops and monitors
• Also in light of all the online testing situations, we probably still need this site and should consider upgrading the computers in there as the current batch is getting old 

Procedural Issues:

·        New laptop distribution and procedures for 6^th and 7^th grade laptops

o   How do we best do this?

• We should be receiving upwards of 200 laptops around the first of the year, and these will be distributed in 6th and 7th grade as laptop carts of either 24 or 32
• These would be shared on teams and perhaps one in each pod
• Discussion about maintaining them and situating them with teachers who don't take ownership but do need to take responsibility
• Key is training the teachers and the students in proper use.
• Consider using the 8th grade laptop contract with 6/7th grade teachers and students
• Security in the PODS an issue? Are they alarmed?
• Carts should have the ability to lock and secure and will definitely need to out there
• What about another laptop cart for 8^th grade?
• Depending on how many we get, might consider since 8th grade teachers were basically given the impression that those carts would be for science and therefore the rest of 8th grade has limited access to laptops

·        Software Clearinghouse Procedures (new platform/system in place)

• Gentry was introduced to the new procedure at her principal's meeting and we informed the committee that teachers considering any purchase of online or desktop computer software would have to go through the clearinghouse for approval before any purchase can be made.

Instructional Issues: 

·        BYOD and Digital safety—are people discussing?

• Mainly tabled this item knowing that teachers will be receiving training during the final two early release days, but teachers who are interested in BYOD should visit the WSFSC digital Safety Site before starting a BYOD lesson with students.
• Downs is available to help any teacher who wants to try a lesson using BYOD

·        User name convention:

• word needs to get out to use 4/4/4 for all user names such as edmodo, and other online accounts.  Committee members were made aware to do that for all future accounts

·        Laptop battery best practices__will discuss at the time the new laptops arrive

Discipline Issues:

• Use of technology and classroom management issues (such as broken keys on laptops)
• Downs will do training when new laptops arrive--we talked about doing the same procedure they do in the media center and 8th grade science classes where each student uses the same number laptop each day and is accountable for the individual machine.  They also sign off on acceptable use policy.

UNCG Grant—

·         Possibly acquiring Technology for Cooperating teachers.

• As part of the grant, student teachers may come with new technology for example, maybe an IPAD and APPLE TV
• 360 Camera to our school for use with lesson planning
• Maker’s Space:  Google it
• What type of items would be purchase?  Committee to consider

Other miscellaneous issues

·         Space for Computer Repair coming

• Let the committee know that the Department of Technology will now fix broken computers on site instead of sending in for repair and have requested a space for that in each school.

·         STARS student(s) on committee?

• Committee said no

·         Parent on Committee?

• Talk to Christine in the front office

·         Coming Upgrades (wireless in 8^th grade coming soon)

• Downs sent an email out about this

·        Communication was brought up as a Department of Technology issue and we were asked to discuss the best way to communicate to faculty and staff about important issues related to technology. (student email, power school access, etc.)

• For example, Teacher on Teacher Advisory Council had not heard of BYOD
• Committee said that mass emails sent out like the ones sent out by Kevin SHerrill about student ability to log in to power parent portal are best but a followup witha blog site with archived information for reference would be good.

October 20, 2014

Members Present:

Douglass
Downs
Eisebacher
Gardner
Gentry
Halverstadt
Jones, Julie
Martin, Jennifer
Miller
Sherman, Jamie
Thorne
Turner
Wells
Young

SIT Chair -- Miller:

2 items on the agenda--PLT process and the School Improvement Plan Process:

1)  Is the new PLT process working for you?

• Halverstadt:  setting up goals gave us a direction and that was good
• Thorne:  listening to the vertical team was beneficial and helped us get to our goals
• Young--Encore is working in departments--they are excited, but the complaint is the shortness of their planning
• Would be nice if we could work on this early release Wednesday, but we have the workshops
• EC/Douglass:  Their session put us all on the same page and using research based interventions
• Sherman--At their county couseling meeting-- heard from other schools and sounds like SEMS is doing it right.
• This is all about buy in and everyone being part of the decion making process...some just won't buy in
• Miller:  Heard from teachers who felt more overwhelmed than previous first quarters with workload
• Gentry:  3 early release days within first quarter seemed like too much?
• Our Superintendent wanted to make sure people had time to get their PLT's together, but perhaps three is too many sessions for one quarter?
• Teachers are also saying that group time is good, but then they need some alone time to percolate the ideas
• Maybe they will give us a chance to really evaluate the early release days

The School Improvement Plan Process:

• The SIP was submitted along with the safe school plan, discipline plan, and crisis template
• District will give us feedback and ask us to revisit and see how we are doing based on the indicators
• In December or January we will have to follow up and see where we are
• Do you think we should do a survey for teachers based on the things we have targeted? --with questions based on the top few things that on which we have focused?-- A Mini Check in
• We will need to decide what we want to include in the survey
• Maybe 15 questions--John to assist with setting it up online
• Survey--maybe look at the one from last year?
• We will identify the areas to focus by our November meeting

Other concerns?

• Turner:  Tech issues for MTAC?--VCR's
• Young: Review hallway duties
• Gentry there are basically 4 ways to handle:
• don't do anything
• Come to Gentry or another administrator
• You sit down with the adult with an encouraging talk
• Agree to a sit down with a third party
• Keep in mind, If you go to Gentry, it will be taken care of "the Gentry way"
• Larger issue: People seem to be afraid to talk to adults face to face (societal issue?)
• Sometimes teachers taking action is contagious, so if one teacher is seen taking action in the hall for example, others will follow suit.

Next meeting scheduled before November 24th--bring possible questions for the survey. and any feedback for the SIT plan