iSquad workshop at 89th Street June 12th

Hi All --

We organized an iSquad workshop for June 12th and sent invites to everyone who expressed interest. This is the workshop to show you how to create a student club of level 1 tech support to assist you in keeping the technology in your building running well. If you didn't get a chance to send me an email and are still interested in attending, there are a few seats left. Click on the link below to find out more and register..

https://www.protraxx.com/scripts/ezcatalogny/ViewClass.aspx?ID=123945&CustomerID=77

Reduced Rate Grant Opportunity

For those of you who are planning for next year for your building and district’s technology needs you might be interested in this reduced rate grant application from mimio. Mimio is a product that converts any whiteboard into an interactive whiteboard wirelessly. For further information on the mimio go to: http://www.mimio.com/solutions/education/index.php


For further information on the grant go to: http://www.mimio.com/solutions/education/funding/mimiogrant/index.php

OIT Per Session postings now online

Interested in summer / fall Office of Instructional Technology Per Session? The postings are up for all to apply!

PS Vac Circ.#223,School Yr.'08-'09, Instructional Specialists (staff developers)
to serve as instructional technology trainers for NYCDOE employees to include
teachers, coaches and other instructional leaders. Programs include but are not
limited to Mobile Technology (iTeach iLearn) as well as iLead (school leaders),
iTeach (teachers K-12); iLearn (student programs); iCoach (coaches); iSite (portal).
(Up to 90 positions)

PS Vac Circ.#224,School Yr.'08-'09, Instructional Specialists (staff developers)
to serve as instructional technology trainers for NYCDOE employees to include
teachers, coaches and other instructional leaders. Programs include but are not
limited to Mobile Technology (iTeach iLearn) as well as iLead (school leaders),
iTeach (teachers K-12); iLearn (student programs); iCoach (coaches); iSite (portal).
(Up to 90 positions)

Excellent resource -- American Museum of Natural History

Trouble viewing newsletter? Go to http://www.amnh.org/education/newsletter/2008.04.html APRIL 2008 NEW SCIENCE BULLETINS VIDEOS MESSENGER: Mission to Mercury http://sciencebulletins. amnh.org/?sid=a.f.mercury _messenger.20080331 The MESSENGER orbiter’s January 2008 flyby of the planet Mercury was historic. In this Science Bulletins video, you and your students can watch the MESSENGER science team react as the orbiter’s first images of Mercury roll in. Then explore the images in a slide show, and find out more about the mission in the essay, “First Planet Finishes Last." Global Fires 2002-2008 http://sciencebulletins.amnh.org/ ?sid=b.v.fire.20080401 In this Science Bulletins visualization, see how human activity is changing fire patterns around the world. WE NEED YOUR HELP! OLogy Survey http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx? sm=d_2bj89_2fESh55gcLYIiI4APQ_3d_3d Help us out by taking this quick survey about OLogy – the Museum’s science-rich website for kids. TEN ONLINE GRAD COURSES THIS SUMMER Seminars on Science learn.amnh.org Seminars on Science is offering two summer sessions of award-winning online graduate courses in the life, earth and physical sciences. Take our newest course, The Solar System, an addition to our earth science offerings that highlights NASA missions to explore our planetary neighbors! Or join us for one of our summer-only courses: Sharks and Rays or In the Field with Spiders. See how scientists in the field study these unique creatures! All of our most popular courses are also available for the summer, including Earth: Inside and Out; The Ocean System; Genetics, Genomics, Genethics and Evolution. Registration Dates: Summer - Session 1 Courses run June 9 – July 20. Register by May 27 Summer - Session 2 Courses run June 30 – August 10. Register by June 16 Sign up early and receive a $50 discount off the price of each course (see website for details). Please call (800) 649-6715 or learn more online. ANNOUNCING... OLogy 2.0! amnh.org/ology Check out the newly redesigned OLogy – the Museum’s science-rich website for kids! It has a whole new look and is now searchable – giving you easier access to hundreds of cool features. AT THE MUSEUM Education Department amnh.org/education The Museum is a rich resource for field trips, research, and professional development. Find out how to enrich your classroom by using the Museum and our education department to your advantage. Public Programs amnh.org/programs Check out the exciting lectures, performances, field trips, and workshops offered by the Museum. eNotes ga1.org/amnh/join.tcl Receive the latest information about onsite Museum public programs and events via email. Thank you for being a member of the American Museum of Natural History's Educator Mailing List. If you have any questions about this mailing list please e-mail educator-owner@lists.amnh.org. Your privacy is important to us and we will never divulge this information outside of the Museum. Please read our privacy statement. You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed with us online, at one of our events or at a conference. If you wish to unsubscribe, e-mail educator-owner@lists.amnh.org with unsubscribe as the subject line.

