The Connected Superintendent - REMC Association of Michigan

The Connected
Superintendent
www.remc.org
December 2014
REMC Association of Michigan ... A Culture of Collaboration
An organization’s
capacity to collaborate productively
with others — members, peers, stakeholders, customers,
even competitors
— has become
an essential skill
for thriving in this
increasingly interdependent and diverse world.
The REMC Directors recognized,
early on, the importance of collaborating together and with others
when, in 1969, they formed what is
now known as the REMC Association of Michigan (REMCAM).
The REMC Association of Michigan has a long history of developing
and nurturing cooperative, collaborative relationships that have a
mutual benefit for the Association,
its respective partners and schools
throughout the state.
Consistent with its mission “to
provide a forum for interaction
and…equitable access to quality
services” long-standing, productive
arrangements have been formalized
with vendors of products and ser-
vices, universities, intermediate and
local school districts and other educational agencies and associations.
These cooperative arrangements
have a single purpose: to add value
to services offered by Regional
Educational Media Centers to their
constituents.
Currently we have formal collaborative partnerships with the Michigan Association of Computer Users
in Learning (MACUL) and Michigan
Virtual University (MVU). We also
collaborate and support many of the
Technology Readiness Infrastructure Grant (TRIG) activities such as
Device Purchasing and Classroom
Readiness.
The Association supports eight
projects this year. All project content
and resources are available for the
Michigan educational community to
use within their instructional setting.
Current Association collaborative
projects include:
n Blended Learning in the
Classroom course
n MI Streamnet - live and
on-demand video resources
n Michigan Learns Online resources and content
supporting online/blended
learning
n Michigan Common Core
Resources and Guides
n SAVE Bid Project - volume
contracts saving Michigan
schools $625 million
since 1990
n 21 Things 4 iPads – learning
activities galore
n 21 Things 4 Students – free
technology & learning
skills curriculum
n 21 Things 4 Teachers – core
technology skills for the
classroom
One of the most fruitful collaborations over the past 10 years is
with the ISD/REMC instructional
technology specialists (RITS). RITS
members are key in supporting and
implementing REMCAM projects
and initiatives. You can learn more
about the work of RITS in the article
in this newsletter.
If you have any questions about
the Association and its activities
please feel free to contact me. I
would love to tell you more about
the exciting work we do.
Beth Soggs, REMCAM President,
REMC 6, [email protected]
Introducing the New REMC 9 Director
Aaron Schippert started working at Saginaw ISD in 2000 as the Saginet Director in
charge of the county fiber network. He became the ISD Technology Director in 2011
and the REMC 9 Director this past July.
Prior to coming to Saginaw, Aaron was a 5th grade teacher and basketball coach at
Hillsdale Community Schools. While at Hillsdale his classroom was a demonstration
site for Integrated Language Arts.
Aaron and his wife Valerie live in Freeland and have three sons, two are graphic
designers and the other is a software engineer. In his spare time, Aaron enjoys the
outdoor, reading, work and watching documentaries.
As the new REMC 9 Director Aaron hopes to build the best REMC 9 he possibly
can. “I want it to be a meaningful resource for educators in the area, while always
remembering that the students are the reason we do everything.”
REMCAM Contacts: Beth Soggs, President, [email protected], or Sue Schwartz, Executive Director, [email protected]
eCommunity Platform Blends Traditional and Social
Learning Management Systems
Moodle is a learning management
system widely used across the state
of Michigan, It is a robust system
with all the necessary capabilities for teaching fully online or in a
blended learning environment.
One of the most consistent pieces
of feedback the Moodle community
receives is that because the system
is so robust, it has a steep learning curve for both educators and
students who are just entering the
eLearning space. Moodle can do
just about anything, but it takes an
investment of time to get conformable with all features of the system.
With funding from the REMC
Association of Michigan, REMC 13
along with Dearborn Public Schools
is working on a new project called
eCommunity that will give Moodle a
familiar look and feel. It will be similar to and consistent with several
popular social networks such as
Facebook, Edmodo or Twitter. With
a familiar look and feel, educators
will need significantly less training to get started with eLearning.
Educators will be able to easily
post class announcements, share a
file, provide a link or start an online
discussion.
Getting started with a blank
canvas for some educators can be
an overwhelming experience. We
believe the eCommunity platform
will help overcome this obstacle
by providing a key communication
component in the classroom. To get
started we encourage the educator to post a simple entry with the
key learning objective of the lesson
and instructions for the activity or
homework assignment. From there
both the teacher and students can
communicate via the easy to use
interface.
The Moodle and eCommunity
Platform is perfect for the blended
learning environment and schools
who have implemented one-to-one
computing. Moodle requires no
extra software to install on the student’s device or computer, and runs
on any platform with a web browser
while eCommunity strikes a balance
Bryan Smith, [email protected], Ingham ISD/Remc 13
Chris Kenniburg, [email protected], Dearborn Schools
between simplicity and complex
learning activities.
eCommunity and Moodle provide
room to grow with the educator’s
experience and confidence. It is
very easy to start adding activities
such as quizzes, polls or journaling
to build a robust online eLearning
experience. The eCommunity platform along with Moodle can meet
the skill level of every educator from
beginner to advanced.
