DLC Minutes TEMPLATE 2013-14

DIGITAL LEARNING CADRE April 16, 2015 9:00 – 12:00 PM Meeting Minutes John W. Collette Education Resource Center

The Delaware Digital Learning Cadre envisions all teachers capably and appropriately utilizing digital learning so that Delaware students graduating from high school demonstrate technology literacy. NETWORKING  Networking time is always provided half an hour prior to the start of the meeting. WELCOME, ANNOUNCEMENTS and DISCUSSION  Wayne Hartschuh welcomed everyone and thanked them for coming today.  Delaware Digital Learning Conference: Online, which was held Monday, March 16 – Thursday, March 19, 2015 was a huge success. Wayne thanked DLC members for presenting and participating in the conference. Recordings are posted on the website. We had close to 300 participants with an average of 15-18 per session.  DigiGirlz event will be held Wednesday, May 6, 2015 at Wilmington University, New Castle campus from 8:30-3. This event is at capacity of 150 girls and there are 15 on a waiting list.  Blackboard Learn Update – June 30 end date. The eLearning Delaware current spring courses will be finished in May. Due to the rollover from Blackboard to Schoology, DCET will probably cancel the summer eLearning Delaware session. The fall eLearning Delaware sessions will focus on blended learning and common core. Wayne Hartschuh is working on the statewide sessions that will need to get moved from Blackboard to Schoology (i.e., School Bullying). LEAs using Blackboard Learn now need to be sure to save their course content if they plan to use it in Schoology. You can contact [email protected] in the DCET office if you have courses that need to be moved or have any questions. Current courses will be rolled into Schoology. If needed, content for older courses can be saved. Old courses will not be rolled into Schoology.  Schoology Update – July 1, 2015 start date. There were 25-30 people in attendance at the April 13 meeting from the LEAs to discuss the implementation of Schoology/eSchool Gradebook Sync meeting. Indian River and NCCVT are current test sites. Brandywine and Colonial will also get a test bed set up for practice as well. They are testing the systems prior to going live and making sure it is transferring the information as Delaware wants it to transfer. FYI – The current LEAs who are using Schoology we will also do test beds. All new Schoology LEAs will start live. eSchool and PDMS will be the two ways to access Schoology. However, LEAs plan to allow your teachers and students to login to the system. If teachers want to login to IMS there will now be a Schoology icon as a direct link to Schoology. Once in, there will be a toggle switch for the teachers to switch between their courses and their professional development. Wayne highly recommends LEAs use PDMS. Wayne explained how LEAs have access to PDMS. After discussion, it was recommended that you contact [email protected] if you need PDMS training. SHARING  Choosito! Inc.- (Presented by Eleni Miltsakaki , Founder of Choosito) * National Science Federation (NSF) -funded search tool to match students’ reading ability and topic of study. The internet has one trillion pages with new pages being added every day. Remember, search engines are not librarians. How do you know which links are relevant to the student? https://www.chosito.com/search/web Eleni explained you can do a search and select by reading level and subject level. Choosito analyzes web content, automatically, in real time. While you can search the Choosito! Web you get everything relevant. You can also search on other sites. You can add your own selections that limit the areas the students search. A valuable tool for teachers in to use the class analytics section to see what the students are doing. Using Choosito in the classroom will allow personalized learning for each student. * There is a patent pending cognitive algorithms. * Single sign in for students is important. It was recommended that Choosito consider adding to Google. Another recommendation is an “app” for Choosito. * Ms. Miltsakaki said there will be a subscription, for teachers around $5 per student, which is high. Class sign-up fee would be $40 per class. Reduced rate could be considered for larger number of students. The College School in Delaware is piloting Choosito now. Currently they have 8,000 students and 90 classes using Choosito. There is a chance you could get it in your school for a free evaluation.

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SCHOOLOGY  Guiding Document for Planning Implementation – Introduction - Nicole Klues thanked everyone for their time and expertise that was shared during her meetings with the LEAs. Wayne Hartschuh reported that a pre-MOU meeting was held on March 26. He explained that we will give an introductory document to the LEAs as to why we are going to use Schoology for the next three years. Nicole and Wayne are creating guides and want to make sure what they are asking the right information. Members received copies of the draft documents and were encouraged to offer feedback before the final documents and MOUs are sent to the LEAs who are interested in using Schoology early next week.

Section 1: Creating Conditions for Success  Schoology Implementation Guide was shared through Google Docs and discussed.  School needs to select a teacher leader, coaches, and/or Instructional Technology Specialists who can help guide their school.  Professional Development training – Schoology 101 type class will be offered. Once finished they can then move into a blended learning 2.0 type class through eLearning.  On May 13th from 5-8 pm a team of two or three people from the Schoology participating schools will attend this meeting in the DOE Collette building and hear the introduction of rolling it out to students. Wayne anticipated up to 65,000 students sign up to use it, but not all students in all grades will be using it all the time. Sixteen out of nineteen districts are on board with Schoology. Indian River and Colonial are already using it with students in their districts.  There will also be a community of practice, through the Schoology platform. Nicole is seeking feedback with what new schools will need to know. Ensure the “why” behind the transition.

