What the Tech?!?
Mark E. Damon, Educational Technology Coordinator
News You Use
Greetings from the Office of the Educational Technology Coordinator! This newsletter is designed to keep you informed of some of the happenings in the fast-paced world of Educational Technology and how it applies to the Medford Township School District. As the newsletters are published, you will find answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and may learn new tips, apps, extensions and tools you can use in your school or classroom! If you ever have any questions or would like some "just-in-time" help integrating technology, please give me a call at ext. 8009, or e-mail mdamon@medford.k12.nj.us!
Carts with a Side of Lox
As the new rollout of 1,098 chromebooks is finalized, each new cart will have two locks ... one on the front and one on the back. The combinations for these locks are being removed off of the back of each lock. The combinations are being catalogued in our asset management system by our IT department. Once this process is done, they will be exporting all combinations and submitting them to the building principals to share with the appropriate staff members. For asset security purposes, it is the expectation that the carts will be locked up each night.
AutoCrat vs. FormMule
I have had the pleasure of working with a few principals on laying the groundwork for streamlining their classroom walkthrough tools. Using a series of extensions, forms, and formulas, we are able to complete a walkthrough form on our devices (phone, chromebook, iPad) and share that feedback immediately with teachers, either through a shared folder, or via e-mail. If you are interested in seeing this in action, please give me a call. Any task you do... if you think there is a better way... there probably is! Give me a call to see how technology can help you ... help your teachers!
On the Platform... Waiting for the Train(ing)
To principals (and staff) - A couple principals have reached out to me asking about training for their staff. Much like Beth does with her PLCs, I am open to, and hoping, that you invite me to come work with your staff in some capacity. This could look like a 45 minute PLC before or after school. It might be a 5-10 minute opening to each of your faculty meetings. Or, it could be grade level coaching. Whatever meets YOUR needs... I want to be a part of it. On our agenda for the September Tech Department meeting, I have planned to create a pre-survey for staff that will be sent out. We will disseminate this and then disaggregate the data to help us (the tech teachers and myself) to plan scaffolded support to staff depending on the building, grade level and needs. This will help with monthly PLC or faculty meetings, but also with our Chromebook Cohort for the PD days. Until that happens, though, I am here to help! For example, I am working with a group of 8 teachers who have technology as a PDP goal. Do you have staff with a PDP goal of technology? Let's form a study group! Give me a call to set it up!
Supply and Demand
The rollout of the 1,098 chromebooks brings our total chromebook device count to 1,531! And to think... it all started with 30 devices! I must compliment Shaun Gray and the IT department for all the work they have done. In addition to the rollout, cataloguing and inventory of devices, they also have been working on the installation of access points, reconfiguring the wireless networks, setting up centralized management of our fleet of iPads and handling the flow of work orders. Well done to the IT Department. No good planning goes unpunished, though. Our particular choice of Chromebook deployment has proven to be a MAJOR headache for all involved. In an effort to manage inventory by getting just enough devices into each classroom, we are finding the constant enrollment changes is absorbing a significant amount of our time in handling the +1 here... -1 here... move this chromebook to this cart... move this cart to this school... It hasn't been as smooth as we had hoped and as a result, you may be short a chromebook or in excess on the first day of school. Please be patient and communicate needs with both Shaun Gray and myself. Shaun and I already spoke of a different way of handling this for future years. We will work it out... but it may need a couple days to flush out all the various needs around the district.
Inform... to Instruct!
Jen Petagno and I will be rolling out an exciting pilot for 5th grade teachers this year (optional to teacher) that will allow them to deliver the Beginning of the Year Diagnostic Assessment online! We have taken the *.pdf assessments, digitized them, and linked it to an answer key so that teachers will have instantaneous feedback on their students' performance... without having to grade a single test! Since this is our first attempt at this, we will pilot it at first, but the potential for GoFormative, Flubaroo, GoogleForms, ExitTicket, Quizziz, or any of the other many online assessments available to teachers poses great potential for immediate feedback on student performance so teachers can differentiate their supports IMMEDIATELY! If you feel you are in a position that you would like to see how online assessments might help you, give me a call and we can talk about integrating it into your instruction!
iPad vs. Chromebook
As we move forward in a coordinated effort to standardize devices across the district, I have been asked about the continued purchase of iPads for the early primary grades (PK-1). Our IT department must be made aware of any hardware purchases and should be contacted to receive quotes. Thanks to Marie Goodwin, our new Business Administrator, we have joined up with two purchasing consortiums that will enable us to purchase Apple products. However, it must be done through both myself and Shaun Gray. Please be aware, though, that I am not encouraging the mass purchase of iPads at this time. In early Fall, there will be over 60 new Chrome devices on the market that will support Android apps from the Google Play store. This is exciting news as it will be the first time that Chromebooks will be able to take advantage of the Google Play store, which while not as robust as the iTunes Marketplace, is still replete with many, many kid-friendly educational apps! I am hopeful that we will get a pilot of devices to try this out so we can see the potential! The advantage to this is that we will be able to be a PK-8 Google District which is great for IT support and streamlining training... but also will save us a great deal of money as Chrome devices are a fraction of the cost of Apple. Stay tuned for future information.
Annotations on Chromebooks
The purchasing research is out there... the purchase of SmartBoards, ActiveBoards, Promethean Boards has officially dipped below the purchase of Interactive Flat Panels and SMART TVs. Here in Medford, we have seen the purchase of 7 SMART TVs as the new option for projection devices. With an average lifespan of 100,000 hours (111 years if you run your TV 5 hours a day for 180 days a year), and a pricepoint of about $1,300, these SMART TVs are a great option moving forward. However, as you scan the chat boards, one issue remains when you shed the Promethean for a SMART TV... interactivity. You can't "write" on the TV screen. While I don't have a great answer to this question, I do have some work arounds. Webpaint extension and Google Cast for Education are two options and I am certain there are more to come. AND... the great news is that with SMART TVs, you can hook up your Chromebook AND your Desktop/Laptop... so you can still use your Flipcharts as long as you have ActiveInspire installed! More to come on the future of projection devices, but with our existing deployment of SMART TVs, I am certain we will get some great feedback from those who matter most... the TEACHERS and STUDENTS!
Assigning Chromebooks
Your technology teachers will be able to help with this, but below is a link to a Google document that you need to print, complete and affix to your cart. This sheet will link each chromebook to a specific student (or students in the case of Haines/Memorial). EVERY CHROMEBOOK CART must have one of these taped to the top so at any given point, we can see which student is assigned to each device.
Contact Information
Email: mdamon@medford.k12.nj.us
Website: www.medford.k12.nj.us
Location: 137 Hartford Road, Medford, NJ, United States
Phone: 609-654-6416