This is the first phase of this
project and is something we hope to
continually improve. We will be collecting data and soliciting feedback.
We will use the data to assess the
success of the grant project and
also to implement new features in
the future. Upon completion the
eCommunity Platform will be shared
with all Michigan schools and districts using Moodle as well as with
the global Moodle Community.
The project coordinators will be at
several conferences later this year
presenting the project. For more
information on the presentations or
getting on board with the
eCommunity Platform, please visit
remc13.org.
An eCommunity and Moodle demonstration video
is available at remc13.org/moodle-ecommunity
RITS Turns 10!
Ten years ago the state of Michigan required schools to determine
the extent of the technology literacy
of their 8th graders. A small group
of Regional Instructional Technologists got together to create a
Melinda Waffle, RITS Chair 2013-2015
consistent statewide technology
assessment to determine a more
accurate reporting percentage.
This group realized they could go
well beyond creating just this one
online resource for educators. Because many of these instructional
technologists were also involved
with REMCAM they asked for support from the organization and RITS
was born.
The REMC Instructional Technology Specialists (RITS) members
are REMC/ISD/ESA employees
who, as part of their job, are assigned a role involving instructional
technology. Though the official
title of each member may vary,
the responsibilities are all similar:
to improve teaching and learning
through the integration of technology resources. Occasionally the
REMC Director even serves in
this role.
These individuals are heavily
involved in building the capacity of
educators they serve within their
own REMC, providing training and
support. Additionally, RITS members are key in supporting and
implementing REMCAM projects
and initiatives. Often these elements of their job go hand-in-hand.
The group has grown over the last
10 years from the initial group of
6 people representing 6 REMCs
to now being a group of 50 people
representing 25 of the 28 REMCs.
The three RITS goals, partnering,
providing and promoting, support
this work. The first goal is RITS
partnering with organizations on
a local, state and national level
to provide instructional support.
For instance, RITS sponsored the
#miched Ed Tech Rally that was
held in Grand Rapids this past September. This rally was an event that
brought together people who work
with educational technology from
every level – classroom to district
to county to state. Another example
is the partnership with ISTE to align
21 Things for Teachers to the ISTE
Standards for Teachers. In 2014
this project won the two year ISTE
seal of alignment award.
The second goal of RITS is that
members will provide professional
development opportunities and
resources for Michigan educators.
By using REMCAM projects like
Blended Learning in the Classroom,
21Things for Teachers and 21
Things for iPads, RITS members
are able to do some customization
to accommodate the needs of the
teachers they work with locally. Additionally, RITS members collaborate to help present the annual MI
Moodle Moot conferences.
The third goal of RITS is to
promote the REMC/RITS organizational mission through resource
sharing, communication, and
networking. While there is already
resource sharing and networking
that takes place through many of
the RITS events, several other projects are inherently centered around
providing resources to educators
throughout the state. A couple
examples of this is the 21 Things for
Students and the Michigan Learns
Online websites, which not only
provide resources but also activities
and lesson plans that educators can
freely use in their classrooms.
RITS not only collaborates to
provide leadership and support to
the Michigan educational community in the areas of curriculum and
instructional technology but they
provide their members a venue for
self-development and sharing.
Happy Birthday RITS!
Melinda Waffle,
[email protected]
RITS members, (left to right): Tina Tribu, Kristen Day, Joshua Bridges
Upcoming Events
MI Learns Online (MLO) Webinars,
January 7, February 4 & March 4
Participants will learn how to use the REMC MLO Portal to
find resources that support exceptional online learning and
how to access online learning courses, units and lessons.
4:00-4:30p. Register here: tinyurl.com/learnmloportal
MI Moodle Moot
January 8 & 9, 2015
Mid Michigan Community College
Mount Pleasant, Michigan
For two days, January 8 & 9, join K-12 and higher education
Moodle enthusiasts from across Michigan to share ideas, collaborate with others, and learn about what´s new with Moodle,
the leading open source Learning Management System.
Register online at http://bit.ly/remcreg
Blended Learning in the Classroom
January 12 – May 22, 2015
This free Blended Learning in the Classroom course is led by
trained instructors and will prepare participants to effectively
implement their own blended environment. This course is for
classroom teachers of students of all ages. Fill out the form
at bit.ly/blic2015 to be notified when registration for Blended
Learning in the Classroom, Winter 2015 opens.
21 Things for Teachers
January 28 – April 10, 2015
21things4teachers is professional development through an
online 10-week course with video tutorials and live virtual sessions. Participants create an online portfolio showcasing valuable and applicable projects for teaching and lifelong learning.
For a peek at the content visit the 21things4teachers.net site.
Register online at http://bit.ly/remcreg
Days of Discovery
February 16: REMC 12W, Kalamazoo RESA
March 3: REMC 4, Muskegon ISD & REMC 13,
Ingham ISD
March 27: REMC 17, Oakland Schools
Free professional development opportunities that highlight
creative ways to engage students and invigorate your curriculum using the latest 21st Century tools and Discovery Education Streaming resources.