DIGITAL LEARNING CADRE

January 8, 2015
9:00 – 12:00 PM
John W. Collette Education Resource Center / Meeting Minutes

The Delaware Digital Learning Cadre envisions all teachers capably and appropriately utilizing digital learning so that Delaware students graduating from high school demonstrate technology literacy.

NETWORKING
  • Networking time is always provided half an hour prior to the start of the meeting.

WELCOME, ANNOUNCEMENTS and DISCUSSION
  • Welcome (Wayne Hartschuh) Due to the cold weather, many Delaware districts had a delay today. There was concern as to whether or not today’s meeting would be delayed. If the Governor shuts the State down or delay’s opening for state agencies, then DOE would follow that schedule.
  • eLearning Delaware registration is open for the WINTER 2015 session. Classes begin January 14, 2015. Orientation is the first week, so Wayne may extend registration one week since we only have 74 people registered as of this morning. Please encourage people in your LEA to consider registering for one of the classes. MaryAn Scarborough asked if we would offer all the common core courses at the same time. We did in the FALL 2014 session. Wayne will probably offer all of them during the SUMMER 2015 or FALL 2015.
  • Blackboard/Schoology – Contract is still not signed. Waiting for Deputy Attorney General to okay the legal contract. Wayne hopes this will be finalized within a few weeks. Please don’t share this information yet. Starting July 1, 2015 we will be moving from Blackboard to Schoology. DCET will be converting all the mandatory trainings from Blackboard to Schoology. Registration will still go through PDMS. Judith Conway asked if there will be training in Schoology for facilitators. Wayne said yes. Some of the LEAs currently using Schoology said it works better than Edmodo. Wayne believes we will have around 40,000 students using Schoology next fall. Schoology will also be used by all the teachers who register for professional development sessions. There was discussion about teachers having a single account so their classification can be “administrator” or “student.”
  • iEducate Delaware Nominations Open until January 23. Wayne encouraged people to nominate educators.

  • DigiGirlz event will be held Wednesday, May 6, 2015 at Wilmington University, New Castle campus from 8:30-3. More details will follow as it becomes available.
  • ProjectCSGIRLS flyer shared again. Login to for specific details. Registration closes February 15, 2015.
  • Wayne distributed a small headsetwith microphone to each DLC member present today. They are to be used for today’s training as well as during the digital learning conference in March.

SHARING
  • Collaborative activities were done on the topics listed below. Facilitators moved every seven minutes so that everyone receives all the information. Presenters are encouraged to post their information on the DLC: Professional Learning PDMS site.
Teachers First – (Ralph Landolfi) to the old Thinkfinity site, but Ralph believes is ten times better.
Augmented Reality – (Lori Roe)




Plickers (Steve Grieshober) It is a response system that works with paper for the student and iPhones for the teacher. Results are uploaded to a website.
Google Forms – (Michael League)
TRAINING
  • Webinar 101 with Bb Collaborate (Wayne Hartschuh)
DCET will keep Bb Collaborate for stand alone webinars. Wayne gave an overview of how Bb Collaborate works. Unless you plan to do webinars all the time, Wayne suggests people use a virtual office. The URL for the moderator remains the same. The URL for the session attendees also remains the same. Only one person can use the virtual office at any given time. Go to select Instructional. Select Digital Learning Cadre link on the left. The DLC Virtual Office is available. Simply click the statement “click here to join the session” at the bottom of the page. It will download a file. Select “run it.” It will eventually open up Bb Collaborate.
Everyone logged into to the web conferencing session and Wayne demonstrated how to use it. Wayne clicked the big DCET logo at the top to go into the session as the moderator. Difference of the tools menu between moderator and participants was discussed. Feel free to practice using the DLC Virtual Office. Any educator in the State of Delaware can use the system. Contact or and ask them to set up an account if you want to use this service frequently.
ONLINE CONFERENCE
  • Follow-up Training on Bb Collaborate (Wayne Hartschuh)
  • Delaware Digital Learning Conference: Online
* Digital Learning Day: Friday, March 13, 2015
* Digital Learning Week: Monday, March 16– Thursday, March 19, 2015
* Sessions at 4:00, 5:00, 6:00, and 7:00
* Add 3:00 sessions or 7:00? Still need to decide. The earlier time may be more difficult for teachers to join.
* Strands: Schoology, “Appy” Hour, Cool Tools, Potpourri
* DLC: Present and/or Attend
  • We are looking for twelve to sixteen sessions. We also need to better advertise these sessions.
  • Wayne has agreed to do one or two sessions, but we need to encourage people to be a moderator as well. Wayne plans to talk to the common core people at DOE to see if they would be willing to present as well. Wayne will get something out in the next week and do a call for presentations.

WRAP-UP
  • For the Good of the Cause
  • DigiGirlz Day will be Wednesday, May 6, 2015 at Wilmington University New Castle Campus from 8:30 am – 3:30 pm. Event is for 8th and 9th grade girls. Please help get the word out to educators in your district or charter school. Registration information is not yet available.

NEXT MEETING
  • The next Digital Learning Cadre meeting will be held Thursday, February 12, 2015. (Be sure to register in PDMS prior to the meeting for Course# 1588 / Section# 38548.)

Respectfully submitted,

Pam Reed, DCET Administrative Secretary

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