Section 2: Entry Points – Options for roll out  Wayne and Nicole explained the Progression Model, Defined Cohort Model, Open Access Cohort Model, and Full Scale Implementation Model.

Section 3: Transform Classroom Delivery  Schoology is a tool that can transform classroom delivery and enhance student outcomes by shifting to a blended learning environment.

Section 4: Measuring Success – What does success look like at your school?  Guiding Document for Planning Implementation - Feedback (Nicole Klues and Wayne Hartschuh)  Everyone is encouraged to submit their comments through the google docs site. Wayne wants the document to be helpful for LEAs to share with their leaders. As mentioned earlier, Wayne plans to distribute this document, after revisions are made, with the MOUs next Monday.  New districts coming onboard should plan to attend the May 14th meeting for two people from each LEA and the “Schoology Champions” can attend this meeting.

After a break, participants went into the documents and were able to make comments on the document. Some suggestions for improvements to the documents are as follows:  Add a table of contents page.  Start the introduction document by telling them “Schoology is a toolbox that does…” Nicole said they will have buckets, communication tool, personalized learning tools, student ownership, master reporting, repository, etc.  Definitely need to know how it will benefit the students.  Document needs to be more specific, including examples of what they can do with Schoology.  It was suggested to import video into the documents. There is a YouTube Schoology Introduction video to get details.  Add more bullet lists instead of all narrative paragraphs.  Overall, we need to look at Schoology in Plain English. Summarize in fewer words. Follow newspaper model with most important thing at the top. Use the toolbox first.  Tweak the wording, “we want to provide you with support and help you” if your district submits the signed MOU to us in time. When LEAs ask “what’s in it for me?” be able to say “better support.”  This is not a mandate. It’s a requirement to receive support from DOE, but not a requirement for using Schoology. Wayne said “we are trying to build from the collaboration, not mandate. We want districts to be successful.”

2 | P a g e  Include a sample of what an exemplar school looks like.  Have discussions with the Community of Practice Group where questions could be asked on an ongoing basis. Important that they include their district name.  Update the format of the form you are asking the LEAs to complete. Suggested changing the word “submit” to “share.” Perhaps change the headings of the columns to: “This is how I hope to…; this is how I envision…, etc. is less offensive wording. Nicole reminded everyone to keep in mind that this is a process and things will change.  Some of the guiding questions look okay, but many believe the table should be changed. Change outcome to goal. Remove resources and timeline.  After much discussion, Wayne asked the group to focus first on the guiding questions.  Additional questions and concerns were addressed. What if a teacher wants to join half way through the semester? Wayne said this was discussed at an earlier meeting and we are pushing for a toggle switch to be added to Schoology so LEAs can decide to turn off for certain teachers. Wayne doesn’t know why a teacher couldn’t do it. However, it is important to remember that the gradebook doesn’t go back and forth. The true grade record is the one recorded in eSchool. Schoology grades will update to eSchool at a scheduled update time. MaryAn is concerned that not all the information, i.e., gradebook, is shared with everyone. Wayne said right now the toggle switch option has not yet been approved as a viable option by Schoology. DOE is still waiting for answers from Schoology.  Wayne said there will be another document that goes out after these meetings.  Community Practice Group could be a great way for these types of discussions and what information gets shared with all. It’s low risk. Remember, comments shared are not for passing judgment.  It was suggested that a Professional Development Only section be one of the options. Nicole said that is the progression model.  Concern with parent access and what LEA needs to do before parents are given access to Schoology.  Question about turning off the grade for parents to see. We need to support each other for asking Schoology to add column added for a “feature request.”  All LEAs currently are using parent access center. Wayne explained how teachers can enter grades in eSchool and Schoology.  An implementation plan will be added. Please remember to type your comments about the documents on the google docs.

Nicole appreciates your comments and encourages everyone to do the document. Wayne plans to send the revised guiding document to the new LEAs on Monday with MOUs. Next, planning template with rubric. Finally, an example plan and rubric to follow.

Susan Cornett thanked Wayne and Nicole with all that they have done with this Blackboard to Schoology transition. NEXT MEETING  The next Digital Learning Cadre meeting will be held Thursday, May 14, 2015. (Be sure to register in PDMS prior to the meeting for Course# 1588 / Section# 38551.)

Respectfully submitted, Pam Reed, DCET Administrative Secretary

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