(3/4/2004)
eLearning
Implementation Issues
Communication
Who is going to be THE school
point-of-contact on this project to answer press and parent questions?
How will the schools announce
to the public, students and parents which student group has been chosen? Do
advocate teachers need to be informed?
After the initial parent
meeting, how will the school update parents? E-mail? Newsletter? Periodic meetings?
¨
Parent E-mail
Communications
¨
Individual
Contact
¨
Parent meetings,
conferences, SBDM & committee meetings
Computer Identification
How will we identify which oomputer belongs to what student? (make sure they have the
one that belongs to them).
Have pawn shops been
notified?
Discipline
Disciplinarians at schools
should get together and discuss uniform consequences for predictable
infractions:
Messing with the wireless
antennas in the ceiling
Left laptop at home
Didn’t charge battery
Inappropriate use--porn,
copyright violation, plagiarism, hacking (serious)
Intentional defacement
What if students “jump on” a
non-school network and abuse the connection?
If student is suspended &
then placed in “in-house” suspension, are laptop privileges lost?
Financial
Student e-mail server needs
to be upgraded (Exchange 2003, Windows Server 2003).
Client access licenses need
to be ordered (
Will we be purchasing more
peripherals?
What about next year’s KETS funds for schools receiving laptops? Will they get KETS funds?
Insurance
The bookkeepers need to know
that the fee for insurance will need to be tracked somehow (STI can do this)
and that students can pay a little at a time.
For next school year, can we
use STI to assign and pre-print insurance forms? Could office collect money when they collect
fees?
If a laptop is lost or
damaged at an away athletic event, does district or homeowner’s insurance cover
the laptop?
Does the $50 insurance fee
paid by each participating family cover amounts not paid by the homeowner’s
policy?
If a laptop is lost in a
vehicle, what insurance covers the loss, car or homeowner’s?
Media Specialist Issues
Media specialists need to be
notified that they will
Other
How can Small Learning
Communities Grant support eLearning?
Parent Issues
Will all parents be required
to attend 2 trainings next year?
STLP Connection
The plan for support is to
involve “STLP” (Student Technology Leadership Program) students (techy students recommended by teachers). How will they be identified (badge)? What privilege will they have (using
telephone to call student help desk, hall passes)? Who will be “in charge” of these student’s
assignments, training, organization?
KETS funds CAN be used to pay a stipend.
.
How will STLP students
document the problems?
.
An issue that needs to be
stressed with teachers is that when students are assisting them, they MUST be
attentive. No matter how trustworthy,
students could be tempted to read their e-mail, etc.
Staff Developer Issues
Will staff developers have
pagers so that pilot teachers can easily reach them?
Student Issues
The bookstores need to sell
CD-R’s and CD-RW’s (maintenance stocks them)
Will the students be saving
all SCHOOL related work to the school server or the hard drive?
Will all students be exempted
from the MESH backpacks?
Will students with laptops be
able to use their laptops to take notes in other classes?
Where will the students
print? How will the students know what
printer they are printing to?
Will the laptops be available
for purchase by graduating seniors?
What about our students that
don’t have phones? Will we be
compounding their disadvantage?
Where will students that
practice and play in band, drama, academic team, sports
put their laptops while practicing/playing?
For next school year, will the
classes that did NOT receive laptops in be able to bring their own laptops? If so, what level of support will we give
them?
What happens to the pilot
kids backpacks? Will pilot students turn
in pilot machines or keep them over the summer?
Will pilot students receive the new adopted machines next year or keep
the ones from the pilot?
How will we handle students
who transfer in from other school systems?
How will we ensure that
students who transfer out turn their laptops in?
Support (General)
If a school
has no full time technician, staff developer or eLearning
Vice-Principal. Who supports their
day-to-day operations?
Should each high school have eLearning coordinators?
Teacher Issues
How will teachers account for
the use of the subscription web sites (if they don’t use them, we certainly
don’t want to pay for them!).
Do all certified staff get laptops ? What about Itinerants?
For next school year, can
freshmen homeroom teachers hand out laptops?
Technical Support
Schools need to be aware that
Steve Burton is developing a plan for after school Internet access and
technical support.
Is there inexpensive home internet/wireless
access? (particularly
a concern beyond the pilot year)
iChat/IM remains a
problem—other options for managing?
How will teacher files be
transferred from existing teacher machines to the adopted machines?
Technicians at high schools
will have 400 more machines to support!
What additional staff will be hired?
Training
Will staff developers or
vendors train parents? How much training
will we require of teachers?
Do they want the district to
offer regular voluntary training for teachers NOT involved in the pilot? (3 hours at each high school each week)?
Will we require all 3 days of
flexible in-service be technology related?
Who will train the
teachers? (211 teacher X 3 days)
Will stipends be available
for teachers going above and beyond the required days of flexible in-service?
Issues for eLearning
after Vendor Choice
Business
Hardware
·
What staff in the
HS is receiving laptops?
o
Certified
Teachers?
o
Itinerants
o
Guidance
o
o
Principals
o
Staff Developers
·
What happens to existing TEACHER LAPTOP computers?
o
Dells
o
Apples
o
HP
o
IBM
·
What happens to existing TEACHER DESKTOP computer?
o
Use them as
student computers until laptops come in?
o
Move best to
other uses?
o
Give each middle
school a “lab”?
o
Will we ask the
school to make a reasonable plan about the "movement" of computers
and ask you to justify why certain machines can stay in the building.
o
Will we ask the
schools to give us the # of projectors they already have and their locations?
·
When can we start
retrieving the eLearning STUDENT pilot machines?
Training
·
How many hours of
training can we require when the laptops are given out?
·
When will
teachers receive that training?
o
Planning period?
o
After School?
o
Before School?
·
Who will give the
training?