The ITv is coming! The ITv is coming!

 It’s that time of year again, Back to School when hearts and minds turn to reading, writing and ‘rithmetic!  But there’s one more thing Maricopa Unified SD looks forward to with great anticipation – VIDEOCONFERENCING!!!

This year, Eloy, AZ – as a member of the Pinal County ITv Consortium – will act as coordinators of the first big event of the school year – READ ACROSS ARIZONA.  The program is modeled after the TWICE event ‘Read Across America’ and ‘Read Around the Planet’, coordinated by Janine Lim.

In the Arizona model, AZ classes are partnered with AZ classes from elsewhere in the state.  With the TWICE events, partnering occurs across the US and internationally.   Our teachersa re already aslking about the AZ event and I am awaiting registration and event details.

TWICE will post their updated event information in October 2007.  Generally registration will occur in November with the event week falling around Dr. Seuss’ March 2nd Birthday (after all these events are celebrations of literacy) .

In 2005 I was contacted by the US State Department in their effort to partner US schools with international classrooms.  At that time there was not compatible ITv equipment in the schools that presented collaborative opportunities.

I recently wrote to t he State Department asking if there were opportunities for K-12 overseas collaborations this year.  After all, while ITv is a big star at MUSD, we still have email, digital storytelling, wiki’s and blogs, e-pals and good old-fashioned pen pals.

My heart is tightly linked to medial literacy for all (students, teachers, parents, administrators) , but equally important is creating opportunities for dialogue – however that dialogue manifests itself!

Go ahead and speak to MUSD, we are listening!

Celebrate Teachers Blogging!!!

Bloggin’ on Blogging

Denise Palmer is an instructor at Pima Butte Elementary, and was one of a small group of K-12 teachers that joined the ‘IN Group’ (Integrate Now) created by Gina Pinch (Director of Technology) and me. The group convened periodically through the past school year. It was our vision to bring 21st Century thinking and skills to teachers who expressed curiosity, interest, vision!

This group tackled and conquered blogging, podcasting, and videoconferencing as well as examining and considering the definition of a 21st Century Learner, Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants! We were excited to start several teachers on the path of blogging and HS students creating podcasts.

I did not meet last years’ goal of getting blogging and podcast into the hands of MANY students in MANY grades, but the year went fast! So this year, we will simply need to start sooner!!!

Today Denise emailed me about a parent/community blog about HER blog! Blogging is an easy and fairly interactive way to communicate quickly and we advocated it as an added piece to a more formal website.  It is the flexible, quickly responsive web publication piece.

Denise was writing to thank me for teaching her to blog, but I would like to turn that around and celebrate HER for recognizing the teaching AND learning potential of media literacy (for students AND their teachers AND their parents).

While Gina Pinch and I feel it is our responsibility, our mission to bring new and enlightening ideas in technology to our teachers and students, it will only truly gain seamless incorporation when it is adopted into the ‘routine’ areas of the educational realm!

Link to Denise’s class blog through her webpage, under the PB Staff List
Here’s the acknowledgment from the Chamber of Commerce Blog

This year we expect to begin IN Group with our original 06-07 Team adding to the WEB 2.o philosophy we are so enamored with, AND add a layer of newcomers to the fray!

As the new year settles down for Tech Department (not sure exactly when that will be), watch my blog and the Integration site for announcements.  (Teachers, you will receive announcements via email as well)

Meanwhile – Happy Blogging!

Teachers, want a quick class for your content area or grade level team? email me at achayefsky@musd20.org

Teach Media Literacy

iSafe hits Maricopa! Internet Safety for Students

This past week, MUSD staff attended many Professional Development and school site meetings, as we all ready for a busy and exciting new school year! Among these trainings was something called ‘iSafe‘.

The Pinal County ESA (Educational Service Agency) provided – at no charge – two iSafe trainers, Erin Lewis and Steve Harrison. Erin and Steve came to our site at the High School CTE/Vocational Building. Participants were selected, by their Principals based upon their impact with students in the on-line, internet-based environment: (Secondary Lab instructors, EdTech Staff, Secondary Librarian’s, CTE Technology Instructors and Director)

What is iSafe? It is a full on-line curriculum, designed to serve Kindergarten through 12th grade students. It’s purpose is to teach students internet safety in all aspects of their activities, from classroom choices and behaviors through understanding safety issues when using social networking sites, multiuser on-line games, Instant Messaging and more, outside of the protective school environment!

By completing 4 hours of iSafe training, MUSD is now qualified to receive the full curriculum at no charge. We are currently completing the registration process with iSafe and I hope to report on some school implementations in the near future.

Student safety is our Number One Priority, educating students to the choices at their fingertips is critical in protecting them and allowing them access to the full educational and social value of the internet, whether at school, home or anywhere else that they have access!

If you would like to know more, or arrange an iSafe training for additional staff, email me: achayefsky@musd20.org
District Technology Integration Specialist, Educational Technology

Bring it on!!!

This past week, MUSD new teachers reported to work for the first time. On Wednesday we conducted out new staff Tech Department Orientation! Gina Pinch – Director of Technology – welcomed our approximately 100 new teachers (Administrators and classified personnel did not attend these sessions). We were greeted by enthusiastic new staff members!

It is always our desire to support and facilitate staff transition to MUSD technology so each year we strive to find ways to simplify and clarify our communication! To that end, we are please to announce that this year we added some ‘How To’ tutorials to the existing Technology Department ‘How to’ website. It is our hope that this audio/visual component will support new teachers deeper understanding of basic processes at MUSD as they conduct routine start up tasks required of them.

Mrs. Pinch discussed Arizona State Technology Standards and the importance of insuring these standards are addressed in K-12 classrooms. She also shared an amusing graphic reflecting number of students/teachers/workstations in the district compared to number of technology staff (our bar on the bar chart was so small it really was not visible at all). her point was to stress that while her personal goal is highly efficient and timely tech support, she implores teachers to understand that there are alot of “them” (with potential needs) and a very few of us . She introduced them to the Tech Support email as their first line of contact with our department! techsupport@musd20.org

It was a very informative and full meeting, but we understand that new teachers are inundated with an incredible volume of new information early in the year – to recognize this – we developed our electronic resources and provided brochures with basic contact information and a check-list of new staff ’setup’ to-do’s.

I have added a new page within the Technology Integration web site called “Read About It!

I subscribe to a number of educational e-newsletters for teachers, administrators and edtech staff. On the new page, you will find articles that I feel are of current interest to teachers, administrators and parents regarding the state of educational technology in our schools, state, nation, the world and its relevant importance to the broader society.

Welcome back to all! Have a fantastic year!