May 12th Meeting Agenda

Description: For our last meeting of the year we want to leave you with a tool that you can sink your learning teeth into this summer and use to stay in touch with us and each other. Social Networking is being embraced by educators and businesses across the country as a tool to connect people and create pathways to share. We want to create a social network so we can explore the possibility of using it in our teaching and so we can experience the synergy while we share best practices. Our network will contain a page for each member where best practices, samples of projects, and interests can be posted for your colleagues to see.

Goals:

• Learn about Social Networking
• Explore the National Education Technology Standards for Students
• Work in group to create a project plan based on the new standards
  

Agenda:

• Introduce our Social Network
• Exploring the computer liaison ning's elements
• Create an account for yourself
• Customize your page with a blog entry of a project you did this year
• Learn how to use the Forum feature
• National Education Technology Standards for Students
• Review the standards and the 21st century skills they're built on
• Learn how to edit the NETS-S wiki and review wiki concepts
• Contribute to the NETS-S wiki
• (link to the DOE NETS site from Dia Kuhl)
  
• Project Planning Group
• By popular demand, we will have a small group work session where we create a project plan. Each plan should include the following elements
  
1. Project Title
2. Description
3. Grade levels
4. Subjects covered
   
5. Standards
6. Technologies used
7. Procedures
8. Resources needed
   
• Post projects to your page on Ning.
  

Technology Asset Recovery for the Schools

The time has come to get rid of your obsolete text books and IT equipment!

The New York City Department of Education's 2008 Book Buy Back Program combines the current book buyback program and adds the new option to have obsolete IT equipment removed from your school.

Schools are invited to register from April 28 through June 6. Please register at http://www.learningtimes.net/cleansweep

May Meetings combined

Hello Computer Liaisons,

Due to a conflict with NYSCATE's Metro Conference, we are combining the May monthly computer liaison meetings. We will meet May 12th at the Bay Ridge office. We hope you can attend and if you can, come to the NYSCATE Metro Conference on May 16th!

Thank you,

Staten Island OIT

Poll Everywhere

April Computer Liaison Meeting

21st Century Tools

Workshop Agenda

Welcome and Introductions (10 Minutes)

View "A Vision of K-12 Students Today" (15 Minutes)

Classroom 2.0

What is Jing? Jing is a program that instantly captures and shares images and video…from your computer to anywhere. (30 Minutes)

-Sample Jings-
Professional Development

Teacher Instruction

Student Tutorial

Download Jing-http://www.jingproject.com/(15 Minutes)

Break (10 Minutes)

Model, plan, edit and create a Jing (60 Minutes)

Lunch (60 Minutes)

View "What is a blog?" (15 Minutes)

Create a blog in November Communites (60 Minutes)

Post Jings on Blog (15 Minutes)

Share (15 Minutes)

Workshop Evaluation ( 10 Minutes)

Resources:

Why Blog

Jing-Move The Sun

http://www.jingproject.com/
http://www.screencast.com/

Great tool to embed documents in your blog entries

Hi All -- a solution for attaching documents to blog entries. Definitely worth checking out:

http://www.diigo.com/annotated/315042157aafbd1ab3f21fc09e4fd21d

Embed Documents into your Blog or Website

You can share and display any document (.doc, .pdf, .xls, .ppt) in your own blog or on any website where you can add embeded codes with the docstoc flash player. Here are some examples of other sites using the player.

Power Media Plus

Power Media Plus is now free for all NYCDOE teachers and administrators.
I want to share this information with all of you. Please read below.


To create your Power Media Plus teacher account, you would need a general passcode. The New York Department of Education passcode is Xqy2BeX79m
The passcode is case sensitive. Please log into http://powermediaplus.com click on New subscribers log in here link and type in the general passcode and click Log in. The next screen you will see will be to create a teacher profile. Enter the information click Save and get started.

New FAMIS pricing sheets available

Lexmark FAMIS pricelist: http://cid-7f0b8df452ed99fe.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/OITR%20Public/FAMIS%20Pricelist%203-10-08.pdf

Adobe FAMIS pricelist: http://cid-7f0b8df452ed99fe.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/OITR%20Public/NYCDOE%20ADOBE%20LICENSES%20WITH%20FAMIS%20CODES_March%2011%202008.pdf

Apple FAMIS pricelist: http://cid-7f0b8df452ed99fe.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/OITR%20Public/NYCDOE%20Price%20List%20-%20March%202008.pdf

March Meeting Agenda

Topics scheduled

· Using Excel to Analyze School Data: Agenda
Sample Data
· Promethean Whiteboards

Scholarship Opportunity for Spring Robotics!

