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February 21, 2017 Elementary and Secondary Instructional Technology Advisory Committees met during the first two weeks of February. Here’s a summary of our work.
Secondary ITAC
Secondary ITAC began by exploring the suite of district-approved apps available to secondary students through our mobile device management (MDM). We then categorized the apps according to learning skills outlined in the LTP vision statement:
The St.Vrain Learning Technology Plan (LTP) provides opportunities to help students investigate, communicate, collaborate, create, model, and explore concepts and content in authentic contexts.
During the process, we discovered that many of our apps cross multiple categories of learning behaviors.
We then reviewed the current recommendation to disallow the Messages app on middle school and high school iPads. After discussing the difference between Messages and other available apps that allow for communication and collaboration, the committee came to a consensus to continue disallowing the Messages app.
Elementary ITAC
Elementary ITAC also explored the suite of district-approved apps available to elementary students through our mobile device management (MDM), and then categorized the apps according to learning skills outlined in the LTP vision statement.
The conversation then shifted to a discussion of our Learning Management System (LMS), Schoology. We looked at how Schoology is currently being used in our elementary schools and discussed the values and actions we want to promote between students, teachers, and parents. Characteristics important in an elementary LMS included seamless workflows for sharing work between students and teachers, the ability to create student portfolios and reflections, and the facilitation of collaboration and communication.
December 15, 2016 Elementary and Secondary Instructional Technology Advisory Committees met during the first week of December. Here’s a summary of our work.
Elementary ITAC
Elementary ITAC began by reviewing feedback from surveys and a meeting with our elementary iPad Readiness schools (Eagle Crest, Erie, Thunder Valley), who are helping us test processes to use next year when we roll out devices to all of our elementary schools. Based on this feedback and discussion, ITAC made the following recommendations:
- Provide class sets of iPads to grade level classrooms based on average district class size.
- Provide access to Specials (PE, Music, Art) and pull-out classes through shared carts of iPads.
- Give the highest priority to purchasing iPads and work with our readiness schools to determine which accessories are essential and how they are being used.
- Communicate with schools and with district leads to determine which pull-outs (SPED, G/T, ELL, Literacy) are active in the elementary schools, how these classes operate, and how they might utilize the technology.
We also looked briefly at apps currently provided to our elementary students through Mobile Device Management (MDM) and the proposed process for requesting and selecting additional iOS apps to add to MDM.
Secondary ITAC
Secondary ITAC began by discussing Apple IDs – both managed Apple IDs and personal Apple IDs (for students over the age of 13) – and the limitations and advantages of both. We then broke into groups to discuss implications for middle school and high school students and came up with the following recommendations:
- In High School, we believe utilizing personal Apple IDs (whether linked to personal or educational email account) is a best practice; therefore, we maintain the current practice that every incoming 9th grader create an Apple ID for their use because we expect high school students to be self-directed, informed, collaborative learners.
- In Middle School, we believe Apple IDs provide the advantage of iCloud backup; therefore we expect 6th and 7th graders to have Managed Apple IDs and 8th graders to create personal Apple IDs (after turning 13) with a recommendation that we educate students about the differences between personal and professional use.
We also reviewed last year’s iMessage recommendations with the intention of reviewing this at our next meeting.
If you’re interested in seeing the agendas and notes from the meetings, you can find them on the ITAC blog under Meeting Documents.
October 04, 2016 Please give a warm welcome to our newest Instructional Technology Advisory Committee members!
As we move into our 4th year of the Learning Technology Plan, ITAC will continue to serve an advisory role in our technology planning. They are a critical voice in making sure we have representation from all segments of our SVVSD community: teachers, administrators, district staff, and families.
Separate elementary and secondary-level ITAC committees make recommendations which lead to the best possible implementation outcomes.
We rotate one-half of the committee members each year to ensure continuity while also allowing others to add their voice to the group.
This blog will continue to serve as a place for others to join in the conversation and follow their work. Please check in and share your input with our committee representatives.
