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March 11, 2008

Microsoft Student Select Program

The email introduces E-Academy’s new webstore platform and features for the Microsoft Student Select program. I think everyone will be pleased with the new platform foremost because it eliminates assignment of codes for faculty and staff. For additional information on this new platform see E-Academy’s K12 Administrator ELMS Direct Manual located at http://www.edutech.nodak.edu/ under the announcement section.

If you’ve not yet taken advantage of this program try out the new platform by visiting http://edutech.nodak.e-academy.com

March 7, 2008

Student to Student – Thoughts on Emergency Preparedness from Two Midwestern Towns Struck by Tornadoes in 2007

On Tuesday March 11 elementary and high school students from Northwood, ND will interact in a live videoconference with students in Greensburg Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and Oklahoma when they discuss the impact of a major natural disaster on their small Midwestern towns. The purpose of the event is to bring students together to discuss their experiences and share similarities and differences in the recovery efforts in each town.

Classes from participating states will communicate in real time through interactive videoconferencing available at their school. In addition, the live videoconference will be streamed live and also recorded for later viewing. Both will be available on the Internet by visiting the website http://www.more.net/services/videostreaming/events.html

Northwood students were invited to participate in this event because of the similarities in their experience with the tornado that hit their town in August to those of the students in Greensburg, Kansas whose town was also devastated by tornadoes in May of 2007. Both towns are similar in size and characteristics; both are located in rural areas in the Midwest. In addition to the interactive sessions between both elementary and high school classes, students and teachers will have the opportunity to learn about project-based curriculum resources on topics related to emergency preparedness and natural disasters.

In North Dakota, K12 classes are invited to view the live web stream during Tuesday’s events or the recorded events at a later time.

The event is coordinated by the Kansas Association for Interactive Distance Education and state education networks, KanREN and KAN-ED. Northwood’s participation is made possible through the school’s interactive videoconference system and it’s connection to STAGEnet, North Dakota’s broadband network for education and government. Technical support and event coordination is provided by EduTech and the Information Technology Department (ITD) of North Dakota. For more information about the event, contact EduTech at 1-800-804-8550 or visit EduTech’s website at www.edutech.nodak.edu

JASON Project Stream will feature the Storm Chaser and National Geographic Emerging Explorer Tim Samaras. You can learn more about him by registering (for free) at www.jason.org and checking out Mission 3 or look at his web site at http://thunderchase.com/ See below for time of live stream on JASON.

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Emergency Preparedness Events
Tuesday, March 11, 2008

8: 45 a.m. – 9:45 .am. CST Northwood grades 3-6 participate in live videoconference with sites in partner states (*Live event to be streamed over the Internet - see instructions on EduTech’s website to view)

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon CST JASON project most appropriate for Grades 4-8 ( *Live event to be streamed over the Internet – see instructions on EduTech’s website to view)

1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. CST Northwood grades 7-12 participate in live videoconference with sites in partner states (*Live event to be streamed over the Internet - see instructions on EduTech’s website to view)

Consortium Directors Discuss K-12 Videoconferencing

K-12 Consortium Directors recently met in Carrington on February 26, 2008 to learn of updates and discuss issues related to K-12 videoconferencing in ND.

First on the agenda was Barry Stein, Video Network Business Consultant for North Dakota Information Technology Department. Stein shared updates and advanced features available on the statewide software scheduling application Renovo. Among them is availability for video recording. The group discussed building an online location for communicating needs of consortia for course and teacher needs. Renovo does have a Clearinghouse feature that provides a bulletin board type of environment but at this time is not available. ITD is working to address that need as soon as possible. In the meantime, a Blackboard discussion board is up and running and can take care of the clearinghouse requests for the time being. Jody French will provide instructions on this option soon.

The group also heard from Jody French, EduTech Director and Kim Owen, Coordinator of Instructional Services for EduTech. French gave an overview and features for BlackBoard. Open discussion on consortiums using BlackBoard vs those not using. Owen presented 2007-2008 curriculum enrichment videoconference events schools have participated in or will be participating in.

Closing discussions included feedback from consortia.