Vision Ed Inc. and Make are pleased to announce an exciting new scholarship opportunity for Robotics teams grades K-6 throughout the New York City Area. This scholarship will allow one team of up to 12 members to compete in the first annual ROBOFEST NYC, a new robotics event that will be held at SONY Wonder Technology Labs on April 12th.

ROBOFEST NYC was designed as an opportunity to celebrate creative work by children in the field of robotics. The event will feature both a student expo of original projects and a robotics performers competition. Teams and exhibitors may work with any robotics system including RCX, NXT, and Pico Cricket, and medals will be awarded for ingenuity, design, and programming.
For more information about ROBOFEST NYC, please visit: http://www.visionedinc.org/robofest/index.htm


The ROBOFEST NYC scholarship will cover the cost of a team coach for 8 sessions and the competition registration fee.

To apply, please submit the name of the school or organization at which your team will be based, contact info for the team organizer, and a brief summary (500 words or less) of why you think your team should be chosen to receive this scholarship. All applications are due by March 12th. No experience in Robotics necessary!

March Computer Liaison Meeting

Hi all --

We had a problem with the Flatlands meeting scheduled for the month of March and had to change the date. Unfortunately there were no other dates available for the Flatlands ISC and we could not secure a school in time to provide a local meeting for you. Therefore we decided to combine the two meetings for this month and hold them at the Bay Ridge Learning Support Center. We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause we and hope this does not dissuade you from attending.

We hope you can make it!

NYSTL Spending Guide

OIT has created a handy NYSTL spending guide with materials you can consider for purchase geared toward elementary, middle, and high school settings. Enjoy the recommendations:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p6pwYrPKv6ipKW2klJlTVLA

Competition Opportunity: Doodle for Google

http://www.google.com/doodle4google/

School competition where students can win laptops/computers for their schools. As well the winner will win a 10,000.00 scholarship and a laptop…..

Welcome to Doodle 4 Google, a competition where we invite K-12 students to play around with our homepage logo and see what they come up with. This year we're inviting U.S. kids to join in the doodling fun, around the intriguing theme "What if...?"

At Google we believe in thinking big, and dreaming big, and we can't think of anything more important than encouraging students to do the same. So we hope you'll gather those art supplies and some 8.5x11 landscape paper and encourage your kids to enrich us all with their creative visions of our world, as it is and as it might be.

You'll find everything you need to get started here, including detailed lesson plans to incorporate the competition into your curricula. Registration closes on March 28th, and entries are due by April 12th. A panel of judges will select 40 finalist doodles, from which the public will help select a favorite to be featured on our homepage on May 22nd, 2008.

P.S. We'd be thrilled if you spread the word to your fellow educators.

Software Survey for Training and Support

Hello all -- We are trying to assess the need for training and support for vendor products usewd at your schools. Please take a few minutes to complete the online survey below.

Survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=iSQbmPE02j717rP15H4ugQ_3d_3d

February Computer Liaison Meeting:

Come join us as we discuss recommendations for NYSTL Spending: grade appropriate software, hardware, and subscriptions. Items to discuss include:

Budget

-- Famis
-- Recommendations for NYSTL Spending
-- Grade appropriate software, hardware, and subscriptions
-- Vendor presentations

Agenda:

1. New OIT website, ways to communicate with us, blog resources, 9:00-10:00
2. Tech 4 Learning 10:00-11:00
3. Apple 11:00-12:00
4. Lunch 12:00-1:00
5. Riverdeep 1:00-2:00

Resource:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p6pwYrPKv6ipKW2klJlTVLA

Share the iLead Institute with your principal

Register for Instructional Technology Leadership Institute

The Office of Instructional Technology (OIT) is offering New York City principals an additional opportunity to participate in a year-long iLead Instructional Technology Leadership Institute, beginning this spring with a 4-day prerequisite session. The goals of the institute are to prepare principals to meet the technological challenges of leading a 21st-century school, to guide instructional leaders in promoting the effective integration of technology into their classrooms, and to provide principals with the technology skills to view, manipulate and analyze data to inform instructional decisions.

This spring, the institute will guide leaders through four days of instruction focused on relevant research and alignment to the National Education Technology Standards for Administrators. During the course of the institute, participants will have the opportunity to visit a model school that demonstrates effective use of technology. Participants will also work with an on-site consultant to extend and expand the use of technology for instruction and school management. Participants will have access to online communication and collaboration tools created for this program.

OIT will fund selected applicants to participate in this year-long program. To learn more about the program and how to qualify for full funding and participation, see the online application at www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=7oTqSpKeBaYYi_2fmFverGVw_3d_3d. The application deadline is February 7 at 5 p.m. Please note that the program is a year-long commitment. Confirmation of acceptance into the institute, including the weeks of your attendance, will be forwarded to you via e-mail. For additional information, contact iLead@schools.nyc.gov.