The 2016 ITAC Committee members:
Elementary
- Gina Trujillo
- Mandy Pederson
- Tanya Sadler
- Judith Nowlin
- Shelly Guenther
- Jason Sturniolo
- Bernerd George
- Keri Campbell
- Shannon Brennan
Secondary
- Laura Hess
- Josie Vigil
- Katelynn Ryan
- Jennifer Thayler
- Joann Rosebrock
- Melissa McGlasson
- Kyle Manuel
- CJ Herman
- Karen Hoppis
- Jeff Wysoski
May 05, 2016 The Instructional Technology Advisory Committee (ITAC) is looking for additional members to join and help us refine our district-wide plan for instructional technology.
ITAC consists of district leaders, school administrators, teachers, school staff, and parents who serve on one of two Instructional Technology Advisory Committees. These committees will provide input and guidance to the technology department and help to refine implementation plans for our technology investments.
If you are interested in serving on a committee, please read the ITAC overview document to understand the commitment and the role of a member. Then, complete the application linked here. Meetings will be held after school 3-4 times per year. A stipend will be available for staff participants.
Schools, please forward this invitation to parents who you feel would be interested in joining a committee.
Thank you for your work to ensure the thoughtful use of technology in the St. Vrain Valley Schools.
Joe McBreen
CTO
Michelle Bourgeois
Project Manager
April 01, 2016 On March 30, the Elementary and Secondary Instructional Technology Advisory Committees met for the final conversations of the year. Here’s a summary of their work.
Elementary ITAC
Elementary ITAC reviewed the initial app listing for elementary iPads provided by the LTP. We began reviewing additional apps to be considered, so check back on the list over the next several months to see what additions we make!
We also reviewed the proposed settings and restrictions for classroom iPads to be purchased as part of the elementary LTP iPad program including:
- App age level settings to be 4+
- App store, iBooks store and in-app purchases to be disabled. Apps and books will be provided through the in-district LANrev apps store.
- iMessage, Facetime, and Mail to be disabled. Teachers will be able to use these features on their staff iPad.
Finally, we discussed Classroom (Apple’s new feature set built into iOS 9.3) and decided that they warrant further investigation for adoption in elementary. Our 3 iPad Readiness schools (Eagle Crest, Erie Elementary and Thunder Valley K8) will begin to adopt the new Classroom features next year and report back to the committee on their discoveries.
Secondary ITAC
With the addition of Apple’s new School Manager and Classroom features as part of 9.3, we asked ITAC to explore the benefits as well as the implications of adopting these tools at the secondary level. At this time, the committee determined we should not pursue adoption in grades 6-12, but will watch and learn from the elementary schools who will be exploring.
We also explored apps that are installed on student devices in the district and looked at proposals for additions to our in district app store. DTS and the Curriculum team will be investigating the new app proposals for possible inclusion next year.
If you’re interested in seeing the agendas and notes from the meetings, you can find them on the ITAC blog under Meeting Documents.
November 05, 2015 The Elementary ITAC meeting focused on the following topics:
Here is a link to the meeting notes.
If you have input or feedback for the committee please leave a comment below.
     
September 10, 2015 This month’s ITAC meetings focused on the following topics:
- Elementary ITAC (meeting notes)
- Recommended Apps and applications suite discussion
- Elementary LTP piloxxaxaaxAt schools discussion
- Secondary ITAC (meeting notes)
- iPad distribution review
- Social media discussion continued
If you have input or feedback for the committee please feel free to leave a comment below.
February 02, 2015  The Instructional Technology Advisory Committee (ITAC) serves as the feedback and input mechanism for our implementation of the Learning Technology Plan. This group helps DTS gather information from our administrators, teachers, parents and students and uses that information to form recommendations for how we can best move forward thoughtfully.
The committee uses a consensus building process so that all voices are represented and so that all viewpoints are considered. While this means that discussion and dialogue can take a significant amount of time, it also means that our recommendations are truly our best thinking for all stakeholders.
Recommendations from the committee move on to our CIO and district leadership for final approval and implementation.
This month’s ITAC meeting focused on several topics that are top of mind in our secondary schools including:
- What app level rating should be implemented at middle and high school levels?
- How should schools and DTS manage student issued cables?
- How should parents be involved in our upcoming HS iPad deployments?
- Should iMessage be available to middle and high school students on district iPads?
If you’d like to view their recommendations, take a look at the January meeting agenda. Have comments or feedback for the committee? Feel free to leave a comment below.
November 06, 2014 Our elementary and secondary ITAC committees met for the at the end of October to begin their work in refining our initial implementation plan for the LTP. Our goal is to use these committees to give us feedback and recommendations as we continue to make our program even better.
The committee began by reviewing our norms and looking through the scope of their work so that we all have a clear understanding of how their contributions fit into the larger work of the district. We also spent time looking back through the original ITAC committee’s Actions and Attributes document to identify a priority that we could work on this year.
Elementary Committee Overview:
The elementary committee determined that their priority would be: Teachers model digital age learning for their students and are engaged in continuous professional growth.
In the elementary committee, we discussed the upcoming application for phase 1 elementary schools that will go out in December. The committee made some great recommendations that we incorporated into our plan.
Secondary Committee Overview:
The middle school members determined that their priority would be: Students and teachers model and engage in innovative learning practices such as dynamic sharing, deep thinking, and project based learning. These practices incorporate an awareness of the need to build digital habits and to assist teachers in learning to manage digitally-enhanced learning environments.
High school determined their focus would be: Students use technology to support critical thinking, problem solving and the ability to gather, evaluate, and analyze information sources.
The secondary committee reviewed data from our existing implementation at the middle school level and reviewed data to help us make decisions on two important areas:
- Looking at the data from our existing student app installations, are our student app levels appropriate for middle school? Currently students can install any app that is rated for age 12 or below. With the release of iOS 8, many app manufacturers have updated their age ratings and we want to confirm that 12+ is still the right level for our students.
- Student care of cables is a concern for our schools, especially as we recycle iPads between students. The committee looked at several proposals for working with students who lose or damage their cables.
Both groups were left with the task of gathering wider feedback from their respective peer groups so we can finalize our recommendations in January. If you’d like to follow along with the work, you can find the agendas linked here along with the resources shared during the meeting. Feel free to leave us comments and feedback here so your voice is part of our conversation.
October 23, 2014 Welcome to our newest ITAC members! As we move ahead in our implementation of the Learning Technology Plan, the ITAC committee will continue to serve an advisory role in our technology planning. They are a critical voice in making sure we have representation from all segments of our SVVSD community: teachers, administrators, district staff, and families.
Because our initial ITAC committee recommendations lead to different implementation pathways for elementary and secondary levels, we’ve split the committee into two. We’ll rotate half of the committee members each year to ensure continuity while also allowing others to add their voice to the group.
This blog will continue to serve as a place for others to join in the conversation and follow their work. Please check in and share your input with our committee.
The 2014 ITAC Committee members:
Elementary
| Stephanie Anderson |
School admin |
Columbine ES |
| David Baker |
District leadership |
Professional Dev |
| Ben Bernstein |
Parent/Guardian |
Longmont Estates ES |
| Sarah Bloms |
STEM |
Indian Peaks ES |
| Dede Frothingham |
School admin |
Alpine ES |
| Lynn Hannapel |
Classroom teacher |
Indian Peaks ES |
| LeAnne Kelly |
Librarian |
Thunder Valley K8 |
| Amber Mault |
Classroom teacher |
Blue Mountain ES |
| Jennifer Ryan |
School admin |
Mountain View |
Secondary
| Courtney Adams |
Classroom teacher |
Longs Peak MS |
| Kahle Charles |
District leadership |
Curriculum |
| Greg George |
District leadership |
Math |
| Phil Goerner |
Librarian |
Silver Creek HS |
| Linda Goertz |
Classroom teacher |
Altona MS |
| Kara Jostes |
STEM |
Trail Ridge MS |
| Jeremy LaCrosse |
School admin |
Westview MS |
| Andrea McBreen |
School admin |
Longmont HS |
| Laura McDonald |
Parent/Guardian |
Sunset MS |
| Sherri Platt |
Librarian |
Mead MS |
| Jennifer Saless |
Classroom teacher |
Erie MS |
| Paul Stecina |
School admin |
Erie HS |
| Adam Wellington |
Classroom teacher |
Coal Ridge MS |
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